devotional thoughts - Lent 2013 - day 16

I was thinking the other day about how tired I was feeling.  The thought came about a dull instrument, and how much better a sharp one did the job. 

So this morning, when it was time to get up and go to my class (Seeking Him: Experiencing the Joy of Personal Revival), I was still once again thinking how tired I was, but I got up (after repeatedly hitting the snooze, I might add!) and began getting ready to go.  However, I have learned my lesson and was not going to go off and running for the day without first doing my Lenten blog.

Actually, I had looked ahead at some of the devotionals before going to bed last night (it was around midnight).  I didn’t really sense that they were the ones I was to blog about, though.  It wasn’t until this morning - when I thought to just jot down something quickly and head off on my way - that God spoke.  I realized that I had neglected last night to check out the God Calling devotional (www.twolisteners.org) for today, and reading it made all the difference:

Spend more time alone with Me.

A strength and a Joy come from such times that will add much to your friendship, and much to your work.

Times of prayer are times of growth. Cut those times short and many well-filled hours of work may be profitless. Heaven's values are so different from the values of earth.

Remember that from the point of view of the Great Worker, one poor tool, working all the time, but doing bad work, is of small value compared with the sharp, keen, perfect instrument, used only a short time, but which turns out perfect work.

UPHILL

Does the road wind

uphill all the way?

Yes, to the very end,

Will the journey take

the whole long day?

From morn to night, my friend.

-- C. G. Rossetti

"And in the morning, rising up a great while before day,

he went out, and departed into a solitary place,

and there prayed." Mark 1:35

 

So I have altered my plans again so as to not just go to a class about seeking Him, but to actually spend time doing it.  In answer to yesterday’s devotional, to take ”the time to get to know Him today.”

The first thing is gratitude – grateful for His calling, His speaking, for allowing me to hear (in answer to my prayers, no less), for His Spirit ordering my steps, my time (all of which is in His hands, anyway), His timing.  Had I read the devotional last night, I may have tried to handle the time with Him my way – which probably would have involved sleeping longer and getting to time with Him whenever I woke up.    This way, I am awake and up and dressed and doing what I should be doing first (even as a tithe).

Secondly is repentance – for wanting to shortcut the fulfilling of my commitment, for even considering doing it out of duty / obligation rather than love.  Indeed, now I see where today’s My Utmost for His Highest (www.utmost.org) fits in:

’By this we believe . . . .’ Jesus answered them, ’Do you now believe?’ —John 16:30-31

.

Now we believe. . . .” But Jesus asks, “Do you . . . ? Indeed the hour is coming . . . that you . . . will leave Me alone” (John 16:31-32). Many Christian workers have left Jesus Christ alone and yet tried to serve Him out of a sense of duty, or because they sense a need as a result of their own discernment. The reason for this is actually the absence of the resurrection life of Jesus. Our soul has gotten out of intimate contact with God by leaning on our own religious understanding (see Proverbs 3:5-6). This is not deliberate sin and there is no punishment attached to it. But once a person realizes how he has hindered his understanding of Jesus Christ, and caused uncertainties, sorrows, and difficulties for himself, it is with shame and remorse that he has to return.

We need to rely on the resurrection life of Jesus on a much deeper level than we do now. We should get in the habit of continually seeking His counsel on everything, instead of making our own commonsense decisions and then asking Him to bless them. He cannot bless them; it is not in His realm to do so, and those decisions are severed from reality. If we do something simply out of a sense of duty, we are trying to live up to a standard that competes with Jesus Christ. We become a prideful, arrogant person, thinking we know what to do in every situation. We have put our sense of duty on the throne of our life, instead of enthroning the resurrection life of Jesus. We are not told to “walk in the light” of our conscience or in the light of a sense of duty, but to “walk in the light asHe is in the light. . .” (1 John 1:7). When we do something out of a sense of duty, it is easy to explain the reasons for our actions to others. But when we do something out of obedience to the Lord, there can be no other explanation-just obedience. That is why a saint can be so easily ridiculed and misunderstood.
 

OUCH – again!  But I am grateful for the correction, for God’s grace and mercy – that He is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse as I respond in contrition before Him, confessing my sin (1 John 1:9).
 

…and my journey with Him continues …