Methods Serve the Mission

Craving what we’ve never tasted,

Can seem impossible to do.

Change is hard to accept,

When the outcome’s hid from view.

Jesse thought his firstborn,

Was the anointed Samuel sought.

God’s mission had a method,

That birth order had no part.

If our mission is to know God’s will,

To live with values and convictions.

The methods of conducting our life,

Have to line up with that mission.

God’s mission is the lead,

Dictating where our methods go.

Jesse had to change direction,

In that moment God said, NO

If Jesse wanted to fulfill the mission,

He had to ascend to God’s higher ways.

What we think we are entitled to,

Takes God’s glory far away.

It’s the glory of God that changes,

The outcome of people’s lives.

We get into our own ruts and methods

That don’t line up with God’s desires.

Some of the things we are embracing,

Have to change for the mission’s best.

It is better to embrace the change,

Then to be pulled out of a disasterous mess.

When things don’t come in our way or time,

To resentment, we cannot listen.

God’s ways work together for greater purpose,

The Methods should always serve the Mission.

Wendi Maddox

Author’s Look~

This was written from a sermon preached by Rev. Roy Duke entitled- Neither Hath the Lord Chosen This.

It reads very much the way it was preached- much of it, the actual words Rev. Duke spoke to us that Wednesday night. We sat there listening to him tell the story of Samuel coming to Bethlehem to anoint a new king for Israel, at God’s direction. Samuel was a circuit preacher and to just show up into town, brought nervous looks. He assured them that he came in peace and had business with the house of Jesse.

Jesse knew that if one of his sons was to be king, it must be the first born son . . .one born into that privilege. Samuel starts to agree, but God had a different plan. God doesn’t do things our way. Jesses had to flow in that moment towards what Samuel was directing from God. If Jesse’s heart was toward God’s will- the mission, then his methods (desires and actions) had to change, so that both could line up.

We are no different in our lives today. It is so easy to get into our own ruts and methods of thinking and doing things. We operate from that point of reference without letting God direct with His input. We assume too often, and think we know. Until we don’t, and then are given an obvious choice . . . change our methods to release freedom to the mission, or continue to embrace our own desires.

Rev. Duke reminded us that night . . .It’s hard to accept change when you don’t know what change will bring. When you don’t let your methods match God’s methods, you beat down His mission.

I don’t want to beat down God’s mission. We have to be aware of what that mission is, and be willing to let go of our own methods, to embrace His!

I Samuel 16:8 (ESV) . . .Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.”

“All things work together for God’s purpose- not your wishes!” ~Rev. Duke