Friday, September 14, 2018

In His Hands

We have been uniquely created and called by God our Heavenly Father, with the potential to live a fulfilling and productive life in Him. Ephesians 4 states:
1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,
2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,
3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

We can do this - because God would not give us the call to do anything without the capacity to complete it.  And, Paul also instructs about the right spirit - the spirit of humility - that can be dispatched in order to reflect the glory of Christ.  We obey Him as an expression of love for our Father, and it results in a display of that love to the people with whom we interact.  Each day, we can exhibit a dependence on the One who has saved us and brought us into relationship with Himself.

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The apostle Paul exhorted the Philippians in the 1st chapter of the book written to the church at Philippi, reminding them of who they were in Christ and what God wanted to do through them - and
us. We can read:
3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy,
5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now,
6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace.

I don't watch HBO. At all.  I don't think it's even in my cable package.  Glad they've reduced their adult content.  But, it's a foreign world, a parallel universe for me.

So forgive me if I don't know who Yvonne Orji is.  I do know, from a recent Christian Headlines article, that she is on a show called Insecure.  And, she is the co-host of a podcast, on which she recently recounted her battle with depression and proclaimed a relationship with God.

After being turned down for a job as a daily show host at a network, things began to spiral down for Yvonne.  She is quoted in the article as saying:
"I was literally looking depression in the face. I could have let it take me out, but it was just like, 'God I've done everything as right as I could.’ I'm even helping other people live out their dreams when I don't even have my dream yet."
During this time Orji said she didn’t even have enough money for gas so that she could go to church. Orji prayed to God saying, "God if you want me to volunteer at the church I need gas money.' And there was sometimes where I only had enough money to get to church or to get to the Bible study," Orji explained. "I was like, 'God somebody is going to have to bless me with money to get back.'"
And she relates that she had instances where people actually reached out to her and gave her some money.  As the story puts it, she "hit rock bottom."  It states:
She noted, that she was mad at God, life, and everything around her.
The next morning the holy spirit [sic] laid a message on her heart with Psalm 31:14-15 which says, "I will yet trust you because my times are in your hands."
From then on the star said she found renewed motivation and was convicted by the Holy Spirit. Orji went on to work on her First Gen web series and soon got a call from HBO offering her the role of Molly in the now hit show "Insecure."
Last year the actress told People Magazine "Before any of the fame happened, I sat down with myself and with God and thought, when I make it, how do you want me to represent you while I'm here?" She said, "It was like, OK, I know why I'm here. It's to make you proud."
The People story also includes this information about the Nigerian-born star:
Yvonne Orji feels comfortable sharing intimate details of her personal life with fans—including the fact that she’s a dedicated Christian who plans on remaining a virgin until marriage.
“I’m open, because why not?” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “I’m grounded in who I am.”
Well, let's pause and think about that statement for a while - "...grounded in who I am."  Well, we know that God created us uniquely, with certain personality traits, and has designed us to express His life and character, taking those God-ordained raw materials, infusing them with His righteousness and holiness through a relationship with Jesus Christ, and desiring to work out His purpose through us.  We are who he says we are - uniquely designed to come into relationship with Himself and to be His representative in relationship with Him.

You know, Yvonne experienced a time in which she was obviously angry at God - she did not see His hand in her life, it seems.  And, we may have those times when we feel separated from Him.  That is a really good time not to run from Him but to turn to God and trust Him with your life, even when you may not see or even sense Him.  He is big enough for you to trust Him and will do incredible things through your life.

Finally, we can develop a sense of determination, fueled by the Holy Spirit, to pursue what He has called you to do.  He has given us a passion for certain things, and He wants us to act on that - we have been uniquely called and shaped in order to accomplish His will.

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