Devotion 8

Today I learnt about two types of people, the driven and the called.

To the driven, relationships are not important; winning is. Spiritual health is not significant; physical strength is. The accumulation of knowledge and wisdom is not a matter of value; their prime targets are all external, material, and measurable.

I guess I was one of them. =(

One source of drivenness is an early experience of serious deprivation or shame. Back in college, I felt ashamed of not getting into the college I wanted to go and developed an insatiable appetite for acceptance and approval of others, even those who didn’t even know me. Rarely, however, was satisfaction reached. I still felt unconfident and insecure; my private world was still left empty and wanting, and that was where the real ache lies.

I thank God for filling up my empty world over the past 4 years. The relationships with Him and other people are just so much better. I'm also assured that the absolute confidence I can find in myself is within my relationship with God. As is said in 2 Corinthians 3:1-6:

"Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

Only through faith in Him will we have lasting confidence in ourselves and whatever He calls us to do.

I’m praying that, with time, I can convert from a driven person to a called one.

To be continued… :P