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L.E.A.N on God – Legacy

HomeLean on GodL.E.A.N on God – Legacy

I’m not sure if it’s because I am now a mom, because I am now in my thirties, or because I have experienced the death of a few loved ones in recent years. Perhaps it’s a combination of all of this that has got me thinking a lot about the life I want to live and the kind of legacy I want to leave long after my homegoing service is concluded. Before now, I would have thought that reflecting on one’s funeral was a morbid idea but today I have the opposite sentiments. I find myself thinking about my legacy quite often if I’m being honest. What taste do I want to leave in the mouth of those with whom God allowed me to brush shoulders or do life? When it is all said and done, what will my husband, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren say about how I chose to show up in the world?

This month of June I would like to explore the idea of leaning on God in different aspects of our lives. How do we rely on or derive support from the Holy Spirit? How do we knit together conversations with Him that enable us to do just that? As wonderful and as deep as talking about legacy may sound, it’s also very sobering. It’s sobering because as much as we love our families and try to live at peace with all those in our circles, we cannot for the life of us, live a life of legacy without the help of the Holy Spirit. We need to lean on Him even in this. It’s amazing how everything we do in this life can be traced back to the ever-present help of our beloved Holy Spirit. From the big things we know to ask for help concerning, to the small things we sometimes foolishly think we accomplished on our own, His fingerprints can be found. Legacy is a big thing and the funny thing about it is that because it is stretched so thin over the span of our lifetimes, it is easy to go about our day-to-day forgetting that it serves as the linchpin to our very existence.

“A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.” ~ Proverbs 13:22

“One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.” ~ Psalm 145:5

Leaving a legacy of a life well-lived is more than just leaving a healthy financial inheritance for our kin and stretches far beyond just our nuclear families. While generational wealth is a significant part of it, there are other, more enduring, parts to a good legacy, all of which require us to lean on God to accomplish.

Have you ever talked to God about your legacy? If you haven’t, I encourage you to do so. He has thoughts and ideas about it that you would be interested to know. He created each of us to be the embodiment of a classic idea that He had for the earth and the duration of all time. Our life, the execution of that classic idea, is dear to Him, so rather than take on the weight of making your glorious existence happen all on our own, take a load off and put your legacy on Him.

Throughout scripture, we see ordinary people whose lives intersected with God’s classic idea for which they were born and their legacy coming together. In our own lives, we can point to people we know, either personally or from a distance, whose legacy is robust because they too, had such interactions. Most times, these intersections were ordinary enough, simple everyday things that came as a natural step in their doing life. Other times, there may have been extraordinary circumstances at play, causing their names and legacy to be etched into the stone of history. Whatever the case, in all such stories, several conversations with God serve as the common denominator for which we recognise them today. What conversations are etching your name into the stone of history? Putting your legacy on God through prayer can become a natural part of your life, we simply need to begin the conversation. If you don’t know where to begin, I suggest these ideas that may help:

Ask God to show you pictures. I’m a visual person and I have found that with important things, God often shows me a picture. In our conversations about such pictures, God will show me breadcrumbs that form a backwards trail from my version of that picture to where I am today. Those breadcrumbs are the nuts and bolts which, if applied correctly, would allow me to reverse engineer the picture He is showing me. Think of a vision board with pictures of different things we aspire to be pinned to give us a glimpse of what our future could look like. In the same way, asking God to give us pictures of what legacy looks like in our career, parenting, marriage, spiritual life, service and more, will help us keep the goal He has for us at the forefront of our minds. It will give us something to look to when we face challenges and will serve as an encouragement and a guide. These pictures are not so that we can copy and paste, no, they are an example of what that certain something has the potential to look like. We still have to put in the work and our flavour to it.

Ask God for grace to obey. Having a picture is one thing but doing what it takes to get to our version of that picture is another. We all need the Holy Spirit to give us the grace to walk the steps required from where we are to where we hope to end up. There will be potholes, mountains and valleys along the way, but if we continue to rely on God for the grace both to will and to do of His good pleasure, we can make it to the finish line in style.

Ask God for a long life. God’s plan for each of us is that we live long lives by which to accomplish everything He has planned for us. The enemy wants to interrupt our legacy and cut our lives short, but God can preserve and keep us. Part of putting our legacy on God is to pray for long life and good health. We know by His Word that this is His will for us and so we can approach His throne boldly with this request and trust that He is at work protecting us every day.

Ask God for correction. As I said earlier, our legacy is stretched so thin over the course of our lifespan, and being human as we are, it is inevitable that we will get off track at one point or another. Putting our legacy on God will require us to consistently ask Him to show us areas where we may need to course-correct. Making Psalm 139:23-24 a regular prayer is a good place to start. The New Living Translation puts it in such a simple way, making it a go-to in my daily prayer time.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” ~Psalm 139:23-24

I don’t know about you, but I want my funeral service, many years from now, to be a long one filled with people who all have wonderful things to say about how I was an embodiment of God’s classic idea. I hope this has lit a fire of legacy in you and I pray that the fire will continue to be fanned over the years as you have conversations with God that allow you to fully put your legacy on Him.

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  1. Andrew khama
    June 8, 2022

    I definitely need the move of God in my life and this article nails everything to the point.I am totally loving the way you brought out the various attributes of God’s love.

    Reply
    • June 8, 2022

      Thank you for your comment Andrew. May God move in your life in a fresh way.

      Reply

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