“Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage–with great patience and careful instruction. For the time, will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” (2 Tim. 4:2-3)
The season does not refer to time; it referring to us. This verse says, “Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season.” In other words, we should “be ready” WHETHER WE FEEL LIKE IT OR NOT. If we do only what we feel inclined to do, some of us WOULD NEVER DO ANYTHING. There are some people who are totally unready to function in the spiritual realm. They are spiritually feeble and weak, and they refuse to do anything unless they are supernaturally inspired. The proof that our relationship is right with God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.
One way the devil traps us, is for us to become obsessed with our own exceptional moments of inspiration. When the Spirit of God gives us a time of inspiration and insight, we may be tempted to say, “wow, look what I have done!” No, it is not us, IT IS ALWAYS GOD, WORKING IN US!. Those times are entirely a gift from God. We cannot be exceptional, when we choose. If we say we will only be at our best for God, during those exceptional times, we will actually become an intolerable burden on God. If we make a god out of our best moments, we will find that God will fade out of our life, never to return until we are obedient in the work He has called us to do, so, we must learn that those exceptional moments are God’s moments, not ours.
PRAYER: “Dear Abba Father, open our eyes to see that the people You use are not exceptional. We are ordinary people. And the only way we can really be used by You is to accept how ordinary we are and to lift up HOW EXTRAORDINARY YOU ARE. Thank You for David’s example, how he faithfully served You out in the fields for years, living a life of humility. Forgive us for resenting our ordinary life. Help us TO FAITHFULLY SERVE and SUBMIT TO YOU, wherever You place us. Please fill us with Your Spirit. You are so awesomely extraordinary, Abba Father. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen!”
“I present my body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto you Lord, which is my reasonable (true and proper) service.” (Romans 12:1)
Here we are Lord, use us…Bill Stockham