Seeking God’s Plans | His Glory My Joy, a blog of Author Luana Ehrlich

The Being of “Not”

March 30, 2021 Leave a comment

I’ve always been fascinated by what John the Baptist said when someone asked him if he was the long-awaited promised Messiah. “I am not the Messiah,” he said (John 1:20).

Why does his answer fascinate me?

First, since they asked him the question, some in the crowd obviously thought he might be the Messiah. The gospel writers don’t tell us whether it was his dress, his demeanor, or his preaching, but evidently some saw this as a possibility.

John could have claimed the title easily enough.

He had an extraordinary, miraculous birth. An angel appeared in person to his father to announce his birth. His mother had been unable to have children, and she was already past the age of bearing children when she got pregnant, plus his father lost his ability to speak throughout his wife’s pregnancy, and his voice only returned when John was born.

But John refused the title of Messiah, despite the fact it would have made him even more popular and more people would have been drawn to him to hear his message.

“I am not the Messiah.”

His answer also fascinates me because by knowing who he was not, John is also indicating he knows who he is. Although he is not the Messiah, he is someone with a message and a mission.

Luke 3:3 says, “And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

In John’s declaration of “I am not the Messiah,” I find a powerful truth for how God calls me to live my own life. Knowing who I am not—whether it’s an age, a career, a family role, a ministry—is the key to knowing who I am.

No matter who I am not, God has given me a message and a mission, and like John, this message and mission will ultimately point away from me and to the true Messiah.

When John was baptizing one day, he saw Jesus walking along the banks of the Jordan River and he said to those around him, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

I am not the Messiah, but I know the Messiah who has taken away the sins of the world.

You can know the Messiah too. Learn more here.

Categories: Call To God, Christian Living, Devotionals, Faith, Grace, Happiness, I Am, Praise, Theology, Trust, Truth, Worship Tags: Faith, John the Baptist, Salvation Story, Seeking God's Plans, Who I Am

Who’s In Charge, Anyway?

November 1, 2014 4 comments

As I was viewing posts on a writer’s site describing the results of methods used to advertise a new book’s release, I ran into a common theme–frustration and discouragement.

Some authors lamented their publishers weren’t being aggressive enough in advertising their latest release. Others felt their own methods had failed to generate sufficient sales. Yet, both were engaged in time-tested efforts book publishers usually employed to market books, getting them in the hands–and, thus, the hearts–of readers.

Since my new release falls into the Christian fiction category, what interested me most about these posts were comments by Christian authors. Several of them posted they had felt led of the Lord to write their book, yet many posted they weren’t happy about they way the book was selling. Did that mean they felt, even though God had been in charge of their writing the book, that now He wasn’t in command of how their book was selling?

Sometimes, when it appears God is leading us in one direction and we commit to that course of action, the results are not what we anticipated. We expected success, and we experienced failure–or, at least, less than successful results.

I believe this is a common misconception when it comes to feeling led of the Lord to do something.

Just because I felt led of the Lord to initiate a project, support a cause, or engage in some personal pursuit, and His hand was on me in the doing of it, that doesn’t mean, when it comes to the results, I’m suddenly in charge.

God is still in charge when it comes to all outcomes–not me and not you. Proverbs 16:9, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”

This is a common theme throughout the Scriptures, but as self-sufficient, self-determining human beings, we failed to remember or perhaps just refuse to heed, what the Lord is saying to us on the subject of who’s in charge.

Isaiah 55:8-11, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways . . . it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

What are your plans today? Will God be responsible for the results or will you decide to assign the blame–or maybe even the credit–to yourself?