RISKS

I wonder how deeply we believe and trust down in our inner man, until we have "risked" greatly and God has worked for us...I wonder. I suspect the kind of faith we maintain and exhibit is from a comfortable place in our comfortable home, without any danger or risk...is that faith and trust true Biblical faith???? The faith I am talking about emerges when we step out of the boat, and risk. We risk looking like a fool, or being laughed at, or ignored or treated as if you don't even exist, or have no credibility with the observer. The kind of risk I am talking about says to "self" "I will risk all, no matter what"...as did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3: 8-30. Read it at your leisure.

Did you ever put "risk taking" in the context of identity with Christ? Identity with the cross? Jesus said this: "anyone who would follow me must deny himself, take up his cross (in Luke, 'daily'), and follow me"...Matt 16:24; Mk 8:34; Lk 9:23. What is He saying? Every expositor I have read agree...He is telling us we must be willing to give control, our right to run our own lives, over to Him. Read Romans 12:1-2 a few times, try reading it in different versions, really think about the words. We sign on to serve Christ on a voluntary basis, in total commitment. We give Him the right to live through us, for Him to manage our lives from that point on. Our life becomes His life and He begins to make the changes in our thinking processes that are necessary for us to be godly. As we risk, and change, He can begin to use us for His glory! Did you ever hear the story of what a bondslave was? In Roman times, slaves were bought on the open market, usually for a specific time period, then they were set free. At times, a slave would be so well treated and liked being a servant/slave to the master and voluntarily decide to stay with him. This made the master responsible for the slave for the slaves lifetime. As a sign to the world of this arrangement, the slave would have a hole put in his ear and a gold earring put in place. He then worked as a servant to the master because he wanted to. There was  a certain amount of risk in this arrangement for both parties.

We Christians are unaccustomed to "seeking counsel" from God, whether we want to admit it or not. We LIKE running our own lives and making our decisions as we see fit. We may think about Scripture and does it directly address the issue we are contemplating? Do we make the time to sit before the Lord, talk to Him and then LISTEN...probably not. And  should we think we might have heard from Him, do we play a mind game with ourselves because God "couldn't possibly have said THAT"...we are afraid to risk!

God is not a hard taskmaster...He never expects more than He knows we can deliver, because He knows us better than we know ourselves. He wants to "stretch" us, enlarge our faith and trust. Risk...step out, He is totally trustworthy. The experience initially may be positive or it may be negative, we might get hurt feelings, be misunderstood, verbally abused, ridiculed or put down...all experiences that wound and make scars...and make change in us. I know, I've been there.You don't work with inmates, CO's, civilian staff, family members and ex-prisoners for nearly 30 years and not go through all of the above many, many times. But that risk taking is how God grows us up...the hurts become learning experiences at the hand of a faithful God, worked out to our individual benefit and growth. It didn't always seem like it at the time but I learned to "lean into Him" when I didn't understand and eventually, when my emotions were under control, He could give me the understanding of the hurt.

Wounds and scars, inflicted for the furtherance of the Gospel, will be "counted" on Judgment Day. He won't care about trophies, awards, citations, metals. placques or applause...He holds out to us His nail-pierced hands to look at our battle wounds and scars, received because of Him. Those wounds and His bind us together.

We don't seem to understand that the only way a world can be redeemed is through self-sacrifice...HIS AND OURS! The great Oswald Chambers said this: "Like Christ, we are to be broken bread and poured out wine for a dying world. The problem is, we object to the "fingers" God uses to crush and break us."