Greater Sacrifice | Day 20
Podcast Intro [00:00:00]:
Are you experiencing greater things in this season? We want to hear about it. Share your story at transformation at soulcitychurch.com.
Host [00:00:10]:
Welcome to the Greater Things daily devotional where we're asking the question, God, what is the greater thing you want to do in me and through me? Wherever you are, I invite you to quiet your soul once again and pray this ancient prayer after me. Come, Holy Spirit. This week we're meditating on greater sacrifice and what that could look like for us in our lives. Today's devotional is out of 1 Timothy chapter 6 verses 18 through 19. It says, Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way, they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. So I'm a big movie buff. I love all kinds of movies including animated movies.
Host [00:01:27]:
Even as an adult, I still love watching animated movies, especially anything from Pixar. And one of my favorite and, I believe, totally underrated Pixar films is WALL E. Now if you're not familiar, WALL E tells the story of a futuristic trash collecting robot who lives in a world where Earth is no longer habitable because of all the trash. So humans in WALL E's world actually live in a space station where they all roll around on scooters and have their every desire catered to them by robots on the ship. And in one pivotal scene in the movie, the captain of the ship discovers that Earth actually can sustain human life, and so he wants to risk everything to go back to Earth and try to rebuild, but the robot he's talking to in the scene tells him you will not survive if you leave this ship, and then the captain responds with one of my all time favorite lines. He says, I don't wanna survive. I want to live. Have you ever thought about the difference between surviving and thriving? Between a job that you don't absolutely hate and a job that you absolutely love.
Host [00:02:47]:
Between friends that you have a good time with most of the time and friends that are there for you, even in the hardest times. Between living a good life by your own hustle or living a greater things life by God's power and presence. At the end of his first letter to Timothy, the apostle Paul is instructing this young church leader in how he should lead, specifically how he should lead the more wealthy folks in his congregation. And Paul essentially illustrates this difference between surviving and thriving. He instructs Timothy to instruct them that more important than being rich in resources and wealth is being rich in good deeds. That we can survive, and survive pretty well, by gaining more for ourselves, but we actually start to thrive when we are generous for the sake of others, That we can survive by living a comfortable life, or we can thrive by sharing with others and taking a hold of what Paul calls the life that is truly life. And so, I wonder for you today, if you look at your life, would you describe yourself as thriving or just kinda surviving? When you think about your relationships or your career, even your faith, would you describe yourself as comfortable, getting by, surviving? Because if so, what I want you to hear is that while there is nothing wrong with surviving, God actually wants so much more for you than that. God desires for you to experience life that is truly life, For you to thrive in your relationships.
Host [00:04:39]:
For you to thrive in your career. For you to thrive in your finances. For you to experience the fullness of transformation in your relationship with Jesus, for you to live greater things. And according to Paul, at least in this passage, sacrifice is key for moving from surviving to thriving. While we can lead a good life by gaining things for selves, when we are willing to be generous and to share what we have with others, that's actually when we move from a good life to the greater life, filled with greater things that God designed us for. Now, I wanna invite you to repeat this prayer after me. Father, I pause and welcome more of you. I slowly breathe in and breathe out to be fully present with you in this moment.
Host [00:05:48]:
God, I confess, sometimes I settle for the comfortable, the easy, and the good over the greater things that you have for me. I ask that you would help me to move from surviving to thriving. Help me to be more generous, releasing the hold that I have over my stuff and that my stuff has over me. Help me to not only give my things, but to give myself away to others so that I may enter into the life that is truly life that you desire for me.
