The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
Privilege and Responsibility
"I Get To… I Must"
When doing the Lord's will, we will feel both privilege and responsibility. "I get to" and "I must" go hand in hand, heart in heart.
"Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel" declared the Apostle Paul of the calling that permeated his being with the sensibilities of delight and duty (I Corinthians 9:16). Paul loved communicating the Lord Jesus Christ and His truth to the degree that failure to do so would have robbed his heart of joy. This accompanied a sense of deep obligation in the Apostle toward God and to people.
"Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all" (Philippians 2:17).
"I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise" (Romans 1:14).
A genuine experience of God, as led and enabled by the Holy Spirit, will always involve the strong sense of privilege and responsibility. The grace of the Lord Jesus that serves to motivate, lead, and empower us elicits the sense of "I get to," even amid much effort expended and suffering experienced. "I delight to do Thy will, o my God, Thy law is within my heart… They departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name" (Psalm 40:8; Acts 5:41). No less known within the heart and mind will be the "I must" of submission to God and devotion to people. "Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead" (II Corinthians 5:13-14). Our service journeys along the dual rails of privilege and responsibility, both of which must be resident within us as a confirming evidence we serve in accordance with God's glory and will.
Whatever God has called us to do in this life, be it in everyday activity or ministry of the Gospel, all must be viewed in terms of privilege: "I get to." The sensibility changes everything when embraced and affirmed within our hearts. Upon this basis of grace, we find ourselves no less constrained with the utmost sense of personal responsibility to God and people - "I must." In Christ, both streams of awareness flow within us through the Holy Spirit, filling and fulfilling our hearts as we live, work, and minister for God, from God…
"And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."
(II Corinthians 9:8)
Weekly Memory Verse
Oh how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee, which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men.
(Psalm 31:19)
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