A Life of Sacrifice (1)

Gather My saints together to Me, Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.” -Psalm 50:

God ordered His saints to be gathered unto Him and mentioned a particular thing He desired from them. “Those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice”. Every sacrifice deserves rewards for it to be sustained. When God calls for congress, you can be sure He wants to bless as many that have made sacrifices to serve his purpose.

Great achievements are accomplished in the spirit of sacrifice and conviction and not in comfort and convenience. God is thinking about your future; he has a plan for your future. Many are happy about today’s momentary success, yet they have no plan for their future. Your future in Christ is guaranteed on the platform of the sacrifice you are willing to make today. Paul the missionary, made a profound prayer request in his old age, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering…” (Philippians 3:10)

As we grow older in life, we will find out that most things that seem important to us when we are younger no longer appeal to us anymore. This reminds me of my academic pursuit years back; night and day I did many kinds of research on petroleum potentials of sedimentary basin and won national awards twice within three years. I was celebrated and called to give lectures to oil companies. But my heart suddenly left, and like Moses, I started to see the invisible. God gave me a wider dream to heal the sick, teach his word and to do a pioneering work for him. He will not judge me on the PhD I had; he will not judge me on the discoveries I made, but he will one day judge me on what I did with the vision he planted in my heart. I will not stand before mortal men but before Jesus who is the judge of the quick and the dead.

God is saying, we should not be discouraged and fainthearted. Whatever you are going through; it is a light affliction, and it is working a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory for you because God is your advantage. How does it work? It works when your focus is not broken and when you do not look at the things which are seen, but things which are not seen. At the time when Paul was writing this word of exhortation, he was in prison. In Christendom, Paul happens to be the most outstanding of all the apostles, yet most of his writings were done in prison. What Paul wrote under discouraging and lonely situations became a blessing to over seven billion men on earth today. You can never estimate the effect of your obedience or disobedience to the eternal purpose of God.