Heart Tracks - Good For Nothing

      Good for nothing.  It's one of the worst assessments that can be made of someone, yet, it is the very description that Jesus Christ took,willingly took, for Himself.  It is not an assessment that many, me included, really seek to have made about ourselves.

      In Philippians 2:5-7, Paul wrote of Christ, and us, "Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had.  Though He was God, He did not demand and cling to His rights as God.  He made Himself nothing."  It's amazing how easy it is to breeze through that scripture.  It's almost like we don't really believe He calls us to the very same life.  I have written in my prayer journal, "Christ was willing to be nothing and nobody, while I am always seeking to be something and somebody."  How true might that be of you as well?  We can be sure the truth of that will be tested in us every time we are passed by or over for recognition in the workplace, ministry, even in our own families.  It will be tested with every offense committed against us, every put down, every time someone else is applauded, while we're ignored.  I have written in another journal, "Lord, may I continually receive the grace and strength to be nothing."  It's not a prayer that comes from my naturally humble spirit and heart, but rather from an all too powerful desire of my flesh for the "first place," and not the lowest one.  Our human flesh lives can never see the beauty, the good, that can come, the wonder that can flow out of a life that is willingly made nothing for Him, so that He might be everything through it.  Jesus said that He only did what He saw the Father doing, but our desire seems most often to be that He bless, and bless richly, what He sees us doing.
     In that passage in Philippians, Paul says that Christ assumed the position of "holy weakness."  Holy weakness.  It was the way of His life, but how many of us know such a life today?  It has been my experience and observation that when we get to a place where there seems to be absolutely no way out, and no hope of change or deliverance, our thought, both as individuals and church fellowships, is that we must "do something."  We've given Him what we feel is more than enough time, and now, we have to act.  This flows out of the spirit that longs to be something and somebody.  It can never be a part of that which is good for nothing.
    Paul says that in response to Christ making Himself nothing, the Father "raised Him up to the heights of heaven and gave Him a name that is above every other name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father."  All because He took the place and name of nothing, of nobody.  May it be so that more and more of us will follow Him, join Him, and in the joining, bring unending glory to God.  Shaped by His hands into vessels that are good for nothing, and so made vessels of His Life and Glory.

Blessings,
Pastor O