“Mom, am I your favorite child?” whispered my daughter softly. My son overheard, “No, we don’t even need to discuss it, I am her favorite!”
It’s an age-old problem, isn’t it? Comparing ourselves to others, wanting to be better, wanting to be someone’s favorite, wanting to be significant, wanting to be valuable, wanting to be loved.
There are times, I can look at others and their successes and feel envious, and wish I had experienced success in a similar way. However, God has been showing me a different way of looking at others and others’ successes. He also has been redefining the word, “Success”.
God has taken me to the scriptures that talk about how we are a part of His body, and we all have a different role to play in His body. (I Corinthians 12, Romans 12) How silly it would be, if in my body, my eye was jealous of my hand, or my hand was jealous of my foot.
When I need to accomplish a task–like gardening–I am grateful that my entire body “obeys’ my will and does what I want it to do. I use my entire body to accomplish many different tasks.
When I have done something and done it well, and others comment on it, they don’t say–”Wow, your hands really did a great job there.” No, they say, “You did a great job.”
That is how it is with God’s body, when the hands of God’s body do a great job, that reveals who He is—and that is why His hands did what they did–to reveal Him. Glorifying God is Revealing God.
When a part of God’s body does something amazing or is something amazing, we can all take joy in that. We are connected to each other.
God has been showing me that as I am obedient to Him, and do what He is calling me to do–I am successful, even if in the eyes of the world–I fail; even if I don’t see the results of my obedience, in my lifetime—I am successful in God’s eyes.
God defines our success—and it is not necessarily in doing mighty feats, but it is in loving God, and in loving each other—these are God’s great commandments for all of us–no matter where we are placed in His body, and what gifts He bestows on us.
God is flipping my thinking—instead of a me vs. them mentality, instead of a competitive mindset, He is showing me a body mindset. First and foremost this means, I just need to listen to God and do what He tells me to do. That means I need to spend time with Him in His Word, and in prayer–listening and talking to Him.
God has directed me to do things I never thought I could do—to help others in crisis. And I have seen Him direct others to help me and my family when we have been in crisis. The body of Christ working and loving and serving others is one of the most beautiful and magnificent things to behold.
So—I hope you can wrap your mind around what I am saying—because— this is really, really important to God that we understand this— we are all loved and valuable, we are all significant, we all belong to each other, we are a Royal Priesthood, and the inheritance of God, Himself!!
So Let Us Be Encouraged!!
Encouragement for you!! 