Who or What is Your Master?

Happy Friday Friends!

I hope & trust this post finds you having a great day as a beautiful new day is beginning to dawn. It is starting to feel like fall...well sorta. Not exactly on the Texas Gulf Coast as we remain in the 90's with 90% humidity however I did get to spend the better part of the week in Salt Lake City and the highs there earlier this week were in the upper 60's. See, it feel like fall...sorta! :)

You ever have seasons where you can feel God working in your life? That is where I am. He is doing things, I feel Him moving and I feel myself learning & growing. I don't completely get everything however I feel it and it feels good, it feels exciting. It also leaves me feeling a little perplexed. With this, I am going to share a few excerpts with you from a great new book I am reading - Jesus on Leadership: Discovering the secrets of servant leadership from the life of Christ by C. Gene Wilkes - and I am only going to elaborate on one. I will let you wrestle with the others on your own...I am busy enough with my own wrestling match over here! :)

• Do you feel that God is calling you to be a leader? If so, you must let go of pride. Pride ruins leaders. It will push you to seek places you think you deserve rather than where God has chosen you to serve. Pride sets you above others and insists that you deserve service from them. Pride blinds you to your weaknesses and to others' strengths. Pride drives you to build barriers rather than bridges. And pride will always place itself ahead of the mission and ahead of the people who are involved with you to carry out the mission.
• Prayer is "like farming," according to Robert Schuller. He offers these four steps to quiet prayer:

1. In the first step, the soil must be broken, disked, and raked until it is prepared to receive the seed. In prayer, your soul must first be prepared by faith.
2. Then the seed must be dropped. In Level Two prayer, your call for help must be raised.
3. Then the weeds must be removed. In prayer, the negative elements in your thoughts and feelings must be eliminated like static on the line. You clear the channel and reprogram your mind with positive ideas and moods.
4. And water must be supplied. In prayer, renewed vision, purpose, and enthusiasm must be added to your soul.

• You may be waiting on God's timing in your life You may feel that what you are doing now has nothing to do with God's call on your life or the mission God has called you to complete. Be patient. Wait. Find a quiet hill or field where you can sit still and hear the voice of God. You will soon discover that if you pay attention to God's timing in your present, you will see God's timing in your future.
• You must answer the question "Who is master of my life?" Here's why your answer to that question is basic to this study: No one can be a servant without a master.
• Rick Warren also touched on this in his book The Purpose Drive Life: What On Earth Am I Hear For? when he wrote, Everybody eventually surrenders to something or someone. If not to God, you will surrender to the opinions or expectations of others, to money, to resentment, to fear, or to your own pride, lusts, or ego. You were designed to worship God - and if you fail to worship him, you will create other things (idols) to give your life to. You are free to choose what you surrender to, but you are not free from the consequences of that choice. E. Stanley Jones said, "If you don't surrender to Christ, you surrender to chaos."

It is these last two bullet points that I want to elaborate on this morning. When I read the words, "What is master of your life?", I felt an inspiring tug in my spirit. As Pastor Warren stated, "Everybody eventually surrenders to something or someone." I knew this to be true, I also knew it had been quite a while since I had seriously pondered this thought.

Now look Friends, you & I know the "Sunday School" answer. I am not looking for "Sunday School" answers in my life and I pray you are not either. I am looking for real answers, those that reveal themselves in the things I think, say & do every day. Who or what am I allowing to define me? Who or what am I trying to please? Who or what am I allowing to define success in and for my life? Who or what am I allowing to lead me? Who is master in my life?

This is my challenge for us this week, to truly determine who will be the master of our lives and then, most importantly, to walk it out. Just as we did not jump on a bike the first time and enter the Tour de France, we will not walk this out flawlessly right away. That is o.k., we must daily redecide our master and then pursue whoever or whatever it is we choose to serve. As with everything else in your life, I cannot tell you who or what you should choose. I do however want to remind each of us, me included, Pastor Warren's words, "You are free to choose what you surrender to, but you are not free from the consequences of that choice."

Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend and please cherish your precious families.

Kev