Not. Nope. That is not true. Lying is a sin.
It is NOT easy, though blessed it does make me feel (and not the sarcastic hashtag kind). And the reason it is so marvelously wonderful is because it is so marvelously tough. It cuts right to the chase. It strips you of your pride often in the very first sentence, and holds the proverbial mirror up to your face while simultaneously humbling you and bringing you low before the feet of Christ. I'm not some weirdo who loves pain, it's just that when I read the words of Oswald Chambers, I literally feel as though I'm staring right into the heart of God. I am so overtaken by Him that I feel as Moses did when he requested to see the glory of the Lord and had to be shielded from His full presence. Chambers draws you that near. He helps you to carve out that quiet place for God to come in. And let me tell you, it is a scary, beautiful place to be - really one of the most vulnerable parts of my day. It is for the Christian who is serious, or the serious hopeful Christian, because it is all about serious growth. It will probably do more for you first thing in the morning than a shot of espresso.
(...Did I do that right? The rare times I get coffee I just get it black and put gross amounts of Splenda in it, I'm sorry.)
So this morning, well, the same thing happened. The Lord spoke to me through the words of Oswald Chambers and straight to my circumstances, too.
And then another unexpected turn occurred when I found myself unable to go to church. So I then listened to an unplanned sermon, which led to an unplanned message also hitting me square in the face, which also miraculously spoke to my heart, and I can now see all along that..
God was trying to get me alone.
It's funny how that happens. We drown him out so much. All the time, actually. We can be sitting by ourselves and still make ourselves internally too busy for God, which is sort of a mind-numbing and shame-inducing thought - and something I can be incredibly guilty of. But we can even just be going about our lives, thinking we're going to church. It doesn't matter. We get too nervous, too anxious, too preoccupied, too social. We determine to do something in our own minds instead of obeying what He would have us do. There are a lot of things that can pull us away, both direct and indirect, and even spiritual, and an enemy who knows specifically what one, two, or five of your "things" would be to keep you from encountering the glory of God.
And your "things" are not someone else's things. Your friends and family cannot fully know what you need spiritually in that moment or on that day and what you specifically need to do before God. To ask them won't help all that much. That is between you and Him. And to grow in spiritual maturity is to know what that looks like for yourself. To commit to it fiercely and wholeheartedly as though you were fighting for your very air. To make it your aim to know what that looks like for you so that you can create a whole lifetime of divine appointments of undivided encounters with the holy God.
Your heart can be in the right place, but your spiritual life requires discipline, too. You have to carve out the time for God because He, in short, is everything. (I don't WANT to say "duh" here, but I also just did.) He is why you're breathing, He is why you do the things you do and go the places you go and meet the people you meet. He has led you to the point you are in right now, He has juggled and commanded and intervened and sovereignly held all events of history, and yes, He holds and knows your future. No one else can help you the way God can help you. No one can instruct you, love you, discipline you, or complete you the way God will. And that is why making our time with Him a non-negotiable is imperative.
And He wants to talk to you. He is not that friend in town that keeps telling you they want to see you and never follows through.
We are the flakes here.
You've heard it time and again, but that's why you HAVE to read your Bible. You HAVE to pray. You HAVE to worship Him in thought and deed - because that is where and how you meet with Him. You have to prepare yourself before His throne, you HAVE to do your part.
20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. (Revelation 3:20)
I don't think my generation specifically takes faith seriously enough. We are passionate about the cause without the follow-through. We are trending in our hearts as well as our social media. For the amount of heartache and self-destruction that exists among us, there is an equally flippant attitude, rampant disrespect and carelessness directed towards personal faith. There is so much time that is lost every minute of every day to the things that don't matter and don't please the One who created us. I look on at people that I dearly love and so badly want them to also love the One who is dear. To have this fervent passion and hunger after the God who saves and is knocking at the door of their hearts. To receive the free offer of peace.
But you have to bring yourself to a stillness in submission before Him in order to receive it. And getting to that still place is the hardest thing - Christian or not.
Even those who are walking with Christ - every little bad habit you are caught up in now will inevitably affect the larger things in life and your eternity. Song of Solomon 2:15 says that it is the "little foxes that spoil the vineyards". Everything matters. When you snapped at that person or dishonestly answered that question - it changes you. Something triggers off inside of you that tells you it is okay to do that thing. Left unrepented, that attitude is cultivated and eventually all those little things lead to and contribute to our attitudes toward the big moral things (not to mention those we hurt in the process in matters both big and small). But these offenses, though wrong in and of themselves, are what contribute to keeping you from reaching that quiet place before God that you and I so desperately need. When we entertain things that aren't of God or in accordance with His nature or will for our lives, even seemingly neutral things that take up too much of our time, we drown out all that is good and holy and wonderful and healthy for us.
I'm not saying this to scare anyone who might read this, but I am saying that we are not strong enough by ourselves to walk about as though we don't need God in each moment of the day. I think we trick ourselves and are tricked into believing that His assistance is optional. The apostle Paul prayed without ceasing. He didn't get it twisted. He knew that the solution to our frenzy is to humble ourselves in prayer and constantly refocus ourselves on Jesus, the source and center of all things and the holder of our hearts.
For something so difficult to get our stubborn and prideful flesh to do, the reality is fairly simple.
We don't leave room for Him to showcase His glory in our personal lives.
He is with you in your room, on the street, on the stairs. And He wants to help you in this life to do what you need to do, in order to be your "utmost for His highest".
Truly welcome the times He orchestrates your circumstances in order to get you alone to show you something. Stop exhausting yourself - stop fighting what He has to say and grieving the Holy Spirit. He knows that whatever He is going to show you is going to be of infinite importance to you, and it is our job to make room for Him.
What if we didn't ignore that check in our spirit, that whisper in our core, that urging that something shouldn't be done, that impulse to go to His word? Can you imagine what could be?
Could you imagine what mass amounts of healing could look like?
It starts with you. With all of us - being obedient, equipping ourselves, gearing ourselves up. Together.
I challenge you as well as myself today to not walk around as though you are going it all alone - but instead to turn each corner and type and text and think and breathe through your life as though the One who loves your heart is right alongside you and within you. Make it a daily practice to take the time for Him, yes - but also listen to Him when He says and plans the unexpected. He is much too awesome (literally awe-inducing), and your life much too precious to disregard.
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
(Matthew 24:35)
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"As servants of God, we must learn to make room for Him— to give God “elbow room.” We plan and figure and predict that this or that will happen, but we forget to make room for God to come in as He chooses. Would we be surprised if God came into our meeting or into our preaching in a way we had never expected Him to come? Do not look for God to come in a particular way, but do look for Him. The way to make room for Him is to expect Him to come, but not in a certain way. No matter how well we may know God, the great lesson to learn is that He may break in at any minute. We tend to overlook this element of surprise, yet God never works in any other way. Suddenly—God meets our life “…when it pleased God….”
Keep your life so constantly in touch with God that His surprising power can break through at any point. Live in a constant state of expectancy, and leave room for God to come in as He decides."
- Oswald Chambers, January 25th devotion, My Utmost For His Highest
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