It is so good to be back at the keyboard writing from my heart. Not that I haven't wanted to be here it is just so many other things were taking priority.
I know you are wondering where I am going with this title, so I will begin.
Over a year ago I was laid off from my last job.
I have always had a love for the Lord, but when you end up not having a job after having worked for so long you get to see your "faith in action" as it were.
I mean, I knew I loved Him, I knew I trusted Him and I knew that His word was "Yes" and "Amen" but I had never really had to put it to the test.
So many times that is what happens, life comes up and bites us, death of a loved one, loss of income, major accident, and we have to decide are we who we have confessed for so long or is it a lie.
I determined in my heart that I was going to walk out all the things that I had been confessing all my life.
I believed it to be true. I confessed it to be true.
There was something in my knower, that part of me that is where peace reigns, that knew God had this. He always had and He always would.
I took time to really start reading my bible and spending time with God. I didn't make a wish list with God, but I started asking Him to reveal Himself to me. Show me where I should walk, show me what I should say, how I should behave. I wanted Him to reveal Himself to me in a deeper way.
I started seeking Him in everything. Not just in getting a job but in every aspect of my life.
I knew I had to look for a job, but above that I wanted to look for Jesus. His word tells us to seek Him while He may be found. I wanted to do that. I didn't want a surface relationship with Him. I wanted to go deeper with Him.
I wanted to pour gasoline, for lack of a better explanation, on the embers that were the still burning for my Lord. I didn't want a love that was a flame, I wanted a burning inferno. I wanted a love that was so on fire for the Lord that it singed the very hairs off of the devil any time He tried to get between me and the Lord.
I wanted to get to know Him, get to know all about Him.
I started reading my bible. Every day. It has gotten to the point where if I get up running late I still have to read at least one chapter before I feel like I can really begin my day.
Instead of TV time in the mornings I started turning off the news and turning on the Good News.
I know we have all heard "You are what you eat." And although I believe we need to be informed of what is going on in our world, we can't hide from it, we have to be equipped to deal with it.
His word is the ammunition we need to combat the fiery darts that Satan throws at us. He equips us daily as we walk in it, study it, read it, devour it. It never goes out of style. It reminds us of how we are supposed to be living.
I think of my kids and my grand kids.
We would tell our kids not to do something and for a while that would bode in there lives. But without a reminder here and there they were and are apt to fall back into old habits of not picking up there toys, fighting with there siblings, sitting too close to the TV, etc... But we remind them and with gentle persuasion from a quick swat on the behind they fall back into line.
If we are not around them to remind them as a constant, then they, being the little human beings that they are, would do as they pleased. Oh they might think about what we said but that would not always keep them on the straight and narrow, they might even feel bad for doing it, but it would not necessarily keep them from doing what felt right to them and not what you had been trying to teach them.
That is the same way with the word of God. If we don't read it and remind ourselves of the reasoning's that the Lord has laid out before us then we tend to forget to "Be kind to one another" or that gossiping and lying, even little white ones, gluttony, and even the innocent things such as seeking out your horoscope to find out what the future holds for you, are things that are a displeasure to God. We get complacent.
We sing the song "I keep falling in love with Him over and over and over and over and over again. But do we really?
Have you let the trials and tribulations of this world come between you and your first love? Are you finding that you only have a surface relationship with the one you say you love the best? Has it become a ritual and not a relationship?
If I could give any advice to young mothers would be to seek the Lord everyday. If it means getting up a half hour before anyone else and spend that alone time with God. Let Him minister to you. Seek Him and His wisdom for the day. Learn how to love your kids the way He loves you. To call their names out every morning and dedicate them every day back to the Lord. You have got to get back what the devil steals from you throughout the day. Start it with His peace and the devil gets no place in your home. Put Him first and you will find that your days get sweeter and sweeter and you will find peace that passes all understanding. Even beyond reasoning.
Oh I pray that we would find the time to spend alone with Him. That we would be still and let Him minister to us. That we would seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. That we would get up in the morning and get clothed in His righteousness. That the armor of God would begin to fit us like a glove. That we would get to know His heart and His desires for us and that we would delight in them. That He would reveal Himself to us and shine His light in our life in the crevices that we try to keep hidden.
When He starts to do these things in our life we may realize that it is not all fun.
He requires of us a deeper calling. A deeper walk.
Those of us who have known the Lord for a long time should not be the ones still sucking on the bottle. We should be ravenous for His word, for His teaching, but we can not hold on to the things of the world, to our past, to the things that we think we have hidden from those around us and have a walk that is worthy.
I want a walk that is deeper, fuller, richer. I want Him to reveal Himself to me in ways that I never even thought of.
My prayer, for myself, dear Lord, is that I get to know You, get to know all about You.
