Devo: "God Made Us Therfore..!"
"God Made Us; Therefore…!"
“He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works.” (Psalm 33:15)
I enjoy hearing testimonies of people who are successful in life. One of the common denominators of every person I have ever heard talking about their success, is how they followed their passion and desire for what they succeeded in. For example, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay did not just go out for a walk one day and end up on top of Mt. Everest. Sir Edmund Hillary climbed Mt. Everest because mountain climbing was a passion of his from an early age. I believe the passion and heart to do great things are placed in us by God, to empower us to fulfill our created destiny in this world.
God made each one of us for a specific purpose (Proverbs 16:4). He made us to function in specific ways. He designed us with specific natural gifts and abilities, to walk in specific a purpose (Psalm 139:13-16). The interesting part is, the godly passions and desires that are in us are designed by God to fuel our hearts to walk in our purposes (Psalm 33:15). For example, the Apostle Paul declared that he was set apart from his mother’s womb to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ and he was filled with a passion to help people grow into the likeness of Jesus (Colossians 1:27-29; Galatians 4:19). It amazes me how people have the heart or passion to help people by serving as nurses, doctors, EMTs, paramedics, or other medical field positions. It is amazing to think, there are others who have the ability and God-fired passion to serve others as fireman, law enforcement, school teachers, engineers, architects, carpenters, military, etc... Where would we be if those people did not have the abilities and passions that they have?
It is very important to note, that in the flesh we can have a passion/heart that will lead us in the opposite direction of fulfilling our created purpose. For example, before the Apostle Paul was born again, he was filled the heart/passion to torment and persecute the church of Jesus Christ. Sexual distortions are the flesh’s way of distracting us from the God-give purpose of one man with one woman in the holy institution of marriage. It is cool to think about how before my good friend Robbie Maddox came to know Jesus he helped people get drugs. But after Robbie was born again and God filled him with His heart/passion, to help people get free from drugs. The truth of the matter is apart from being born again and having our minds renewed to God’s truth, it is easy to have the heart and passion of the devil. Notice what Jesus told the religious leaders of His day, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father…” (John 8:44) I know before I came to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I had the heart and desire of the devil.
When we delight ourselves in the Lord, it releases and directs in us the God-designed passions and delights. “Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4) Those God-designed passions and delights, will fuel and inspire us to walk-in and fulfill God’s purposes in our lives. Don’t expect God to fuel our fleshly and soulish delights. If God did, He would be sentencing us to death. It is simple, all we have to do is just fall in love with Jesus and delight ourselves with Him and what He is about and it will release the God-designed delights in us. “For the love of Christ controls us…” (2 Corinthians 5:14)