Yesterday as I awoke from my regular Sunday
afternoon nap I began thinking about all the life experiences that I
have had and the endless lessons that I can learn from each and
everyone of them. Our life is filled with events, situations,
tragedies, celebrations that mold and shape who we are. It's up to
us to live life embracing them, not constantly looking back and
wishing for something else. Not looking back and sinking into a life
of regret. Paul tells us that we need to be pressing on, reaching for the goal of godliness.
Philipians 3:14 (NIV)
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Immediately I thought of the movie
Slumdog Millionaire. The young boy, Jamal our hero of the movie,
must answer trivia questions in order to win a million dollars on
India's biggest game show. It is exactly like our “Who Wants To Be
A Millionaire” with Regis Philbin. This young man lucks out in
that every question that he is faced with, he can relate back to one
particular instance in his life growing up as a “Slumdog” in the
ghettos of India. He is able to answer each question and wins the
million dollars. He is the hero of the Indian people.
But what we don't realize as Christians is
that...we are all millionaires in our life. God gives each of us
situations in our lives and as we walk through them we can use these
to a “win” or we can forget them or not take notice of them.
Then we go on with a life never knowing how God can take these and
use them in the future to help you again or to help someone else.
And the sweetest part is that we don't win a measly million but we
win gazillions in God providing for us, gazillions in blessings that
we experience everyday, and gazillions in eternal rewards.
There is one point in the movie that
Jamal tells his life long love “This is our destiny.”. This
statement could not be truer for those of us who are a part of God's
family. It is our destiny to be IN His family, to live life
worshiping him, following His ways and reaping the blessings. And
when we come across hard times to remember that God has a plan and
purpose for each of us
Jeremiah 29:11
For
I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to
prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
God is not mystified or amazed when we
come up against any situation. He allows everything to happen in our
life. Our part is whether we follow His ways as we move through the
situation. Do we walk with righteousness or do we manipulate, lie,
steal, whatever to get through it? Scripture is filled with passages
that state that God blesses the righteous, He is there for the ones
who walk in holiness.
Psalm 5:12
Surely, LORD,
you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a
shield.
Then as you move through life and a new
situation pops up whether good or bad, you can refer back to when you
faced something similar. You can face the new situation with joy and
hope because God provided in the past and be confident He is
providing right now. You can face tragedies that come your way by
looking in the past and acknowledging how God walked you through the
situation. How He provided, how He opened doors, how He brought
about opportunities that got you through it.
Not only is the Holy Bible a book of
many stories, a guidebook to show us how to live, it is a journal of
situation after situation where God provided for His people. God
also commanded the people to earmark certain dates, certain places
and certain items to remind them of the miraculous things He did for
them. “Do this....lest you and your future generations forget”.
Once God was ready to move the Israelite's out of the desert and into the promised land, they came up
to the mighty waters of the Jordon River. God spoke to Joshua and
instructed them...
Joshua 3:9-17 (NIV)
9 Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the
words of the LORD your God. 10 This is how you will know that the
living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before
you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites,
Amorites and Jebusites. 11 See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord
of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. 12 Now then,
choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. 13
And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord
of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing
downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.”
14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. 15 Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
So as we walk this life, remember to
walk it as a gazillionaire of the Great Jehovah. Take time everyday
to see the miraculous things that He is doing and will do for you.
Record them in your journal, scrapbook or blog, lest you forget and
your children and your children's children forget the great and
wonderful things that God has done for you. I love the following
passage:
Joshua 4:4-7 (NIV)
4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from
the Israelite s, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, “Go over
before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan.
Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the
number of the tribes of the Israelite s, 6 to serve as a sign among
you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these
stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off
before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the
Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be
a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”
Jamal from Slumdog Millionaire found a
way out of the slums and began a new life with his love. We have our
way out of the spiritual slums (life without purpose, life without
help and blessings, eternity in hell). We can easily become
spiritual gazilionaires, experiencing life, spiritual blessings,
guidance for the almighty and of course eternal life in heaven. So
begin today to take notice of the ways that God has provided and the
ways that He will provide tomorrow, and the day after and the day
after. I bet you can't count them all, the blessings are greater
than the stars in the sky. Have you ever listened to a 3 year old
pray, they thank God for everything. They thank God for their forks,
for their food, for their mommy, daddy and on and on. Maybe that
should be how we regard our life, realizing that we are blessed,
really blessed. All you have to do is watch Slumdog Millionaire to
see how much we have and are blessed with in modern day America.
So when you come up to your own “Who
Wants To Be A Gazillionaire”, how will you answer your set of
questions...
--What was one way that God provided
food for you? What was the circumstance and how did He provide the
food?
--What was one way that God revealed
Himself to you in a miraculous way? Explain the situation and the
answer to your prayer.
--Have you ever desperately needed
something and God gave it to you? What was it and how did He provide
it?
--Have you ever been so down with
depression that God lifted you out of it? If so how?
--When your kids were about to drive
you insane how did God reveal Himself to you?
If you can't answer any or all of
these, then perhaps my friend, you need to stop and start looking at
the things that are going on in your life and realize that things
just don't happen by accident. God has a purpose and a plan for you.
Stop, take notice and record it. You, your children and your
children's children will learn so much from it. Though Slumdog
Millionaire was a great movie...LaDonna/Christian Gazillionaire is a
much better story with many, many sequels.
And above all remember the beautiful
words that God gave Joshua
Joshua 1:7-9 (NIV)
7 “Be strong and very
courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you;
do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be
successful wherever you go. 8 Keep this Book of the Law always on
your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful
to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and
successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do
not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be
with you wherever you go.”
Just as Jamal assured his girlfriend, I can assure you that "This is your destiny"...to live your life following God's ways, experiencing the peace and the blessings that He has set aside for you. It's just waiting for you to grab it, you don't have to win it, answer questions for it. It's there for the taking. But remember to make your own pile of stones whatever that would be so that you will never forget how God provided.
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