This is my desire, not to preserve my life, but to spend it fully at the feet of Jesus.
My desire is that all my days would be exhausted for His fame and glory. That I would finish my course, the race marked out for me by my Lord, having relied wholly upon the grace He provided, and having stewarded faithfully the ministry He entrusted to me.
The gift of service in secret, in the smallness and mundane, hidden by men, but seen by God.
I want to finish well.
Refuse to rust
I don’t want passion for my Lord, and zeal for His kingdom to be relegated to a “youthful phase”. Far be it from me to say at the end of my life, “Yes, when I was young, I was really ‘fired up’. Those were the days”.
No! By God’s grace, I will grow in love and grace, from glory to glory, strength to strength, pushing through, maintaining zeal and spiritual fervour for the Lord. Following the example of the apostles and my Lord I refuse to draw back, or peter out as the days go by.
Oh Lord I refuse to rust!
In agreement with the words of one Bible teacher, I say, I would rather burn out than rust! And how can I burn out, if I stand before the One who is an all-consuming fire? It is He who keeps my lamp burning. It is before Him that I bring my flickering flame and smouldering wick.
The heat of His gaze warms my cold heart, which is prone to wandering, doubt, fear, and discouragement. It is His zealous zeal that courses through my veins, His hope that restores mine, His strength that is made perfect in my weakness, His love that cures my indifference. All my fountains are in Him and Him alone.
All I have to do, is keep coming back to Him.
How do I do it?
A life well lived is not sustained by emotional stirrings. I can’t ‘work up’ love, for Jesus - not for very long anyway. Passion for Jesus is a supernatural work of grace. Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength is an impossible commandment to fulfil by purely human efforts. It takes God to love God.
We are able to love, because, and only because, He first loved us. The very way the Father loves the Son, is the way He loves us - an eternal, transcendent love. God loves us with all His heart, soul, mind and strength!
It is that love that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who empowers our weak hearts to respond equivalently. By God’s grace we can actually say “Lord I love You with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind, and all my strength”, and mean it!
My part in this beautiful work of grace, is to keep saying yes. To keep picking the better part. To continue making the small daily decisions to choose Jesus, and the place of prayer and intimacy with Him. Resisting the urge to hide when I sin; eschewing offence when I don’t understand His ways.
Pressing in over the decades…and as the years grow old persevering in asking Him to preserve my love from the coldness of time.
Oh, let me die the death of the righteous, and may my end be like theirs! (Numbers chapter 23, verse 10b)
Bring love to maturity in my heart, and in the heart of Your Bride Lord.
“But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”
(Acts chapter 20, verse 24)
Francesca Tavares (West Indies) is a daughter, sister, friend, avid reader, attorney-at-law, and porridge connoisseur. She enjoys Jesus and fulfilling His purposes for her life on Earth.
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