... any more or any less than He does any other human being. How does that idea set with you? Maybe you thought since you’ve done so much for the Lord and His Church that you should expect a bit more of His favor, His grace. After all, you’ve done so much to promote the gospel, fellowship, brotherhood, your first in line to serve and you’re known for always extending the hand of forgiveness and so on.
The apostle Peter points us to the Holy God’s fair and balanced perspective with these words.... And Peter opened his mouth and said: Most certainly and thoroughly I now perceive and understand that God shows no partiality and is no respecter of persons... Acts 10:34 (Amplified Bible)
And again in his own epistle Peter states... And if you call upon Him as [your] Father Who judges each one impartially according to what he does, [then] you should conduct yourselves with true reverence throughout the time of your temporary residence [on the earth, whether long or short]. 1 Peter 1:17 (Amplified Bible)
Clearly, a righteous and just Holy God could be nothing but impartial when it comes to His treatment and consideration of all those who have committed their lives to serve Him. No matter what we’ve done for God and His purposes – whether in love, generosity, care for widows and orphans, or fellowship... our acts and works, do nothing to influence our position with God. Likewise, in the context of brotherhood and fellowship, we Christians must not court those of wealth, race, or social standing as more important than the lowliest and poor among us. We must treat all men alike, rich or poor... equally, as God does.
This is a key area of our spiritual formation... our transformation to living with a transformed “Christlike spirit.” Part of this transformation process that God would like to work in each of us, is to make sure that our minds get properly renewed according to the knowledge and revelation that is in His Word. In other words, we have to learn how to develop right thinking and attitudes in our minds from God’s Word. "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:2 (NIV)
God works in us by the Holy Spirit. To get our minds properly renewed so we can think right about things, we must allow the Holy Spirit to put in what God does want us to be thinking right about, and take out what He does not want us to be thinking about.
One of the very first areas that you will really need to get a grip on is to accept that God the Father is no respecter of persons. What this means, is that every single man and woman who has ever lived is on an equal footing with Him. It doesn’t matter who you are... God has equal and unconditional love for each person He has ever created and He is not playing favorites with anyone.
God has always been this way no matter who He is working with. Whether those of great accomplishment and service like Moses, Abraham, Isaiah, David, Paul, Peter, men and women through the ages, who did great things for the Lord, all are on equal footing with Him. God reminds us that “He is no respecter of persons”, in that He does not show any type of partiality or favoritism to anyone, regardless of position, responsibility, perceived stature, accomplishments, achievements, etc. This includes preachers, elders , missionaries, anyone serving in high-profile positions of responsibility to the lowliest among His children.
God will work with any person who will properly come to Him, with the same amount of intensity and to the same degree regardless of their stature before Him. Everyone has an equal opportunity to enter into God’s perfect plan and destiny for their lives – allowing Him to build that life up, to transform it and move you in specific directions that He wants to take you.
With this understanding that God treats everyone equally... there is a problem. It seems, the Body of Christ is divided into two camps. In the first camp, is the Christian who has committed and fully surrendered his life to the Lord and is willing to enter into God’s perfect plan and destiny for his life. As a result of making this kind of full surrender to the Lord, God is working and building up this person’s life to its maximum capabilities and possibilities. A fully surrendered Christian has a very active and powerful walk with the Lord... and it’s visible and noticeable to others.
And then you have the second camp, which is where I believe most Christians are living today, that is... out of the perfect will and transformative power of God for their lives. In other words, while they may have made some sort of commitment, calling themselves “Christian”... they have never made that full surrender to the Lord where He would be the only One to guide and direct their lives.
As a result of this extreme contrast between these two camps, you have Christians who are walking in this second camp, which is “out of step with the perfect will of God” for their lives, wondering why the fully surrendered Christian seems to be experiencing all the blessings in their lives and they are not getting any where in their lives with the Lord.
The fully surrendered Christians have meaning and purpose in their lives. They have right thinking and right attitudes. They know where they are going with the Lord. He leads... they follow... always “in-step” with the Lord’s perfect will. They sense God’s blessing and favor working in their lives. They rely totally on Him for help in their Christian walk. All of this positive activity is being brought into their lives as a result of being willing to fully surrender to God for His guidance in their life management.
The Christians who are living and “trying to walk with the Lord” in the second camp are calling all of their own shots and running their own lives their way. Many, if not all of them are getting absolutely nowhere in this life as a result of trying to be “Christian” all on their own.
There is only one way for each and every Christian to live this life – and that is operating under full commitment and complete surrender to the Lord, where He is the One guiding and leading your life in the direction that He will want it to go in.
As a result of these two camps in the Body of Christ, you have many Christians in the second camp being very jealous and envious of all of the good works and “fruit of the spirit” growing in the fully surrendered Christian (Galatians 5:22-23). Sadly, instead of trying to see the truth as to why the fully surrendered Christians are experiencing God’s rich blessings, they resort to harboring feelings of anger and resentment towards God... accusing Him of playing favorites.
The Bible says that the truth will set you free – but you first have to be willing to see what that truth is and then fully understand it, before it can start to work to set you free.
If you are not willing to see that fully surrendered Christians are experiencing blessings and living a productive, meaningful life in the Lord... all a result of making a full surrender to Him – then you will continue to be stuck and grounded right where you are at. You will continue to throw pity parties, blaming everyone else for your miserable and unproductive life – including God Himself.
As Christians, we all need to think about what God is trying to tell us – that every single one of us, with no exception, will be treated equally and fairly with the Lord in how He will handle our lives – but only if we are willing to enter full surrender to Him where He will be the One controlling and leading our lives.
If you don’t, can’t or won’t believe that God will treat everyone fairly and justly in this realm of full surrender – then you will never make it to the top of whatever mountain God is calling you to climb for Him in this life.
