{"id":5260,"date":"2011-08-30T05:23:20","date_gmt":"2011-08-30T13:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wordpress\/?p=5260"},"modified":"2011-08-30T06:21:46","modified_gmt":"2011-08-30T14:21:46","slug":"usefulness-or-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=5260","title":{"rendered":"Usefulness or Relationship?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven \u2014Luke 10:20<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jesus Christ is saying here, \u201cDon\u2019t rejoice in your successful service for Me, but rejoice because of your right relationship with Me.\u201d The trap you may fall into in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service\u2014 rejoicing in the fact that God has used you. Yet you will never be able to measure fully what God will do through you if you have a right-standing relationship with Jesus Christ. \"\"<\/a>If you keep your relationship right with Him, then regardless of your circumstances or whoever you encounter each day, He will continue to pour \u201crivers of living water\u201d through you (John 7:38<\/a>). And it is actually by His mercy that He does not let you know it. Once you have the right relationship with God through salvation and sanctification, remember that whatever your circumstances may be, you have been placed in them by God. And God uses the reaction of your life to your circumstances to fulfill His purpose, as long as you continue to \u201cwalk in the light as He is in the light\u201d (1 John 1:7<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Our tendency today is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the people who make their request for help on the basis of someone\u2019s usefulness. If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure who ever lived. \"\"<\/a>For the saint, direction and guidance come from God Himself, not some measure of that saint\u2019s usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him. All that our Lord gives His attention to in a person\u2019s life is that person\u2019s relationship with God\u2014 something of great value to His Father. Jesus is \u201cbringing many\u00a0sons<\/em> to glory . . .\u201d (Hebrews 2:10<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Aug 30 2011 \u00a0 Journal \u00a0DJR<\/p>\n

Good Morning Lord<\/p>\n

It\u2019s become so clear to me that my righteousness is as filthy rags \u2026 and that all that is good in me is You. \u00a0 Oswald\u2019s last line \u2026 that all that you give attention to in my life is our relationship \u2026 seems right but I have a question. \u00a0 What about all the places where you say a man\u2019s works and fruits will be judged? \u00a0 Isn\u2019t it important what I do and produce in your kingdom and in the world?<\/p>\n

Yes, it is important and of value but I dont focus on it and you shouldn\u2019t either.\u00a0 It would be putting the cart before the horse. \u00a0 If you produce \u201cresults\u201d by setting goals for the results and pushing forward toward those goals (the way of the world) \u2026 then you will achieve some results. \u00a0 But our relationship will get left behind. \u00a0 That is not what I want and I dont value those type of results.<\/em><\/p>\n

What I want is relationship and then the vision and goalsetting can come out of that \u2026 as a result of the relationship. \u00a0 So the relationship is primary, not an add-on or an afterthought. \u00a0 So it is what I focus on. \u00a0 You should too.\u00a0 It\u2019s more efficient.\u00a0 You take fewer laps around the mountain and thru the desert that way.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven \u2014Luke 10:20 Jesus Christ is saying here, \u201cDon\u2019t rejoice in your successful service for Me, but rejoice because of your right relationship with Me.\u201d The trap you may fall into in Christian work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5260"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5260"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5262,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5260\/revisions\/5262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}