I left for work extra early this morning…I had a lot on my
mind and driving in the still of the morning seems to ground my thoughts. I had
a revelation about my readings while I was driving….some of you may get it
right away and some of you may have to take to your Bibles or the book Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado in
order to get this message; all I know is that the passage that I read is the perfect
summation of my spiritual awakening.
Max Lucado posed the question…Do you focus on your Saul’s
(persecution, trials, tests, negative influences) or do you see and feel you
Jonathan’s (comfort, covering, protection and care)?
I spent so much of my life trudging through my “woe is me’s.” I was accomplished but I never stopped to sit
in the moment. I was driven and constantly throwing myself into the next drama
looking at the problems and never the praise…..
Funny thing is that I never got the fact that the purpose of
the problem was to extract the praise. I was trying to avoid the situation;
priding myself in preemptive strikes. The question is (My Utmost for His Highest)
“Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is
to try you…” (1 Peter 4:12). If we do think the things we encounter are
strange, it is because we are fearful and cowardly. We pay such close attention
to our own interests and desires that we stay out of the mire and say, “I won’t
submit; I won’t bow or bend.” And you don’t have to— you can be saved by the
“skin of your teeth” if you like. You can refuse to let God count you as one
who is “separated to the gospel….” Or you can say, “I don’t care if I am
treated like ‘the filth of the world’ as long as the gospel is proclaimed.” A
true servant of Jesus Christ is one who is willing to experience martyrdom for
the reality of the gospel of God. When a moral person is confronted with
contempt, immorality, disloyalty, or dishonesty, he is so repulsed by the
offense that he turns away and in despair closes his heart to the offender. But
the miracle of the redemptive reality of God is that the worst and the vilest
offender can never exhaust the depths of His love. Paul did not say that God
separated him to show what a wonderful man He could make of him, but “to reveal
His Son in me…” (Galatians 1:16).
How was I living this out?
How ya livin”?
No comments:
Post a Comment