How to achieve maximum effectiveness ∙∙
For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son – Romans 8:29
James 1:2-4
2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.
3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.
4 So Let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
Sports coaches aim to extract the highest potential from each player. How do they achieve maximum effectiveness? What strategies do they use to get the most out of their players’ talents? One approach is the use of frequent informal feedback. This can be given anytime, anywhere, enabling players to refocus and make real-time adjustments for better performance. While informal feedback should be challenging, it should never be degrading. It should reinforce team values and objectives. Often, determination and grit are more potent motivators than talent alone. Dedication and commitment typically outperform expertise 70% of the time.
Another strategy seeks to include team players in decision-making. The coach is recognized as the most experienced expert regarding play calling, regardless of the situation in the game. Involving the players in making decisions creates a sense of ownership. A sense of ownership improves commitment and performance. Simple questions like, “What could we improve?” or “What could we do better?” often suffice to encourage participation.
The Father uses similar coaching strategies with the children of the King to foster maturity. Maturing is a process, not an instantaneous event. “The conversion of a soul is the miracle of a moment, but the manufacture of a saint is the task of a lifetime” (Alan Redpath).
We instantly accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. We are immediately born again and become part of the Father’s Forever Family. On the other hand, developing wisdom and spirituality takes many years. The Father uses adversity and challenges along with informal feedback to move the children of the King along the path to spiritual adulthood.
The Father brings us to the end of ourselves through brokenness. Brokenness is not a one-time thing. He often breaks us multiple times on the road to maturity. Brokenness should not be thought of as a destructive process. Instead, it is more like taming the powerful wild animal. After the animal is tamed, it is still as powerful as before. It simply has its power under control. It is meek.
The journey to maturity is often undertaken in one of two possible routes. One is man’s way; the other is the Father’s way.
Many children of the King struggle to get to the “top.” They strive to accomplish, accumulate, and acquire material possessions or accomplishments along the way. It is a path of acquisition, holding on, and an unwillingness to let go. The task is a relentless pursuit that begs the question: when is enough truly enough? How can we ever know when we have achieved our goals? Sadly, such striving continues throughout their lives without ever gaining the prize.
The Father’s way of brokenness is quite the opposite. Rather than accumulating stuff, we are called upon to release and discard it. Wrong thinking is to be replaced by Truth. Misplaced priorities are to be rearranged to align with those of the Father. Bad habits, even addictions, are to be replaced by the habits and passions the Father longs for us to foster, practice, and maintain.
The Father’s game plan is to use brokenness repeatedly to fulfill His purpose for our lives: maximum effectiveness. Ultimately, we surrender and simply say, “All that I am and all that I have is Yours Father. He is in me, and I am in Him, and that’s all that matters” (Stanley).
Romans 8:29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son.
The Father has a dream for each child of the King. The Father’s goal for us is clearly stated in His word. The Father wants us to become like His Son. He desires for us to be whole, complete, and devoid of deficiencies. He wishes for us to radiate the fragrant essence of Lord Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 2:14). He intends to be defined by faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 13:13). Stephen serves as the model.
Acts 6:5 Stephen is a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.
REFLECT & PRAY
“Brokenness is the Father’s requirement for maximum usefulness” (Stanley).
Father life is filled with challenges, tears, and hardships. Please grant me the ability to recognize and accept my troubles and trials as opportunities to grow and develop endurance and completeness.
INSIGHT
James 1:4 Let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
We live in an age of fragmentation. As children of the King, when trials and troubles come our way, our faith is tested. There are two possible responses to any test. When faced correctly, they are harmless and produce the desired result: endurance. When endurance is developed and becomes vibrant, it delivers the sought-after end of making us complete, lacking in nothing. Instead of being fragmented or shattered within, we are inseverable and unbreakable.
The Greek word translated as complete is holokleros. Something holokleros is complete in every part, whole, entire, needing nothing. The Greek term for lacking is leipo. Leipo means to lack, be wanting, to be deficient. The whole process is incremental. When the process is complete, we are fully formed and lacking in nothing; everything we need, we have.
Picture a caterpillar’s metamorphosis into a beautiful, lithe butterfly in its cocoon. It only emerges when all the parts are fully formed.
“God knows that soldiers are only made in battle; they are not to be grown in peaceful times . . .. Warriors are educated by the smell of powder, in the midst of whizzing bullets and roaring cannonades . . .. Is He not developing in you the qualities of the soldier by throwing you into the heat of battle, and should you not use every application to come off conqueror?” (Charles Spurgeon)
The Father desires every child of the King to achieve their highest potential for the tasks He has envisioned for them. To equip us for future service, He dismantles our self-dependency. Each child realizes that only the Lord Jesus Christ can transform our frailty into strength.
Keep in mind that God uses brokenness to deepen our understanding in a minimum of three ways:
- You gain a new perspective of His mercy and provision.
- You develop a more complete comprehension of yourself.
- Your compassion and understanding for others’ suffering grow (Stanley).
Living a life of maximum effectiveness often seems difficult, but it is not merely difficult; it is impossible for humans. It requires supernatural empowerment from the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 5:16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 11-04-1
© Dr. H 2024
Dr H Reflections 