2013
Acrylic, ink, & re-claimed wood
One of the greatest prayers of my life is that God would use me to encourage, uplift, and help others. So many powerful moments in my life were when people would tell me how they believe God would use me in ministry, to reach people, and win people for the kingdom. And to this day, it’s one of the greatest desires of my heart that God would redeem all my pain and use it to bring comfort to those in pain. That God would use my paintings to bring hope to dark situations. That God would use me to raise up my daughters in Him and to nurture their gifts so they can use them at full potential.
However, that desire for God to use me started to become the only way I could understand God’s value for me and my life. If I didn’t do ministry, what was my value. Who was I then? If I couldn’t see immediate fruit from my labor, was God still using me? If I needed a sabbatical, and rested, did that mean God was far away from me? Displeased with me?
See, in weak and weary seasons, that mindset that God only saved you to use you starts to become a stumbling block to true intimacy with him. And it’s been in the desert moments, in the wilderness moments, in the weary moments that God’s true value of us gets revealed.
The constant questions of “what is God’s will for my life,” and the anxious toil in hopes that you are not “missing your call,” or not “wasting your life”? I use to be so focused on these questions, that my purpose was somewhere far away and I had to somehow figure out how to get there on my own. But, I finally realized those are the wrong questions. And my perspective on God was off.
GOD IS NOT A SLAVE-DRIVER
“I love each of you with the same love that the Father loves me. You must continually let my love nourish your hearts. If you keep my commands, you will live in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands, for I continually live nourished and empowered by his love. My purpose for telling you these things is so that the joy that I experience will fill your hearts with overflowing gladness!”-John 15:9-11 TPT
God’s priority is to SAVE you, HEAL you, and DELIVER you. That is why he died. That was the reward for his suffering on the cross. God wants to use you but not at the expense of intimacy with him or even at the expense of those first priorities.
Have you ever said or has someone ever said to you that after you overcome a hard or difficult trial that God was going to use it to minister to others? To be honest in those hard moments, I didn’t want to be used, I wanted to be delivered, healed, or comforted. I believe the heart of God the Father is the same. I DO want God to use me, but I also understand:
God as more than an employer.
God is not a slave-driver who is looking to get the most out of us for his own profit.
He is a Father who has adopted us as sons and daughters, and our well-being is priority to him over our efficiency.
Our character is more important than our performance.
Our productivity takes a back seat to our intimacy with Him. That’s God’s heart for us.
He is proud of your accomplishments, but he is more interested in HOW you go there. Was it with integrity? Was your heart far from him or close to him? Were your actions rooted in love?
The mature children of God are those who are moved by the impulses of the Holy Spirit. And you did not receive the “spirit of religious duty,” leading you back into the fear of never being good enough. But you have received the “Spirit of full acceptance,” enfolding you into the family of God. And you will never feel orphaned, for as he rises up within us, our spirits join him in saying the words of tender affection, “Beloved Father!” For the Holy Spirit makes God’s fatherhood real to us as he whispers into our innermost being, “You are God’s beloved child!”-Romans 8:14-16TPT
“Afloat”, 2014, Acrylic on reclaimed wood.
GUILT-BASED MOTIVATION WILL HINDER YOU
Those who are motivated by the flesh only pursue what benefits themselves. But those who live by the impulses of the Holy Spirit are motivated to pursue spiritual realities. For the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set controlled by the Spirit finds life and peace.-Romans 8:5-6 TPT
Did you know that guilt is actually FLESH driven? But like the verse above says, we are not motivated by the flesh, but the impulses of the Holy Spirit. Love for God and a deep understanding of our Identity will take us much farther in Kingdom advancement than guilt and obligation. Do you think Christ died for us to follow him out of obligation, fear, and guilt? What a terrible reward! No, Jesus wants us to passionately pursue him, want to be where he is. In our intimacy with Him, we will want to be wherever he is. In our intimacy with him, we want to do whatever he is doing. In our identity as sons and daughters, we WANT to do whatever the Father says because we love him.
Obeying God is not natural though. Like sheep we have all gone astray and left God’s paths to follow our own. We are bent towards independence (Isaiah 53:6). But that is why God gave us the Holy Spirit. So we can be EMPOWERED to not just DO, but BE exactly who we were made to be.
The truth is, if we use GUILT to fuel us, we will burn out every single-time. But if we allow the HOLY SPIRIT to empower us, we have an everlasting source of power that enables us to go much further.
OBEDIENCE IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICE
“You show that you are my intimate friends when you obey all that I command you. I have never called you ‘servants,’ because a master doesn’t confide in his servants, and servants don’t always understand what the master is doing. But I call you my most intimate friends, for I reveal to you everything that I’ve heard from my Father.”-John 15:14-15 TPT
I truly believe that the reason God leaves our future a mystery, is because if he revealed it all at once, we would automatically go into autopilot mode and aim to achieve those things in our way, through our own man-made paths. But, the fact that our futures are a mystery is PROOF that God isn’t just interested in us accomplishing goals. That the journey to that end is actually more vital.
Your calling and purpose are not far away and unattainable. Your daily walk IS your purpose. What you choose today determines your future. Every little thing adds up.
Proverbs 17:24 says, “A discerning person keeps wisdom in view, but a fool’s eyes wander to the ends of the earth.” And this verse convicts me because I AM a visionary, and it’s hard for me to focus in the present. But, like I said before. It’s not as much about reaching the end goal as it is about how you get there. Process is important. Process IS the purpose.
“Silence & A Whisper”, 2013, Acrylic on Reclaimed Wood
If you are going to work hard, aim for chasing hard after wisdom and understanding. Go after the authentic heart of God, not just man-made ideas that have been passed down to you. Seek & search his heart and he will reveal it to you.
Peace,
Sereen