All I wanna do is make You smile

The Missionary's Goal

"Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem." -Luke 18:31

In the Christian life the goal is given at the very beginning, and the beginning and the end are exactly the same, namely, our Lord Himself. We start with Christ and we end with Him, not simply to our own idea of what the Christian life should be. The goal of the missionary is to do God's will, not to be useful or to win the lost. A missionary is useful and he does win the lost, but his goal is to do the will of his Lord. (Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, Sept 23)

Unto you by Shane & Shane
Helper, keeper, protector, preserver, pro-vi-der
You are my all all the time, with-out rest

Yeshua x4

CHORUS:
Unto you be glory, glory
Unto you be ho - nor
Unto you be praises, Jesus
For-ever and ev-er


All I wanna do is exalt you
All I wanna do is lift you high
All I wanna do is please you, Lord
All I wanna do is make you smile

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. -Psalm 68:19

After yesterday and the encouragement that I got from my amazing friend and the even better encouragement that I got from Jesus, I really thought today was going to be much better. But when you are trying to climb out of a hole that has been dug multiple feet down, one day of surrender is not enough to get you to level ground again. Yesterday was a great start, and I don't believe today dug deeper down, but it definitely was a struggle. After confusion over directions with a certain task today at work I felt utterly defeated. The tears that I desired yesterday, flowed today like a waterfall. I felt misunderstood, lied to, and beyond frustrated that I had let yet another person down. I realized, as I sat their crying, that I desperately desire to please others, including Jesus. It was the lyrics to the song above that hit a nerve. All I wanna do is exalt you, lift you high, please you, Lord, and make you smile. That is the most amazing way to put how I felt. And when I feel as though I have let a person down, I feel as though I have let Jesus down. And this evening as I was flipping through the Psalms, I came across Psalm 68:19 and felt a bit of relief. That burden that I feel of letting someone down, including God, must be taken to Him. If I desire to climb out of this hole, I must start laying my burdens down at Jesus' feet.

Which leads me to Chambers, devotion for today. The last sentence I made bold because it spoke directly to me. I am useful and He has plans for me to further His Kingdom, but in order to feel relief from the burden of all that that entails, I must solely desire to be in His will. If I am in His will then I will Exalt Him, Lift Him high, Please Him, and make Him smile. That just makes the tears want to come all over again. I really can't comprehend the amount of patience God has with His children. Whether I am here or across the ocean, I am still a missionary, on a mission to fulfill His will for my life. It's moments like this where I must acknowledge exactly where I am so that in days, months or years to come when I find myself with this same feeling, I know that He doesn't need me to "work" to be useful or stress over people knowing Him. He is the one that changes hearts, He is the one that allows plans to come together or fall apart, He is the one that sends His Holy Spirit to dwell within us so that He can be apart of us. I only must submit to the will of the Holy Spirit and the desire that He gives me to serve and fulfill His will.

I'm bound to let down people in the future, including Jesus because I am not perfect and extremely hard on myself. And when I realize that has happened, I must do as Psalm 68:19 says and bring the burden to the Lord and lay it down. I must then turn to the Holy Spirit and ask that He place His will within my heart so that I can refocus my attention back on what matters, instead of dwelling on the burden. With my eyes focused back on Jesus, I am bound to make Him smile. :)

Here's the link to the video if you desire to listen to this amazing song! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6emANZyTLF8&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL5987AC1474F93EE2