What are you Driven Twoards? – Part 2

Col. 2:7 (LBV)

“Let your roots grown down into Christ and draw up nourishment from Him. See that you go on growing in the lord, and becoming strong and vigorous in truth.”

Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church said in his book Purpose Driven Life. “You were created to become like Christ. He wants you to develop the kind of character described in the beatitudes of Jesus, the fruit of the Spirit, Paul’s great chapter of love, and Peter’s list of characteristics of an effective and productive life…”

In other words—CHARACTER!

How do we begin to develop our character? It’s simple! There are three main ingredients we need in our life—if we’re going to be effective in our lives: prayer, supplication, and spending time in the Word of God. The more we spend time with the Lord, the more we’ll see our lives begin to produce fruit that will last for eternity.

God knew what He wanted. He desired, from the beginning of time—that His children would be driven towards Him—desiring to be near Him, allowing His character to develop in our lives. Rom. [8:29] (MSG) “God knew what He was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the onset to shape the lives of those who love Him along the same lines of the life of His Son… We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in Him.”

According to Col. [1:15], when we look at Jesus we will begin to see God’s original purpose in everything that has been created. Everything rests on our character—and how we present ourselves before the world—showing the risen Lord to those who need to hear that Good News. In this, we’re to be driven not only in our relationship with God, but in our relationship with others around us. Going back to Rick Warren—the word of God is to shape our lives into an effective and productive life. We’re not called to look back, but be constantly moving forward. We will see our effort turned into fruit.

Last year, my mom planted a garden; and the size of fruit produced was, amazing. She could have entered her zucchini into the county fair 4H club—they were that big! But, it takes hard work, and in my mother’s case, the rewards paid off. The same is true in life. Large fields of human souls revolve around us—whether we realize it or not. There are over 6 billion people in the world and only 2 billion are considered born-again Christians; leaving nearly 4 billion of the world’s people needing to make a decision for Christ.

Jesus called us to go and preach the Good News to a world going to hell. Yet, if we are not driven towards people—and their salvation—we will not become an effective witness. The Apostle Paul made every effort to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. My question: What more is there?

If we are living for Christ—being driven by our love for Him—that love will lead us down the road of being driven towards others. Because God is love, His heartbeat is, therefore, for people—His children. Yet, there is a pit-fall for most Christians. It is easy to shove Christ down people’s throats. God simply wants His love to shine out of our lives. It is better to be silent than to speak—silence is a greater witness. In other words… Let your life show Christ—and when necessary use words.

Our goal should be to strive for the sake of the gospel—so that those who don’t know may! We are to run with conviction burning in our soul? It can be tumultuous and tiresome to drive towards something and not see your goal’s end in sight—but with everything—we are to be striving towards our final goal and that is to see the gospel preached. We first need to understand that there has to be forward motion in our lives towards that goal—God first! David Livingston once wrote to his missions agency in England, “I will go anywhere you choose to send me—provided it be forward.” Are you constantly moving forward in everything you do? And do you strive for the name of Christ? What are you being driven towards in life—earthly gain or souls for the Kingdom? Your choice!

Writing for Him,

J. B. Sisam