Harnessed for the Lords Work

HARNESSED FOR THE LORD'S WORK Sometimes we want to jump in with both feet. Go whole hog. Give it both barrels. Head over heels. We mean we plan to give 100% of everything we’ve got, so that the job gets done to the best of our ability. What could be wrong with that? Several years ago a man and a woman showed up at the emergency room. She was fine. He was beat to a pulp. She explained the care her husband had put into the new fireplace in the basement. He’d studied mortar ratios, bricklaying, and even the best firebrick to install in the firebox. Then, finished, he’d immediately started a fire. The fireplace exploded around him. The water in the uncured mortar turned into steam and destroyed everything the man had created. He missed one detail, and that undid everything he’d built. Christians can be like that sometimes. God gives us an instruction book that explains every step of our salvation. However, we’re filled with so much enthusiasm that we just jump in and light the fire of God under newly minted believers. Then we don’t understand when they disintegrate around us, shattered by the heat of something they weren’t prepared for. Psalm 32:9 tells us: “Be not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto you.” We’ve seen this Christian. If we’re shopping in the wrong store, or visiting with the wrong person, the backlash of their rebuke curls the hair on our head. Heaven forbid we miss Wednesday night prayer or mow our yard in a sleeveless shirt. We’ll find our name on someone’s prayer list. Sometimes we need to let God’s Word harness our mouths so that what we say doesn’t harm other people. What did Jesus say in John 13:35? “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.” Love, not harsh words, criticism, or putting their names on yet another prayer list. How can we show love one to another? Kind words, patience, and understanding are a good start. When we do those things, we’ve changed from a mule with no understanding, to a follower of Christ who can cast the bit and bridle away. We will have control of our tongues, and no one will need fear anything we have to say. When we harness love, we are fully prepared to go unto the world and present to them the message of salvation. Copyright © 2015 MyChurchNotes.net