Skip to main content

Seek...

             "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (Matthew 6:33) 

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ (Matthew 22:37)

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13) 

I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. (Psalm 119:10) 

          So begins my first day of getting my life back. There’s lots of reading, meditation, work, exercise, and writing to be done, and as usual, I’m both looking forward to it and dreading it. I’m hoping for big, positive changes, and resisting them. One of my brilliant ideas of yesterday is to begin to work through some exercises in a study guide to Renovation of the Heart and the first one has to do with the idea that Christian spiritual formation is a two-party task. It requires both God’s grace and work on my behalf and my work and grace on my behalf.

The passages I’ve chosen for today either reflect this two-fold concept or they focus on my side of the equation. I don’t tend to like teamwork. There have been too many times when I have ended up doing all the work, while the team took the credit, or that the team has been there as little more than witnesses to rubberstamp the desires of the leader. Or, at least, that’s been what I’ve noticed and remembered.

Neither of these is the sort of team talked about when one teams up with God but teaming up with God doesn’t let one hide and let Him do all the work while we anesthetize ourselves in our own way. It also doesn’t mean our getting to dictate in the relationship. That’s what the verse from Psalm 119 comes in. We have to seek. As we seek, God protects us from straying.

And instantly, a red alert (or at least a yellow alert) is going off in my heart. Am I expected to seek God’s input on every question? Do I have to ask His permission or advice about taking the dog for her morning walk? Do I have to spend the next 18 hours praying, or praising, or studying Scripture? Of course, I know the answers to these. I don’t have to do any of them. I can, and probably should, do all of them. But that’s the problem. I don’t want to take responsibility either for the decisions or for any less-than-perfect outcomes. I want to be able to blame without being blamable. Like Adam, I want at least two degrees of separation. “The wife…that You gave me…”

But, that’s not the goal today. Today, whether I want to or not, I choose to try to figure out how to do the seek…and find, and the seek…and be kept even as I at least consider stepping out and pressing onward, at least a little, somehow.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen!

  While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5)            Do you like roller coasters? I don't. You spend forever climbing a hill. You get to the top and have half a second, then you race down to a low point. Sometimes the racing down involves tying your insides into knots. At the bottom, you either have to be dragged up another hill or you get off the ride. Peter's life was a roller coaster from the time he met Jesus. There would be miracles, and then Jesus would teach things that didn't always make sense, and then they'd go out and perform miracles, and return to be taught. Peter was praised for giving the right answer to "Who do you say that I am?" Jesus said that said answer came from God. Peter was at the top of the hill.            ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Prayer Lists

                 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (I Peter 2:2-3)   In connection with what I wrote yesterday about the possibility that I’m wrong, I’m feeling the need to go back to basics - craving spiritual milk because somehow, I missed something. It’s a little embarrassing, craving milk like a newborn, but the truth probably is that we are newborns many times in many ways in our lives. From God’s perspective, we may never be anything more than newborns, forever needing that milk. On the other hand, being a newborn can also be exciting because so much is new. My mind is playing pinball - ricocheting from one idea to the next and through six more before it happens to hit the third again. The main topic is prayer. I have at least seven organizing structures all somewhat influenced by the movie War Room , which I’v...
Post a Comment
Read more