“Rejoice in hope, be patient in affliction, be persistent in prayer.” Romans 12:12
Maybe this is just me, but I always kinda blew prayer off. I mean, I would hear the “pray ceaselessly” and I'd think, 'alright well that's easy! I'll just redirection my thoughts to God.' And I'd proceed to talk God's ear off, and never stop to talk a breath. My mind was always working, I was always thinking and “talking” to God, but I didn't stop to listen to what He had to say. But I had the petition part of prayer down perfectly! It's interesting that people often say I'm a good listener, yet I never had time to listen to God...
“Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think- according to the power that works in you- to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.” Ephesians 3:20-21
When I was reading that verse yesterday, the words that stuck out to me were “above and beyond” and “to all generations.” God is capable. No seriously, God is capable. God could make a unicorn! Not only could He make a unicorn in Jesus' time, He could make a unicorn in 2011 too. If He wanted to. (By the way God, I wouldn't mind a unicorn...) My point is, He has no limits. There's nothing He can't do. Yet we pray for big things and don't surrender them. We ask for His help and then we snatch the problem back. It's like we're walking up with a broken toy, He has the super glue, and we ask Him to fix it but as soon as He reaches for it, we grab it back and run away. And then complain that He didn't fix it yet... But oh, we'll grumble and lament how much this is growing our faith and we're sure God will work in His own time, yada yada. Yes. God will work in His own time. But did we really even give Him that time? He can't work with what we haven't given Him. We have to surrender first.
“For the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace.” Romans 8:6
So, this one was interesting. Because we pretend this life is so important. And it is, to some extent. But there's a certain balance we have to obtain. This life only goes so far, today only lasts so long, and tomorrow doesn't hold the answer. The answer is not in the world. The answer is in the Word. Because the mindset of flesh is death. We run our lives like it's a marathon, filling up the time with activities and routine, just waiting for retirement. Just waiting for that porch and swing. As if that were the goal! And then everyone who gets to that point turns back and tells us to enjoy our life, take joy in the little things, and don't let time fly by. So what do we do? We turn around and stuff our lives with even MORE activities. Quick, let's do this while we can, and hurry! Take a picture! There, now we can remember we took 2 seconds to stop moving and take that picture. Yippee.
“Youths may faint and grow weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength.” Isaiah 40:30-31
This verse gives me hope. Because honestly, I may be young but I'm out of shape. And I'm clumsy. So if I rely on my own strength, it doesn't get me far. Sure, my pride makes me try it anyway. And sometimes I succeed. But more often than not I fall flat on my face. But looking at examples other than yours truly, like the Olympic athletes, that I can understand. Those people are training constantly, they live for the competition. And God has more reliability than they do. Let's face it, if Olympic athletes can't beat God's strength, then we need to admit that we can't either. Macho or not, prideful or not. We can't. We are weak. But in our weakness, His strength shines through. My back may make me a lot weaker than other people, it may give me certain handicaps that others don't have. But when we look to God, we're all the same and He is still Superman flying in to save us. That is why He is amazing. Because He doesn't wait for us to say, 'Ok now it's your turn, I went this far....' No, sometimes He just bursts through the door, lifts the weight we were struggling with, and then turns around to hand us the gold medal. How cool is that?!
“I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them say: Blessing and honor and glory and dominion to the One seated on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!” Revelation 5:13
This is my last verse because it's awesome. How many times do we stop at a sunset, or a pretty flower, or the ocean, or a billowy cloudy day, just to think: “Wow. God did good today.” I'm 99.9% sure that if flowers had heads, they would be beating them against the ground. Because every day, every second, our eyes see something wonderful that God made. And yet we don't thank Him for it, or praise His handiwork. How much do we praise the talented artists, singers, painters, scientists, etc of our day? We spend years studying them! We spend year studying the information they gave us! But God has created every atom, and we don't stop to think about it except maybe every now and then when it catches our eye. It should catch our eye every second. Look at your hands. Study them! The veins beneath the skin, the bones, the joints, their touch, your fingertips, the lines and muscles in them. It's pretty amazing to think the same God who created those hands also loves us enough to give us taste buds, sunsets, flowers, feelings, intelligence, and unique character traits. He formed your hands. Every hair on your head. Every toe, His fingerprints on your toes. He molded your arms! And made sure your nose was just right...
My last note is just this, all of these verses are from a devo I was given called Jesus Calling. And it challenges you each day to listen to God every day. No distractions, no multitasking, no doing it on the go. Just sit. And listen. Talk some, listen some, praise some, maybe cry some. It's been tough for me at times, because I'm a huge multitask-er and my mind is always thinking of the billions of things I could be doing in a spare moment. But once you start taking an hour, every day, to just sit still and be in uninterrupted community with the One who calls you beloved, it's hard to miss a day. You begin to rely on that private time, and an hour is no longer enough. So I challenge everyone, just try it this weekend. Tomorrow and Sunday (church doesn't count as your Sunday hour), just read a few verses. Dwell on them, turn them over in your mind, empathize different words in them, and then sit and listen.
It's amazing what you might hear.
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