And Now?
Press In To Press On #2
Mark Geppert
It happened to you too. Just like millions before you, and it will happen to an estimated 140 million children world-wide in the next 12 months. Different cultures have different ways of celebrating this great event. Among some of our friends, they string up a paper animal filled with sweets and smash it with a stick until the sweets fall out to the delight of those attending the party. Others hold the celebrant by the hands and feet and bump their butt off the ground according to the number of years it has been since the event.
It is not uncommon to hear the sound of fireworks as part of a celebration, or to savor the smell of special foods ,as the family gathers to remember the birth. You came to earth with a fanfare and determined the direction of many people’s lives. Congratulations, you are not an accident. God put you in a package and sent you here for a specific purpose. You were formed by His word in what the Bible calls the “secret place.” Before you knew the light of day, you knew the voices of those with whom you would live. God determined through whom He would send you, what race and gender you would be and when you would arrive.
He placed a vision in your heart, and gave you what you would need to understand and accomplish it.
Made in the image of God, you had three parts: your spirit, soul, and body. And, you began to develop in all three. God, ordered your steps to bring you to people who would aid in your development. Some were very positive and some not so; but, in the end, they were used of God to bring you to a point of decision. You were given opportunity to receive Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior which you did and you were born again.
The life that had been your launch was now superseded by the life that would carry you to complete your God given purpose in the earth. You became aware of your “inner being,” the new and real you.
I pray for you, my friend, God would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in this inner man that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16&19)
When you believed and received Jesus, you found that God is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. You called upon Him and He answered and showed you great and mighty things that you had not known about. He showed you the joy of being forgiven. He showed you what freedom from shame feels like, and the release from oppression. He gave you a new life in which old things were passed away and all things were new.
God was at work in you to will and to do His good pleasure. You found that He had prepared good things for you, to prosper you. And you found that when you sought Him, you found Him. God did not hide from you. The more you believed, the more he revealed. The more you worshipped, the more beautiful He became and the closer you came to Him, the closer He came to you.
And now, what to do?
Press in to Press On,
Mark
