As a parent I get it. As your child walks down the path of life there are certain moments where you stand in their way, hold your hand out and say HALT! Then you look them in the eye, turn and point further down the trajectory they are currently on and proclaim...if you continue in this direction, bad things will happen. We can reason with them and educate them on what their course of action may look like, but in the end, some of the best education may well be them actually walking a little further and experiencing that misfortune or pain. We hope that the next time we stand in their path they will take us seriously, but that is not always the case. What we all want as young, cooing little children of God is... - God is Love (1John 4:8) We also connect really well with... - 13 You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. (John 14:13 NLT) After all these things are in the bible and early on, we read things like this and love the wonder and majesty and everything He is about. But the time comes when we actually start to think on our own again and we start to form spiritual sentences. We begin to walk on our own and this child that had this blind view of love all of a sudden has a way of thinking that clearly does not line up with the way holiness and purity are to be rooted in our life. So, if He could write a list out for you and show you the nature of your heart and the changes that need to be made you might just start to realize that He is going to be the one standing on your path, with His hand out shouting HALT! Now the shoes on the other foot. The part we struggle with early on are verses like... 23 Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. 24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. (Luke 9:23 & 24 NLT) For one, a verse like this is somewhat difficult to understand. To bad He couldnt speak on our terms, for if He did that passage would say...if you want to follow me, you have to stop thinking about you as first in your life. In fact, I would prefer you dont think of yourself at all, let me do that. If you will forget about you and let me use you to reach others I will stand before The Father and speak on your behalf as one of us. Here is where the real difficulty comes in. We want the God that loves us but we arent capable of making the changes that must occur in our lives all based on, God is Love, at least our view of that. The God is Love you are about to encounter will lovingly help you remove yourself from the bad influences in your life. He will lovingly take money and things away from you because they are blinding you from Him. He will lovingly take power away from you to allow you to see Him. This is what His word says and more often than not, we are so ill-equipped to process this one... 6 For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child. (Hebrews 12:6 NLT) How is this supposed to work? If you and I are going to follow Him BIG changes will need to be made. If you are prideful and we all are, that is going to have to be completely removed at some point. The only process by which that happens is replacing it with humility. Humility has a deep, deep depth to it. Like you might think you have been humbled by God and then He lowers you to an even deeper level. That is exactly why once you have your eyes opened to THAT idea, you can grasp this verse, one of my favorites from The Apostle Paul. 33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33-36 ESV) All of His ways are limitless and praise Him for that! Humility is a tough, tough pill to swallow, especially if you are trying to live in the world and follow God at the same time. We all laugh at the analogy of a slice of humble pie and yet He will be carving up piece after piece for each of us in order to change us. Because here is the newsflash...we cant stay the way we are and even more disturbing to our fragile egos, our version of the changes that need to be made are NOTHING like what He knows is necessary. Paul is shouting there...its deep, its deep! There will be pain and agony and even some suffering to following Him. Just as there is for those charged with being a parent. For those parents that do little to direct a childs ways, that is not love at all, but many would argue that takes a good deal of hate to just not care about your childs well being. He disciplines those He loves. We must be firmly rooted and not flimsy. We must have hard skin and be able to withstand the onslaught the enemy will bring to you. Friends will call you names. Family will stop speaking to you. Having barely enough money for groceries. All things that are very possible if you follow Him. And why, because just like a soldier int he military, we must be broken down to walk His path, as we hear this again and again as we follow Him...He disciplines those He loves. I will not say anymore. On my heart, now it is on yours...
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 12:36:35 +0000
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