Lord, I Need An Upgrade!

Jeremiah 29:11 – I know the plans I have for you , this is the Lord’s declaration–” plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

The term upgrade refers to the replacement of a product with a newer version of the same product. As a Christian I have been given everything that God has to offer at the moment of my salvation.  I don’t need to upgrade.  In the New Testament, in the book of Mark Jesus tells his disciples that the Holy Spirit will bring to their rememberance all that He has taught them. Jesus has left us with the Holy Spirit to live inside us. For many people that idea just seems like something out of a science fiction novel. It does seem possible.  The whole idea of God leaves us speechless and often confused. That’s where faith comes in.  I don’t have to understand it to believe it. I have experienced the work of the Holy Spirit in my life.  I have seen Him a work in the lives of others.

However, I think that my walk with the Lord may be in need of an upgrade.   Just today I received a notice that I was due an upgrade on a golf ap I have for my cellphone.  I didn’t ask for it but they thought that I should have it and they decided to charge my credit card for this unsolicited upgrade.  I had to ask myself what are the benefits of an upgrade on this ap?  Will it improve my golf game?  Will it make my score better somehow?  Just what is the upgrade going to do for me that the old one is not doing?  The conclusion I came to was, nothing!  I am perfectly satisfied with my golf ap just the way it is.

But, not so with my walk with the Lord.  In Jeremiah we learn that God has a plan for us.  That’s good news.  I am glad someone knows what I am supposed to be doing in this life.  My golf ap is pretty good at telling me where my golf ball is going.  It can tell me how far it is to the greens, how far I have hit the ball onto the fairway.  It will keep track of what clubs I used, how may putts I have made and even what direction I hit the ball each time.  But, it is only as good as the information that I feed it.  It cannot tell me everything I need to know if I don’t input some of the information into it.  It cannot see my ball to know where it has landed.  I have to find it, walk up to it and then it will tell me how far away from the hole I am.  It will even make some recommendations as to which club I should use but, it doesn’t know my ability to hit the ball, or how far I can hit it using any particular club.

No so with God.  He sees the future and knows exactly where I should be going.  He can see the final destination ( Heaven) and He knows without any help from me what I need to do to get there with the least amount of stress.  When I am playing golf, the goal is to get that little ball down the fairway and onto the green.  When I line up to hit the ball my main objective at that moment is to keep my eye on the ball.  If I raise my head up to look where the ball is going then verly likely the ball will land somewhere other than where I want it to.   My club will carry the ball exactly where I need it to go if I have studied the layout of the fairway, chosen the right club,  lined up properly and KEPT my eyes on the ball all the way through contact.  Too often the result of a poor shot is because of something wrong in the mechanics of my game.

If I take my eyes off of Jesus and try to direct my own path in this life, then there is a really good chance that I am going to end up in the rough and not on the fairway. It will be a lot harder for me to get to my destination and I may have to navigate some pretty tough obstacles. The better option is to stay focused on God. He has a plan and it is not to harm me but to prosper me.  Satan on the other hand really would like nothing more than to see me fail.

Wouldn’t life be much easier to naviagate through if we kept our eyes on Jesus.  He knows what the terraine looks like.  He can help you navigate through the rough places in  life with hope and the knowledge that He has your future secure.  Is it time to upgrade your walk with the Lord, take it to the next level?  Maybe you need to focus your eyes on Jesus and let him show you where you need to go. He will never let you down.

I hate hitting out of the rough!  It is frustrating and many times the shot seems impossible to make. I don’t like it when I hit rough patches in my life either but, I know one thing, God’s plan is not to harm me. If I get in the rough there is a reason and it usually has something to do with taking my eyes off of Him!

Do you need an upgrade, trading in an old way of walking for a newer more improved relationship with Christ.  In this case an upgrade is worth whatever it cost!

About these ads