Rejoice Correctly

Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10:20)

You’ve heard the phrase before that we are human “beings” not human “doings” – we are valuable to Christ by who we ARE, not because of what we DO. He loves us and sacrificed His life for us to spend eternity with Him before we were born, which means His love was before we did anything for Him.

As sons and daughters of the King, of course He values what we do for Him, and it is His will that we be faithful servants, but that is not the basis of salvation. We are His because of His free gift to us that we accepted.

Consider the following quote:

When the disciples came back from their first mission, they were filled with joy because the spirits had submitted to them. Jesus replied that they should rejoice instead that their “names are written in heaven.” He was telling them, “Don’t rejoice in successful service; rejoice because you are rightly related to me.”

The snare in Christian work is to rejoice in how much you’ve done or in the fact that God has used you. If you are rightly related to Jesus Christ, you won’t be able to measure what God does through you. Jesus will pour rivers of living water through you all the time (John 7:38), and by his mercy he will not let you know what he’s doing.

Once you have been rightly related to God through salvation and sanctification, you can rest assured that wherever you find yourself, you have been put there by God. As long as you keep in the light as God is in the light, you will fulfill his purpose, simply by the way your life reacts to the circumstances around you. (From “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers. https://utmost.org/modern-classic/rightly-related-to-him/)