Be All You Can Be: A Challenge to Stretch Your God-Given Potential (3 page)

This partnership with God ought to give us the same sense of confidence as the youngster had who was selling five-cent pencils door-to-door to raise money for a thirty-million-dollar hospital for the community. One day a woman opened the door, and he said, “Ma’am, would you buy one or two pencils from me? I’m going to help build a thirty-million-dollar hospital for our community.” She said, “Sonny, that’s a mighty big goal for just one kid selling pencils for a nickel.” He said, “Oh, Ma’am, it’s not me alone. See that boy across the street? He’s my partner. He’s helping. We’re really doing it together.” This little boy had great faith in a partner who was probably his equal. Should we not have this kind of confidence in a God who is unequaled, a God who is in partnership with us to make our lives fruitful?

We also have potential for fruitfulness because of the promise given to us in verse 7. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” There are two observations I would like to make. First, the promise is conditional: if we abide in him. Second, our asking needs to be according to his Word. What Jesus is really saying is that if we abide in him, our delight will be in him, so much so that we will ask all things according to his will. It reminds me of Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the L
ORD
; and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Delight comes before desire. If I delight, what I delight in determines what I desire. If I delight in God, my desire will be to do things according to his will and to ask according to his will. Too often we try to make this principle work in reverse.

As a high school student, one of my chores was to do the dinner dishes. I hated doing the dishes. I was dating Margaret at the time, and often the prospect of seeing her in the evening outweighed my sense of duty at home, so I would jump in the car and be gone before I was missed. When I got to her house, you can guess what she was doing! I would immediately pick up a towel and begin drying dishes—and have a wonderful time doing it! The person I delighted in was doing dishes, and when you really delight in someone, you enjoy doing things you normally dislike. So often we lack desire because our delight is not great enough. God promises us that if we delight in him, we will desire things we need, and he will give them to us.

Our potential for fruitfulness is great because of the purpose in our lives. That’s in verse 8: “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” In other words, we are created to be fruitful. That’s our purpose. Look at verse 16: “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you.” Why? “That you would go and bear fruit,” that you would have active, positive attitudes in your life. We have been chosen, appointed by God, for fruitful living. Those active, positive attitudes, like love, joy, peace, and long-suffering, ought to be becoming a part of our lives. When they become a part of us inwardly, then we begin to pass them on.

The problem so often with us Christians is that we do not show these positive attitudes that can make us salt and light in our world. The story is told that when Berlin was being divided into East Berlin, controlled by the Communists, and West Berlin, part of the free world, a group of East Berliners dumped a whole truckload of garbage on the west side. The people from West Berlin thought they’d pick up all the garbage, put it on a truck, and dump it back on the east side. Then they decided that wasn’t the way to handle it. Instead they filled a dump truck with canned goods and other nonperishable food items, went over to the east side, stacked it neatly, and put a sign beside it. The sign read, “Each gives what each has to give.” I think they were preaching, don’t you? You can only give fruit to others when you are living a fruitful life inwardly.

Our potential for fruitfulness is tremendous because of our obedience. Jesus says in verses 7 and 10 that if we abide in him and if we keep his commandments, we will be fruitful. I think the key word is that little “if.” I have a mug at home that says, “If it’s to be, it’s up to me.” I think that’s what Jesus is saying. He says if you’re going to be fruitful, it is going to be up to you. Jesus assumes in John 15 that he will have a fruitful relationship with us. In verse 6, he says, “If anyone does not abide in Me.” He doesn’t say, “If I do not abide in you.” He’s going to be plugged into us. His question for us is, Are you going to be plugged into me? He’s already here; he has the power; he has the strength; he has the wisdom to implant in us; he has all the resources that we need, and he’s ready to deliver. All we need to do is to plug into him.

Why don’t we always abide in Him? Pure lack of obedience. We begin to think that we can do it on our own; we begin to have an unhealthy self-confidence instead of a Christ-confidence. When we do not have active, positive attitudes, it is because we aren’t plugged into the vine. Christians should not have to psych themselves up every day, as the world does, to have active, positive attitudes. It will be as natural as breathing when the relationship is right. Jesus is saying that when the relationship is right, we begin to live fruitful lives. That’s when we really begin to become productive.

Everybody wants to be productive. A psychologist at Stanford University tried to show that we live for productive results, or fruit. This researcher hired a man—a logger. He said, “I’ll pay you double what you get paid in the logging camp, if you’ll take the blunt end of this ax and just pound this log all day. You never have to cut one piece of wood. Just take the end that is blunt and hit it as hard as you can, just as you would if you were logging.” The man worked for half a day and he quit. The psychologist asked, “Why did you quit?” The logger said, “Because every time I move an ax, I have to see the chips fly. If I don’t see the chips fly, it’s no fun.” I’m convinced that there are many Christians who are using the wrong end of their axes, and there are no chips flying. In other words, they are producing no fruit, and their joy is gone. Joy has been replaced by a sense of futility, uselessness, immobility. Fruitful people like to see the chips fly.

Jesus gives us a three-word formula for fruitfulness in John 15. These three words are the ones I want you to remember, because they are the key to fruitful living. The first word is
remain
. Throughout John 15, Jesus tells us to remain. In fact, the word
abide
in the original language can be translated “remain.” “Remain in Me,” Jesus says. He’s talking about our willingness to take time with him in prayer and in study of the Word. We need to let him begin to be part of our lives and work on our lives.

The second word in the formula is
receive
. Jesus says in John 15 that if we remain in him, we will begin to receive certain things. What we’ll receive is good, fruitful living.

The third word is reproduce. If we remain in him, we’re going to receive what he has for us; then and only then will we begin to reproduce in our lives.

Let me give you a couple of suggestions for applying these things to your life. First of all, I would encourage you to commit yourself
now
to a productive lifestyle. Climb out on the limb; that’s where the fruit is. All great accomplishments have to begin with an initial decision. Make up your mind that you’re going to be a fruitful Christian, that you’re going to begin to reproduce for Christ.

Second, follow the formula for fruitfulness I just gave you, and follow it daily.
Remain
by spending perhaps fifteen minutes in prayer and meditation daily.
Receive
by spending thirty minutes every day in the Word of God, positive books, and teaching tapes. Feed your mind on things that will help you think right and then reproduce. Find someone—today, not tomorrow—with whom you can share maybe one of the truths you learned from this chapter. Pass it on. One of the quickest ways to grow is to tell someone else what you just learned. The more you verbalize it, the more it becomes ingrained in your life.

Third, list the seeds that you are planting in your life. What things are you doing right now that are going to help you to be fruitful? Think not only of today but also of a year from now and five years from now. What are you investing in the soil of your life that’s going to come back to you tenfold, thirtyfold, or a hundredfold?

Fourth, list some positive results that are happening in your life. If you’re connected to the vine, you should be seeing evidences of that relationship. Remember the four “PRs”? They should begin to happen in your life. Look for them. Write them down and carry them with you. As you begin to put good seed into the soil of your life, you should be starting to reap some positive benefits, possibly in and through people who have previously reacted negatively. Begin to cultivate the soil; plant some positive seeds and watch the four “PRs” come back to you. Remember the theme: “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:11).

chapter 2

FORMULA FOR SUCCESS

I
RECENTLY HEARD A STORY ABOUT A MAN WHO
was honored as his city’s leading citizen. Called on to tell the story of his life, he said, “Friends and neighbors, when I first came here thirty years ago, I walked into your town on a muddy dirt road with only the suit on my back, the shoes on my feet, and all of my earthly possessions wrapped up in a red bandanna tied to a stick, which I carried over my shoulder. Today I’m the chairman of the board of the bank. I own hotels, apartment buildings, office buildings, three companies with branches in forty-nine cities, and I am on the boards of all the leading clubs. Yes, friends, your city has been very good to me.”

After the banquet a youngster approached the great man and asked him, “Sir, could you tell me what you wrapped in that red bandanna when you walked into this town thirty years ago?” The man said, “I think, son, it was about a half million dollars in cash and nine hundred thousand dollars in government bonds.”

For us to understand what success is, we first have to ask what’s in the red bandanna. If I asked you to define what success is, you would define it according to what you have wrapped up in your red bandanna, the things you really need in order to live.

I want to approach this formula for success from two angles. First, we need to define success from the world’s point of view, and then we need to define success from a Christian perspective. There is a difference.

The best way to define success from the world’s standpoint is that it’s the power with which to acquire whatever one demands of life without violating the rights of others. In other words, it’s the power to get what you want without stepping on other people: Worldly success equals power. But a Christian definition of success has to include more than that. Here’s my definition of success: choosing to enter into the arena of action, determined to give yourself to that cause which will better mankind and last for eternity. Success is more than just power or not violating the rights of others; it is the privilege of contributing to the betterment of others.

According to the world’s definition of success, self demands of life, whereas according to the Christian definition of success, life demands of self. The world can say that I am successful as long as I meet my needs even if I do not help others. The Christian has to say that, to be a success, I must contribute to the welfare of others. To put it another way, to be all I can be, I need to help you be all you can be.

The only one who can stop you from becoming the person God intends you to be is you. If you’re not the person God had in mind when he created you, it’s not his fault. He never asks us to be what he doesn’t enable us to be. But too many times we stop short—we never attain success.