4/4/2017 0 Comments competitive or nah.....On this journey with my husband thus far I have learned a lot. And I am well aware that each lesson is valuable for the present as well as the future. One lesson that has been a blessing to me is the lesson of COMPETITION(think Saul & David)! I naturally am not a competitive person but at one time in my life when doing the one thing I shouldn't have to be the least bit competitive in, I found myself competing .
Compeition inside the body is dangerous. Competition amongst the body is dangerous. Compeition done out of context is ..... you guessed it, DANGEROUS! One would think that in the church, where we all confess to be brothers and sisters, where we all claim that we will be going to ONE heaven there would be little to no compeition. However on this journey, I have experienced that competition in the church is stiffer than professional sports. I still struggle to understand how one competes to do what they are purposed to do! I mean, I understand competing against yourself to be better but becoming jealous of someone else's purposes and then competing with them for what is basically their birthright doesn't make a bit of sense to me. But yet still in the church, where it should be the easiest to understand, I see it's hardest to apply. Within the church there is competition among members vying for spots, outside the church there is competition among ministries vying for members, and all of it is straight foolishness. I couldn't understand how we, the body, could be so foolish to fall for the same trick, the enemy fell for himself. Think about it. The enemy was first an angel, who was there in Heaven, living on the highest platform. He was amongst the best of the best, shoot he was amongst God and it still wasn't enough for him. He got jealous, he wanted what did not belong to him. He desired to be God! His whole plan of destruction is trying to outdo God. His jealousy led him to believe he had a right to a position that was never nor will it ever, be his. That spirit of competition & jealousy runs rampant when we decide to compete among the body, within the body. When we read His Word we learn that we all play a very specific, important part in God's master plan, so how do you compete against others for that? How can playing somebody else's position be better for you than playing your own? Why does it bother you if Sis. SoinSo gets to lead the latest song, or if Bro. SoinSo gets to lead the prayer? Why does it change your whole heart towards the ministry, towards the people, towards the body, towards God? I will tell you why, because some of us still seek validation. We still seek the tangible, natural "well done" instead of the spiritual, God-said "well done"! I got caught up in the competition game once and it almost overtook me. See,we are taught early to fight and defend ourselves and what is rightfully ours. Sometimes it's nature to see out your peripheral vision someone inching closer to you in the race, and you speed up. But what does scripture teach about THIS race. Hebrews 12:1-3 (ESV) urges us to "lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and PERFECTOR of our faith". When we give ourselves over to Christ, we are new creatures and what we used to do and how we used to fight should now be governed by the bible! The Lord fights our battles and controls our playing fields. He can promote just as well as He can demote us. I have learned that there is nothing that you can do better than to live out your God given purpose! So, why do we waste our time and focus on competing, and why are we competing among ourselves? When I finally was able to step outside of the situation I was in and really dissect my heart I realized I was fighting for nothing. I got caught up. I didn't need to prove to anybody who I was or why I was chosen, I just needed to do the work God had before me. I guess a part of me was just so hurt by the fact that the very people who one minute supported me, the next minute turned against me when they say me as competition or undeserving. However, from the experience i have learned a super valuable lesson, which is that we need to just let God be God. In other words, I pray for you,I love you, but I need to stay focused on my assignment. It is not my responsibility to compete you into understanding Gods selection of me. It takes God to change somebody's heart! When we try to prove to man, what God has already said, when man is working his own agenda, we just wear ourselves out. We need to focus on our own purpose and walk, while supporting others in theres. We need to learn to recognize the competitive spirit for what it is and rebuke it, immediately. Learn to encourage, support, and assist others not just to be going through the motions but because we are true disciples of Christ. How can we bring others into the body, while at the same time actively tearing it apart? Competitiveness tears the body apart. There is no room for competitiveness in the ministry nor between ministries. The best way to keep this in check is be concerned with the WHOLE body, the WHOLE kingdom, MINISTRY PERIOD. Don't just go hard for your church, or the portion of the ministry you work in, go hard for the kingdom, go hard for CHRIST!! So for me and my life...... If the question is competition or nah? I choose Nah! Because I have learned and now know with all certainty! My purpose is not affected by yours, but my heart/walk is affected by how I treat, support, and encourage you on the road to yours. #Selah #becomingHisfirstlady
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