What Will Your Billboard Say?

Monday, August 1st, 2011

Today's Passage: Isaiah 42: 1-13
Memory Verse: Isaiah 42:6-7

Today is the first day of the eighth month of the year 2011. Seems like a perfect time to ask: have I really been walking in my purpose? Seven months have gone by. Have I been wasting time, or have I accomplished something for the kingdom? Before the enemy begins to bombard us with doubts and thoughts of failure, consider today's passage and what the Lord has to say to us.

The first thing God wants us to know is that He's called us in righteousness. Another version says He's the One Who has commissioned us to walk in a place of right standing with Him. There's nothing in us that's righteous in and of itself. Therefore, we can forget about the pressure to perform or make things happen on our own. Coupled with this promise, the Lord says He will hold our hand. How much of a blessing is THAT? Again, we're not on our own. We're not having to devise our own schemes or create plans to walk out our purpose. Like a Father, He's guiding us and showing us what He wants US to do.

As if that were not enough, God promises to keep us and use us as a sign to those who don't yet believe. The unfolding of our lives is the thing He wants to use to bring Him glory. Many believers wonder what we should be doing now that we've been called. They seem to be unclear concerning what God has called us to do. Well, today's passage makes it quite clear exactly WHAT God wants us to do on a daily basis. In exchange for our own deliverance and having His presence, He wants us to draw others to the Lord Jesus. Remember what YOU saw when others' lives reflected Him before YOU came? How long did it take YOU to finally yield? How many representatives did you have to watch before you finally gave in? It's like He's creating in us a giant billboard that points to the saving power of Jesus Christ. Everywhere we go, He wants to show them how much He loves them.

With this in mind, our concern today should not be whether God CAN use us, because He's already confirmed that He does. It should be whether WE will ALLOW Him to do so. What's your billboard going to say? When people look at you, what evidence of God's grace will they find? Will they see His love in your eyes, or will they turn away believing the lies of the enemy that there's nothing to this God we serve? Will something we say or do compel them to seek God for themselves, or push them away even farther? God has placed something in us to draw them. We just have to release it and not allow fear or insecurities to block the ministry within. Rather than worrying about God's part, why don't we just do ours? God is faithful to do His.

Prayer: Father, I walk in Your promise today that You've already made me righteous. You promise to hold my hand through this journey. May I allow Your beauty to show forth in my life from one day to the next. Write Your love on my billboard for all to see. Let me live it and show it so that the bound can be set free one person at a time. Thank You for choosing to use me. In Jesus' Name, Amen.