JANUARY 16 “NOT THE RESULTS YOU ANTICIPATED?”

   Not the results you anticipated or wanted? Oh well, to bad!  If you and I were God we would manipulate results to be what we wanted them to be. We would never look bad and everything we did would succeed. Every outreach would yield incredible results and everyone would always respond to our preaching. Nobody would tell us "no" and certainly nobody would "reject" us. But here is God in the flesh and he allows himself to be rejected. Jesus gives his very best outreach and the response is slim to nothing! Clearly not the “anticipated” results Jesus had wanted, but yet, He lets them be what they are.  I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't accept minimal results, at the cost of all my efforts, plus it makes me look bad, so add that in the mix. It is clear that Jesus is not at all thrilled about the results of his evangelistic efforts in Capernaum and Bethsaida. Jesus even performed miracles, yet they do not respond.  My ego would not have been able to handle this.  I am the supposed leader of this great movement, claiming to be the Messiah and I am going to be rejected and shut down like this? JESUS, apparently has no ego, no pride, otherwise this would never have taken place. I have had outreaches where nobody responded, I have had Revivals where nobody responded and let me tell you, my ego was bruised and my pride inflamed! If we could manipulate circumstances, why wouldn't we? Is it because of our great care for the loss....or would the real reason be, so we can look good instead of bad. So that we always come out on top, so we always come out looking like the winner. If you take ego and pride out of the equation, there really is no reason to manipulate these scenarios, when you think about it. Other, than the fact that you might look better, why would we manipulate people into responding that don't want to? Does God really want a bunch of people in Heaven that were manipulated by a higher power to be there, but had they had it their way, they would have rejected the gospel message. Jesus preached and did miracles and allowed the people to freely choose to accept or reject Him and His message. Jesus, in addition, to his example, has also quite plainly told us, "it's not you they are rejecting, it is me".  How many people have we coerced and/or manipulating into accepting Christ??? And why, was it because we cared so much about the soul or are ego's and pride were at stake. We must be a whole lot more like our leader, JESUS! He preached the Gospel and even though, He was God and He was the one they were rejecting. He let the results stand as they were because Jesus had no ego at stake. If we could get our ego's and pride out of the way, we would actually be more effective and we would have a much more pleasant disposition. Then we would not have to look for people to blame and/or yell at and make feel guilty, because we did not get the results we expected or anticipated. Sometimes your best efforts and faith, will yield very little results and in those situations we must know it was never on us to control the response, only to deliver the message. In some cases God is using us to bring a message for salvation, ie; Nineveh and in other cases God is using us to bring a message that, in turn, will be used for judgment against a person and/or a city, ie: Capernaum and Bethsaida. In either case, our job was to deliver the message, get our ego's out of the way and leave the response to the Free-Will Agents that God has made human beings to be! And their lack of interest, their apathy or rejection of your message should never be used as a measuring stick against you, for your validity as a man or woman of God.  God does not measure you by the results; He measures you by your willingness to obey, go and do what He commands and that is what He will use as a measuring rod against you. If it were not so, then some of God's greatest Prophets would be deemed as the greatest failures, ie: Jeremiah.