[CF Devotionals] 2011-02-11 - Be

Part 3

God desires for us to come and go but more than anything he just wants us to be. His desire, His will, for Bartimaeus was for him to be healed. What a great word "be". Coming and going are things we do but we are human beings not human doings – who we are is far more important than what we do. Come and go are action words; they are all about verbs. Being is more about adjectives. Martha was a comer and go-er. Mary was a be-er. Whereas come and go describe what we do, be is all about who we are. Coming and going make the moments that shape lives but being is the shape of the life; it is life. So let us look at what God wants us to be.

Doing a word search on be and its various conjugations in the bible examining them all and just trying to look at the ones that describe what we ought to be as Christians would take considerable time. There are literally hundreds of things Christians ought to be. We are to be sober, righteous, and godly (Titus 2:11). We are to be glad, be reconciled, be wise as serpents, and be harmless as doves. (Matthew 5:12, 5:24, and 10:16 ) If we just started with an exhaustive look at Matthew, I think we could go at it for hours and not even be through the one book. There'd be a danger it looking at all of it too – we might start heading down a road of legalism setting up criteria by which to judge one another's lives. So let's just look at a few things, those that are nearest and dearest to our Lord's heart, and those that he prayed fervently for us to be in the garden just before his arrest.

John 17:20-26
  1. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
  2. That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
  3. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
  4. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
  5. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
  6. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
  7. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

In this prayer from the lips of Jesus we find the top be's

Be Perfect

First in verse 23 he prays "that they may be perfect". His desire is for us to be as He is - to be Christ like - to be perfect. For Bartimaeus he said, "Be healed" In other words, he says, "Be well, be perfect, be whole, be as I intended you to be before the fall." Whether its physical perfection or more importantly spiritual perfection God just wants us to be perfect.

Next time we'll continue to look at the top be's. Until then...

IHFHBOH

adam@cfdevotionals.org
http://www.cfdevotionals.org

All verses are from the King James Version unless otherwise specified.