I am the Lord

"I am the LORD your God. . . . You shall have no other gods before Me." Exodus 20:2, 3

Corrie Ten Boom once said that she learned to hold on to things loosely because they hurt when God pried them away. There are many things in my life that I get attached to: Our work becomes our identity, our homes become our personality, our children become our goals. Like many things, sometimes it is hard to know who we were before these things came in and took over our lives. Where do I end and these things begin? So when God challenges us on our priorities, seeking to know if He is first in our lives, it is difficult to truly understand what He is doing. Because I work in the ministry, it gets confusing at times to separate my walk with the Lord from my work in the Lord. In my previous pastorates I have begun to fulfill the plans of a pastoral ministry that truly help people and honor God. I received His promises and His revelation of what God wanted to accomplish in the church through my pastoral ministry. Then, out of the blue, I began to sense that I was finished and He wanted me to move on and give the ministry to someone else to do. He used me to get the ministry going but now, He wanted me to be still to receive from Him…and not feel that I must do the work for Him. It was hard to let go because that ministry became a part of me. How do you let go of something that God placed in your heart to do so that you can honor God by not doing it? We have to remember that nothing is ours. We are just stewards entrusted with the Master's gifts. Our calling is to be obedient. Our hearts are to have nothing above Him, including His ministries. We are to align ourselves up with Jesus, to rest at His feet and to have a relationship with Him. Jesus wants you, not what you can do.