Matthew 10:39 “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.”
It was a about a month ago that the Holy Spirit quickened my wife and I, as we walked into our home after leaving members of our church whose car was their only means of shelter and others who find their serenity in the cover of local parks, that we did not come here for ourselves, but for the people of this city.
We came to a realization that we were throwing hundreds, if not thousands of dollars into a place that we considered home for the purpose of only laying our head down to sleep. It was Jesus himself who said, “the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). We spent most of our days at work or church and realized our home of comfort was becoming a retreat from the call that God had for us. Our resources were now being subdued by this house when every service we would be praying that God would bring more resources to help the needs of the community. My wife and I knew we had to make a decision and it wasn’t going to be a very hard one.
We surrendered our gated community home for a simple efficiency we created at our church. But oh did the scripture in Matthew 10:39 ever come true. We were living to pamper ourselves, but who were we to deserve it. It would have been easy to come up with excuses to justify the means of our living. After all we had just lost all our furniture in our previous home to the war of bed bugs. Didn’t we deserve a fresh new life? Yet we felt a yearning in our spirits that something wasn’t right.
Living in this efficiency we now have a peace that surpasses understanding, as we lay down at night knowing that we can minister to those who are in need and can provide more resources to our community. They see our intentions and know that we are not helping with an outstretched arm only to run back to our so-called fortress of safety.
Since the move we have seen growth and faith in the lives our people. It is wonderful to wake up in the morning and go into the sanctuary before the presence of God, as well as maintaining it, without a time limit of having to rush to get home. Surely we have found life by loosing what we considered to be life here on earth. The life we live may not be ideal to the world, but this is the call that God had for us and we are willingly embracing the shelter of the Almighty.
One thing is for sure to all believers, that God did not call us to build our lives here on earth, but to build our lives in Heaven’s gates. Don’t allow yourself to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of creating your life. Lose it in Him.
Live a life of obedience to God even when it calls you to give up what you consider life because only then will you find it!
http://praisechapelhollywoodfl.com/help/how-we-help-you/
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