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Conclusion
This
is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be
glad in it!
Psalm
118:24
Enjoy your life. Enjoy your family. Enjoy your
work. Celebrate the life that God has given you and
make the most of it (Psalm 118:24). Being joyful is
a choice that you must make, it doesn’t happen on
its own. Choose to be joyful. Be joyful is a
command, not a promise. Don’t have the word “Try” in
your vocabulary – just do it. Set your mind to it
and go for it.
Reject passivity and take the
initiative whenever God leads you to do so. Be in
the game and be a difference maker at all times.
Trust God, remembering that your salvation is
dependent on Him, that He called you, and that He
will finish the work that He started in you
(Philippians 1:6). Believe what His word says, and
live it out in your daily life (Proverbs 3:5-6).
Base your decisions on God’s word and you will be
blessed. Believe God.
Avoid sin – it has the power
to wreck your life completely – so avoid it at all
costs. And when you sin, Confess it to God, and He
is faithful and just and will forgive you your sins
in Christ Jesus (1 John 1:9). Discipline yourself
for the purpose of godliness and run the race of
life to win (1 Corinthians 9:23-27; 1 Timothy
4:7-8). When you fail, get up and go again, and keep
going at it until you succeed. Never give up, never
surrender. Stay the course until all is accomplished
(2 Peter 1:5-9).
Remember that relationships are the
most important thing – your relationship to God,
your family, your friends and strangers. Cultivate
relationships and care for them – keep them alive –
they are the main thing. Reach out to the people
around you with the love of Christ and try to help
them get closer to God from wherever they are (1
Corinthians 9:19-232).
In many cases
they may need their ears healed because of the
insensitive witness of others who have gone before
you (Luke 22:47-51). See them through God’s eyes and
share His love for them. Remind them that God loves
them just the way they are. Remember that your
relationship to God is the single most important
thing in your life (Matthew 22:35-40). Delight
yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the
desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4). There is no
better thing than to take delight in God and His
word. It will provide you with a joy that transcends
circumstance and reason.
Take everything to God in
prayer, especially when life seems overwhelming
(Philippians 4:6-7). Bring everything to Him and He
will grant you His peace. Ask, knock and seek. Be
persistent and listen to His still small voice. Be
bold and courageous in all that you do, and make a
difference for good every opportunity that you have
(Joshua 1:1-9).
Remember that God is always with you
and that He has a plan for your life, to prosper you
and give you a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11).
His Spirit is at work in you all day long, every
day, to accomplish God's purposes in your life, to
make you into the man of God He has created you to
be, called you to become. Live your life wisely, and avoid fools and foolish
behavior (Proverbs). In all instances be led by
God’s Spirit. The leading of the Holy Spirit will
make a significant difference in every aspect of
your life (Romans 8). And be obedient to God’s
Spirit – don’t end up in the belly of a fish like
Jonah – give in to God and do what He says before it
goes that far. You will be much better off. It
is much nicer to go to Nineveh by boat than by fish,
and if God has called you to Nineveh, then you are
going to go. How you get there, by boat or by
fish, is your choice.
Live
your life for God’s eternal reward, not for the
temporal rewards this life has to offer. By doing
this, your life will have significance, meaning,
purpose, and you will
leave a lasting legacy when you go on to be with the
Lord (John 6:27). Finally, do not fear death. Jesus
promised that if you believe in Him you will live
even if you die (John 11:25), that He has gone to
prepare a place for you (John 14:2) and that He will
come back to receive you at your death (John 14:3).
Death for a believer is just moving on from this
world to the next and from what little I know about
it, the next world is going to be
beyond-belief-amazing.
Remember that God is not so much concerned about
what you do, He is not concerned about your
abilities and accomplishments, but rather God's
chief concern for you is what you are becoming.
I am not certain that God really even cares what we
do, what career we chose, where we decide to live,
etc. I believe what He really cares about is
how we do what we do, and why we do what we do.
What we do seems almost irrelevant, as long as we
are not engaged in evil but doing good with our
lives. But how and why, those are the
questions to answer. Those are the aspects of
life God seems to really care about. How we
live our life is out of love for God and love for
others, with humility and with grace, led by the
Holy Spirit. Why we live our life is for God's
glory, to further His kingdom in our lives and in
the lives of others, and ultimately in the world.
This is what truly matters. His desire is for
you to become a man of God, to become more and more
like Jesus every day, and it begins with having the
right why and the right how in all that you do, in
whatever you do. Do all that you do to the
Glory of God.
Finally, remember to love. God is love, and
those who are born of Him love God and love others,
especially their brothers (1 John). We must
choose to be loving, it is not a natural thing for
most of us. We must choose to let the love of
God manifest itself in our life. Daily, moment
by moment, we must choose to let God's love reign
supreme in our life. Love is a choice, it is
not some magical thing that happens on its own.
When we let the love of God manifest itself in our
life, it transforms us beyond anything we can
imagine. It changes how we see everything,
every situation, every person we come into contact
with, every thought, every action. The love of
God dwelling in us may be one of the most life
transforming things we have available to us while we
are here on this earth. Let God's love
manifest itself in your life. Do all that you
do out of love for God and love for others.
So enjoy the life God has
given you. May God bless you and grant you His
peace. May He keep you from evil, and protect you
all the days of your life. May His hand be upon you
for good, to prosper you in all that you do. May He
guide you and lead you with His Spirit all the days
of your life, transforming your character into the
likeness of His Son. May He fill you with His love,
and may you feel His love for the people around you
every day of your life. May He
use you mightily to accomplish His purposes while
you are here on this earth. And may
you walk with Him all the days of your life,
rejoicing in the salvation of His Son.
I
love you. And more importantly, God loves you.
Dad
"Choose you this day whom you will
serve.....but as for me and my house, we will serve
the LORD."
Joshua 24:15