• Brian Houston once said “Christianity is not just about having enough food for your table; it is about having enough food to put on the tables of others”
• And he goes on to say that that does not mean literally feeding everyone, but having enough in reserve – time, emotional support, finances, wisdom etc – so that we are generous in many ways towards others.
• We are a people whom God has placed and positioned for impact and the reality is that even though we want new things in our lives God will seldom move us on to another scenario until we have conquered the one we are busy with now.
• Where you are now is equipping you for where you are going, and if your life is in Christ you are going somewhere:
Philippians 1: 4-6
• The work has begun and is continuing but very often we get to set the pace – if you hold out on God you only delay what He wants to do and very often will shift His focus onto someone else who is willing to act on His Word.
• But there are reasons why we get bogged down and why our walk in Christ can sometimes seems a bit stodgy, and that comes when we look at, instead of looking through.
• When you stand at a window you can one of 2 things – firstly, you can look at it, and as you do you will start to see cracks and flaws and bubbles in the glass, and dust and raindrop marks and so on
• Or you can simply look through it and see the view beyond the faults.
• When you look at it, you find more work and an excuse to stay put –‘I need to clean this window now’, and you lose out on a journey that was beckoning you
• When you look through it you see possibilities, opportunities, journeys to be taken and adventures to be had.
• David arrived at the battlefield and did not focus on Goliath, but looked through him at the victory that as far as he was concerned was already secured.
• When the spies got to the Promised Land they focussed on the giants, and missed the milk and honey
• Joshua and Caleb focussed on the milk and honey, but in doing so they realised one important fact about problems and giants that emerge on our horizon – giants are transparent.
• Now we have spoken about seeing every single thing you do in life as mission and ministry, redefining your role in life from being an insignificant worker doing futile stuff, to seeing ourselves as fully engaged with serving a higher plan and a heavenly vision
• But the reality also is that sometimes our life can seem so pointless and our job can seem so utterly meaningless to us that we battle to see beyond it.
• Learn to look through your job, not at it
• If your studies seem endless and you’re wondering if they are actually going to result in anything at all, start looking through them at who you will be on the other side of them
• Not only wiser and cleverer but older and more mature and more ready to handle what life throws at you.
• Your current crisis is not forever – these things come to pass – not to stay.
• You have survived before and you will survive again, but you need to start to look through the crisis at who and what you will be on the other side.
• And that’s because Christianity is a journey and not a hotel.
• Let’s look at a story from the Bible and see how we can relate this.
2 Kings 5: 1; 9-15
• The story starts off telling us that through Naaman God has done some amazing stuff, even though Naaman was not well and was in human terms, flawed.
• But God did not look at the shortcomings, but looked through him to the imminent victory and all it took was Naaman’s availability to be used
• The sad thing though was that Naaman was not able to do the same
• He was so focussed on his illness that he lost sight of an imminent cure – Elisha was offering a life illness-free
• But Naaman couldn’t had a preconceived notion of what God was going to do and refused to follow the Lord’s leading when it came because it did not fit his mindset of who and what God is all about.
• His servants had to remind him what was written on his heart
• Remember what we had said about that – that the truth of Jesus needs to be written on the walls of our heart so that when the enemy comes and tries to spray some negative graffiti on your heart’s wall, you can stand firm and declare that no matter what is sprayed there, the truth remains engraved and we just need to be reminded of that sometimes.
• Naaman allowed his focus to shift to what lay beyond the crisis
• Naaman took his eyes off the method and claimed the result.
• God will use whatever method it will take to get your attention, to get you listening, to get you surrendered to Him.
• Your future in Christ is good, it is meaningful and it is on track if you are remaining in Him.
• Keep looking through the now and seeing that there is much more that you are heading towards, but what God has placed in your hands now needs attention
• Get busy with the work that is in your hands, see it as fulfilling a higher calling , and a service to Almighty God
• And you’ll find that doing what is in your hand is releasing what is in your heart
• But what is in your heart remains locked away until the obedience flows, and that obedience to Him unlocks the promise
• What are you worried about? – look through it
• What is your crisis now? – look through it
• What is the drudgery that feels like it’s weighing you down because you just want to get to your future? – look through it
• And when you do it sets your course, determines your direction and helps you to navigate your way there
• But to get from here to there we still need the time that it takes to learn, to mature and to gain wisdom
• So that when you get there and you will, you are stronger and better equipped because when your heart’s position in relation to the future is good and focussed, the Kingdom advances and you are more than a conqueror.
