For awhile I’ve felt stuck in a spiritual rut. No forward or backward progress just stuck. Neither hot, nor cold I’ve been lukewarm cocoa!!!
Three passages of scripture over time have helped to stir me out of my little slumber party: James 1:5-8, Romans 12:1, 2 and Genesis 4:1-8.
First, I was confronted by the pungent pronouncements of James. I couldn’t understand why God wasn’t speaking to me in clear and pronounced ways. Confronted by personal struggles and called upon to assist others in dealing with their dilemmas means a need to have the Lord on speed dial. But for some reason I seemed to have been eliminated from His friends list. Just about the time between bewilderment and total frustration God spoke powerfully to me through James. He revealed three things:
1. He is deeply interested in sharing His heart with me. It’s all there for the asking. He was prepared to pour into my life generously and shamelessly. (James 1:5)
2. The holdup was me. To hear Him I needed to approach with an undivided heart (vs. 6). Because of prolonged inattentiveness to God's will I'd unintentionally slipped into an attitude of, "Lord, show me what you want me to do... so I can decide if I want to do it or not." This attitude was having the effect of "quenching" the Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19)
3. He was refusing to bless me with more of Him, until I was absolutely sure that I wanted all of Him. (vs. 7-8)
More later…
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ReplyDeleteLately I have been in the same place, but just feeling like I no longer belong in the presence of other believers. I don't know what it is but, I just don't feel like I fit in anymore because of the mistakes that I have made. I believe it is my own guilt and shame that has placed me on the outside of his spirit...
But God continues to talk to me through his word, and even when I don't feel like going to church or Sunday school it's like he dresses me and pushes me out the door anyways. And it never fails...a word is always there waiting on me to receive it. So I have made up in my mind that if I just press my way through God will meet me on the other end!