'He specialized in knowing God' - Pt 2

Excerpt: You’re here for a purpose. Find it. You have a gift. Use it. But do your work with God. He is who they need. You won’t impact lives for God unless
you live your life with God. So walk with God. Work with God.

The desire to specialize or excel in one thing you're good at is not in itself a self-serving desire. But it can be.
As I shared in my last post, motive matters. A lot. Am I trying to find my worth in what I do or how well I do it?
Or am I trying to win approval or make a name for myself so I can be 'known'. That motive will corrupt whatever I do.

But not everyone who wants to excel is driven by pride or insecurity. The desire to be good at something is one God gave us. There are good and noble reasons to find your niche and specialize in what you love. Here’s a few that come to mind:

Reasons to find your niche and ‘specialize’ in whatever it is you love to do:  

To live your days with a sense of purpose:  Mark Twain said "The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”  Finding your why matters. It’s one thing to know what your gifts are. It’s another to know why God gave them to you. Spiritual gifts are given to us but they're not for us. They're given to meet the needs of others. But whose needs? What needs? Ask God. You’re not where you are by accident. Why are you there?

To live your days making a difference in the lives of others: Frederick Buechner said “the kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done.
The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”  

To live your days  with joy - doing something you love to do: Nothing brings me joy like watching my kids do the things they love to do. And things they’re good at. My daughter Stacey loves helping children regain their confidence by improving their  speech. My son Bryce loves leading worship and training missionaries. My daughter Cherish loves blessing families with her photos or a special gift or word of encouragement. It brings me joy to see them love what they do. And I know it brings Father God great joy when I find that sweet spot of 'deep gladness'. Doing what I love to do. 

To live your days bringing glory to God: Paul said “Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Cor. 10:31) You were made for God and His glory. You're given a gift to bless others and bring Him glory. They’re not for you or about you. 

Straddling the Seesaw of Multiple Passions

To specialize is to narrow your focus to one field and pursue one aim. We all have multiple roles to fulfill, yet I believe God also wants us to find something we love to do and work hard to do it well.  Yet at the same time, I believe God wants us to have hearts like David and ‘specialize in knowing God’ and make that aim our one thing.

Well, which is it Jack? You can’t pursue 2 aims and give single minded devotion to both. But I want both!
Like David, I want to know God and want Him to be my ‘one thing’.  I also want to excel at something I’m gifted at
and love to do. Yet the only way to do something well if I give it time and attention. Two commodities I'm short in.
I feel both desires and I feel them strongly. And simultaneously. I also believe God has called me to both.

So what am I to do? I’ll admit that my pattern so far is to go back and forth between the two. I’ll pursue my passion
to know God wholeheartedly. I’ll dive in the deep end. Study God. Dig in His Word. Pray my heart out. Pursue intimacy.
But over time, I find I feel stretched and my heart is no longer in the work I do. The very work God called me to.
In my fear of becoming 'so heavenly minded I’m no earthly good', I pull back and try to focus on the work.

Fast forward six months and regardless of how well I’m doing in my work, I notice something is missing.
God isn’t missing. But my awareness of Him is. I may be excelling at the work I love, but I’ve lost my first love.
That’s when I realize I’ve neglected my friendship with God. So back and forth I go. Straddling both sides of a seesaw!
I feel both desires strongly, yet I don’t know how to give my heart to both. Much less my other strong desires.
Desires for a strong marriage, close relationships with my kids, good health and financial security.

This has been an ongoing issue with me for many years. Still is. And my easily distracted ADHD brain doesn’t help much.
As I try to spin all these plates, assuming God told me to. And then my heart follows whatever I’m currently thinking about.
Which changes constantly. Think pinball machine on steroids. I’m all over the place. While trying to be a man of 'one thing'.

Back to this seesaw of two desires, I want to specialize in knowing God and I want to excel in my ‘calling’. Reflecting on this dilemma last night, I thought ‘Why not double major?’  At first I thought it was God. Then my logical said 'As if it's possible!'

To ‘major’ means I choose a specific academic discipline or field of study as my primary focus, take most of my
courses in that area, earn a degree in that subject and hopefully secure a job one day in that field.

But in many fields, a double major can greatly improve my value to employers and the likelihood of my being hired. For example, if I major in Business and Engineering, I’ll be a lot better in problem solving and finding innovative solutions. I’ll have far more to offer a company than if I just majored in business alone.

In a similar way, I'll make a far greater impact in whatever I do if I’m also a man who knows God well. No, I’m not suggesting we get to know God so we can make an impact or excel at work. Knowing God can improve my impact, but it can’t be my motive. If it’s my why, I'll never know God. God only reveals Himself to those who truly want to know Him.

And when God finds a man or woman who truly wants Him more a name or a legacy, He finds someone He can trust.
Why? They listen. They obey Him. They seek God’s wisdom in what to do and rely on His Spirit to do it. Not on themselves.

 Nothing impacts the world quite like a man or a woman who simply walks with God.

When we think of people who know God well, we often think of those who know a lot about God. Don’t confuse the two. You can know about God mentally without knowing Him relationally. Which is how our fathers in the faith knew Him. They walked closely with Him. They knew Him in the way couples know each other. As a friend to know, not a subject to master.

They heard His voice, saw His heart, followed His lead. And it changed them. His friendship made an impact on them and they in turn made an impact on others. People could tell there was something different about the followers of Jesus. Not because of who they were but because of who they were with. For when they walked into a room, He walked in with them.

“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men,
they were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus.”  Acts 4:13

It was said of the disciples, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.” Acts 17:6
But it wasn’t just the disciples whose friendship with God left a significant impact on the world around them.

God told Abraham ‘Walk before me’ and he did. He obeyed God. Believed God. How did God view Him?
‘And Abraham was called the friend of God’. James 2:23 By who? By God who called him ‘Abraham my friend’. Isa. 41:8
It was to this friend that God said, “I will bless you and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you”. That's impact!

Another ‘friend of God’ who saved Israel from famine and shaped their future is Joseph. But his legacy isn't due to his character alone. Or who He was. He made an impact because of the God who was with him. And the favor God gave him.

‘The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man’ … ‘his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight..Then he made him overseer.. Even in prison, 'the Lord was with Joseph ... He gave him favor in the sight of the prison keeper… When faced with a prospect of 7 years of famine, Joseph knew what to do to save Egypt. Where did he get such wisdom? Pharaoh said ‘Can we find such a one as this a man in whom is the Spirit of God?’ Pharaoh knew God was with him, so he set him over all of Egypt!

Few have made a greater impact on their nation than Moses. Of all the men He could choose to lead his people, why did God want Moses? Because Moses wanted God! In fact, it’s all He wanted. God was also all he needed and Moses knew it. He refused to move out unless God went with them. Why? Moses knew he could only lead Israel if God went with him. Do I know that? He also knew that what set Israel apart wasn’t who they were, but who their God was. Do I know that?
 
God told frightened Gideon, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior” and “Go in the strength you have and save Israel".
When Gideon thought 'What strength?' and cried 'How can I save Israel?', God's answer was: "I will be with you". 

'Jesus called to him those he wanted, and they came to him.  He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach.' (Mark 3) Note that before He called them to preach, He called them to simply 'be with him'. 

 Want to do significant things FOR God? Start by spending significant time WITH God.

That’s what the disciples did. These who turned the world upside down did so by constantly turning to Him. Following His lead, they spent a lot of time with Him before doing anything for Him. Don't try to work for Him unless you walk with Him. 

In 1 Cor. 14, Paul describes the impact believers have when using their God given gift of prophecy. He said unbelievers will be ‘convicted of sin…as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, saying ‘God is really among you!’. Real impact is when God works through you! Which He can't do unless He can first do a work in you.

Why is it so important that we walk with God if we want our work for God to make a real difference?
Because when God calls you to a mission or specific work, He usually calls you to something you can’t do in yourself.
He does that on purpose. So you won’t rely on yourself or take credit for what He does. Both of which will sabotage the work.

Just before assuming my first lead pastor role, I told my dad that I felt so inadequate for the job ahead. I thought he’d say something like “You can do anything Son!”. Instead he said, “Son, Don’t ever lose that feeling!”

My father and I enjoying one of our many 'heart to heart' talks.

He went on to explain. 'For as long as you remember how weak you actually are, you’ll be on your face every day seeking God’s help. And the words you give people in your messages or counseling will come from God. Which is what they need. But the moment you think you're adequate in yourself, you won’t feel your need of God. So you won’t pray. You’ll rely on your wisdom. And all you can offer is what you have to give. Yet what they really need is something only God can give.' 

I think of those words almost every day. For each new day reminds me of how inadequate I am for the task in front of me. But each reminder of my weakness drives me to God and that’s a good place to be. Now I see why Dad rose so early every morning to pray and read Gods Word. He didn't do it out of duty but out of desperation. He knew how much he needed God.

It’s a good thing to find ‘your thing’. The thing you love to do. Do it well. Do it with all your might. And have a blast doing it.
But at the same time, make it your ‘one thing’ to know God and invest in your friendship with Him. It’s like a marriage where both spouses share the same mission. Must they give up one for the other. Not at all. It’s a both-and scenario. Not either-or.

In the same way, we tend to think our dreams are totally our own. That we came up with the idea. But isn't it possible
that God put the dream in your heart? Because it’s His dream too and He wants to partner with you in making it happen.
What might it look like if you pursued that dream together? Working with God instead of doing it on your own for God?

I want to close with a story about some specialists (singers and musicians) who also specialized in knowing God. 

How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?  If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget it’s skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I don’t remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.
Psalms 137:4-6

Setting: Psalm 137 is a lament. Written by singers and musicians who dream of Jerusalem while captive in Babylon.
Their captors tell them to 'Sing a song of Zion'. But they can't. Why? They're not in Zion!

I want a heart like that! Only lovers talk like this. Take a stand like this. Their captors demand a song and they risk their lives by refusing to sing! Why? Because they have no song to sing if separated from God and their true home in Jerusalem.

They love their God far more than their songs. They're not chasing a platform or a place for themselves. They love the place of His house! That is where they want to be. In His presence. Apart from God, they have no reason to sing. Or motivation.

Only lovers think this way. “What’s the point of a love song if I can’t sing it to my beloved?” 
Oh to love God like this!  Like Moses who sees no point to a promised land if God isn’t there with Him.
Or David who'd rather see God’s beauty than be seen. Or Paul who ‘counts it all as loss’ just to have Christ.

Notice this! 'If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget it’s skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth"
A songbird who'd rather lose her skill and her voice than lose her God. Apart from God, she sees no point in having a talent. "If I can't be in God's house, no lyrics are worth writing. No song is worth singing. No music worth making."

Would I think like that? No. I confess I'm too much like the world I live in. I'd find many reasons to sing, even in Babylon. 
Like being heard, liked, admired. Even if my songs were all about God. I could easily sing them without singing to Him.
A song of Zion is beautiful because it’s about God, for God and to God. Yet I could sing such a song and think only of me.
                                                                               
If I were a singer and an honest one, I'd rather be on a stage than in God’s house! At an audition than at His table.
Would I have ‘hung my harp on the poplars’ if a crowd asked to hear my lovely music and my beautiful song? I doubt it.
I love hearing my own voice too much and the attention my lyrics bring. It’s so easy for the end to become the means.
I'd say the right words in a humble tone. ‘It’s all about God, not me’. But both He and I would know if I'm singing for me.

I'm no singer, but the same temptation is there as I serve, speak or write. I say it's for God or others, but I often do it for me.
But this psalmist sees no point to his lyrics or his beautiful song if he can’t sing it to God. In God’s house. With God's people.
God is why He sings in the first place. The song is inspired by God. It's a song about God. It's sung for God and sung to God.
What makes a song of Zion beautiful?  The love behind the lyrics. The heart behind the voice. The worship of God's people.

I want a heart that loves God more than the song I sing. After all, only then would I have a song in my heart worth singing!

I don’t know what your ‘speciality' is, but whatever it is, do it well and do it with joy and for His joy. But also do it with Him.
And should your gift help a broken world and be graced with God’s favor, let your boast be about the God who gave it to you.

 For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive?
And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
1 Corinthians 4:7

Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”
Jeremiah 9:23,24

For more on this topic, see 'First Fall in Love, then Change the World'