a letter to learn from: effective

"...and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective

for the full knowledge of every good thing

that is in us for the sake of Christ." 

Philemon 6

As I begin to break a sweat I avert my eyes away from the white paper taped to the wall in front of me. 

I quote them back, checking my wording to make sure that I got the verses right. 

John 15. 

The words of my Savior. 

My heart longs to know them. Not just remember John 15 as a good passage, but to know the words. Hide them in the most private recesses of my heart. Love them. Live them. Remember them. 

Jesus is standing in a vineyard. 

He is creating a beautiful and powerful word picture using the very vines that He created. 

"Abide in Me and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine and you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." John 15: 4, 5

As I read the words of Paul to Philemon, I can't help but pray that someone is praying this way for me. 

There is nothing I want more in life than to be effective. 

I pray that I will love well. 

I pray that I will live well. 

I don't want to be effective in a career goal or some sort of academic achievement. 

I don't want to settle for financial effectiveness or human recognition. 

No, no. At the end of the day, that means little. 

I pray that the sharing of my faith with those I know as well as those that I don't, will be effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in me--for the glory and honor of God. 

Every good thing in me is there because Christ has mercy on me. 

Every breath I take, every light beam to enter and illuminate my eye, the ability to read, write, process and articulate--all of this is because He has willed it so. For this moment. 

Everything I am. 

Everything I will become. 

Is from Him. 

The prayer of my life today and tomorrow and the days I have left on this earth is that when people are with me, they will experience Jesus and be drawn to Him. Not because of me...but because of Christ in me. 

That is effectiveness. 

I want that. 

For the sake of Christ. 

effective. 

tiffany