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Msg #555 Wednesday, April 22, 2009
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And let our people also learn
to maintain good works,
to meet urgent needs,
that they may not be unfruitful. (Tit 3:14)
God does not want your life to be unfruitful! What does that mean? To be fruitful means to be effective, to fulfill your purpose in life. Thus to be unfruitful is to be ineffective and to miss the eternal purpose of our lives. Yikes!
I love Jesus description of all of this in John 15 – that by abiding in Him…we can bear fruit, fruit that will remain – that is eternal and vital. That is what God wants from you – for your life to make an impact, to be eternally significant.
Does that sound good to you? Do you want to be fruitful? If so, then God reminds you here in Titus to learn two things.
First – maintain good works. Focus on the word “maintain”. Good works in our life take maintenance. Think about it as if you were talking about a car. For a car to last and perform well – it needs constant maintenance – gas, oil, brakes and more must be attended to in order for the car to work well. If they are ignored – then the wearing of time and activity will decrease their effectiveness and hinder the car’s performance – hindering its purpose.
In a very similar way – good works need maintenance in our lives. Left unattended, unfocused on – our lives will decrease and slow. There is a sense that what we know we ought to be doing will erode and diminish. The simple question is this: Are there good works in your life, things that you know God has you to do and be about that need maintenance today? Is there tweaking, care and attention that needs to be given to keep those good works going? Today, may God draw before you the things that need attention in order for good works to be maintained in your life.
Second – meet urgent needs. Today, it is likely that God will place in your path an opportunity that you did not plan on – a need that you can meet, spiritually. Perhaps it is someone to pray for, someone to share the gospel with or someone to encourage. Jesus said that a cup of cold water given in His name has eternal bearing – it is eternal fruit.
The key is to be open to this, open to unplanned opportunities today to serve the Lord. Today, I want to challenge you to cultivate an expectation that God may put in your path an urgent need for you to meet. Today, I want to call you to be open to seizing opportunities to do good for eternal fruit!
Now, here is the honest truth – what I have said so far, has probably been received in at least two very different ways.
Some find maintaining good works more natural. Disciplined by nature, such people are ordered with plans, schedules and goals. Such people find focusing on maintaining good works quite natural, yet being open to urgent needs – that is hard. They are interruptions that break routine and mess up schedules. To you, whom I just described –I encourage you – maintain good works, don’t neglect what is normal for you and natural - but make sure you also seek to be open today to meet urgent, unplanned needs!
Some find meeting urgent needs more natural. Open, adventurous and free, such personalities struggle and dislike schedules and plans. Being open to meet urgent needs that come your way today, is normal and it fits with your personality well. To you, I want to encourage you to flow with your personality and make sure that you are open to urgent needs today and meet them! Yet, I challenge you that there is also a need to have regular, planned and organized good works that need constant maintenance in your life. If you miss this, you will miss much fruit that God wants to do through you.
Today…to all – I call you to learn – to grow and to become wiser in how this day and your life can be about eternal things. I call you to maintain good works and also be open to meet urgent needs. Take a hold of one and don’t let go of the other – and let us see what God wants to work eternally through this day!
And let our people also learn
to maintain good works,
to meet urgent needs,
that they may not be unfruitful. (Tit 3:14)
Jim
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