Sensitive or Successful?

"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will grant you the desires of your heart." (Ps. 37:4)

God is in the process of fulfilling his dream for my life. The closer I can come to accepting his dream over my own dream for my life the more satisfied I will be.

My satisfaction is my responsibility. That is, I decide, not what satisfies me, but what I will look to in order to be satisfied. Will I stubbornly stick with my own dream, will I develop a hybrid dream based on what God has for me and my own dream, or, will I crucify my own dream and accept God's dream lock, stock and barrell?

Obviously, one of those "Duh" questions. Intellectually I get it. But in reality do I do it?

If I am really accepting God's dream as my own then I have a heightened sensitivity to what he's doing in me and around me. Whenever I check out of God's activity and into my own activity I have ceased to become sensitive to God.

If I am really accepting God's dream as my own it doesn't matter how I end up looking to everybody else. You might look at me as an abject failure. But, if that's God's dream then, okay. And, I'd be lying through my teeth if I said this would not be a real struggle for me. I am just about as competitive as anyone and I do not like failing. I like even less you thinking I look like a failure.

So, if I'm choosing guys to join me in leadership I'm more interested in guys who are sensitive to what God's doing around them then how successful they look. It doesn't take much of a relationship with a guy to know whether or not his success is deep or shallow.

Therefore, how sensitive are you to what God is saying and doing to you, in you and around you? When you're hungry, where do you go to eat? Obviously, I don't mean 5 Guys versus Dam Good Pies. But, do you find your filling in the Word, prayer, worship, fellowship and the like? There are plenty of guys who will practice these disciplines and end up just as hungry as when the started. There's a study, too. Do you find your filling there?

Can we all agree none of us is perfect? Okay, then can you name your last sin? It might be easier for you to name my last sin then your own! If you can't name it, then either the Holy Spirit isn't in you, you're Jesus, or, you're not listening. And, if you can't name it then you can't confess it. And, if you haven't confessed it then the guilt still hangs on you.

Do you see God's dream for your life even when you feel like you're living in a nightmare? Joseph lived through slavery and imprisonment. It took 20+ years before he saw God fulfill the dream He gave him. Yet, while living the nightmare "The Lord was with him and made him successful."

Do you see in your life where things just went much better than they should have. Mercy is not getting something bad that you deserve. Grace is getting a bonus that you don't deserve and cannot possibly repay. God doesn't wait till Heaven to administer his mercy and grace in our lives.

One obvious way to know if you are a sensitive recipient of God's mercy and grace is whether or not you can dispense it. Joseph had his brothers right where he could exact his revenge and he set them free. And, he gave them their money back and let them keep their food, it was free. I am convicted by the thought that I make people pay too much for what I do for them.

Hunger, conviction, dream fulfillment, mercy and grace are all tools of God that he will use to get our attention and make us aware of his activity around us. I want to be one of those guys who is aware and sees tangible ways God is granting me the desires of my heart. And, I want guys around me who are just like that, too.