We stand
in awe of you
Amazed
at the things you do
You're Holy
Worthy is the Lamb
who was slain
for me
II Corinthians 6: 4
But we commend ourselves in every way as [true] servants of God: through great endurance, in tribulation and suffering, in hardships and privations, in sore straits and calamities,
What I know about being a Christian is that this title doesn't confer upon me ease. Actually being a Christian is far from easy. If Paul's life is any indication of what happens when you follow Christ, your life doesn't get simpler when you devote it to Jesus. My life is complicated by my relationship with God. There so much more I have to contend with due to the fact that I've chosen to follow Him. I'm aware of the fact that things often what they seem to be. I don't get to exist with blinders on. I see God in all things....and can I tell you its hard to see Him when its not marshmallows and peanut butter M&Ms? When I'm struggling, when I'm weary and weak and downtrodden and suffering...its hard to know that things my God could remove from my situation aren't going to be removed because they either 1. help achieve His purpose in my life, 2. make me a better person, or 3. bring Him glory. You know what I also know? I've never had it better than when I've followed Him because even in the middle of my storm, He keeps me. The more I trust Him, the stiller I become despite the chaos outside me. I think of being with God like being in the eye of the storm. Its not that there isn't a storm or destruction, even to me and my physical bodie and the things I love, but there's nothing but peace in my spirit.
II Corinthians 6:6-7
By innocence and purity, knowledge and spiritual insight, longsuffering and patience, kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in unfeigned love;
7 By [speaking] the word of truth, in the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand [to attack] and for the left hand [to defend];
Purity and clarity of intention are so important in my relationship. On more than one occasion, God has challenged me on whether or not the direction I'm praying in or moving in the the best one or has His highest purpose behind it. You know how you know something isn't wrong or even is an area that needs work but its not the most pressing? Sort of like how if your walls need to be painted and your foundation is cracking, you need a structural engineer more than you need a painter? Yea that's what I'm talking about. What I love about the Word here is the idea that knowledge and spiritual insight aren't left at the door in my faith. Many people ask how I can be a person of faith and of science and I say "I'm fairly smart and I know a whole lot BUT I also know exactly how much I don't know which is most of everything so I'm going to go ahead and believe there is a higher being cause logically, that's the only way."
I think longsuffering is such an interesting concept because suffering doesn't have to look like what you think it looks like. Suffering can look like joy because if you suffer for your faith, there's purpose there. I'm not saying by any means that all suffering has meaning or can have joy. I'm saying that joy is a choice in the face of suffering. I'm saying that knowing you're exactly where you're supposed to be, even if its hard, can be a happy. I do not like the city. I do NOT. But I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. I can't help but have joy....and patiently wait for my house on a 1/2 acre and my 8+ acre mountain vacation home. :-)
You know....when I think about the way being intimate with Jesus affects my life I think about how truth permeates corners of my life where it never was. I think about how my ideas and thought processes have changed as a result of His presence. The more places I let Him come into, the more truth there is in my life and the more truth I have the more love I have. I know that's a strange concept but hear me out. The truth about who I am and what God's called me to is His best for me. It is literally what He made and He only produces what is in Him: goodness, love, kindness, tenderheartedness, compassion, empathy, consideration. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I am His Beloved. Those place in me that allow who God is to shine through me...that's what letting God permeate my life has done for me and that's love. Its warm and gooey. Being able to know He made me, died for me, and wants relationship with me....thats sacrificial love.
II Corinthians 6:10
As grieved and mourning, yet [we are] always rejoicing; as poor [ourselves, yet] bestowing riches on many; as having nothing, and [yet in reality] possessing all things
Whatever I've thought God was doing, He wasn't. In time when I was mourning, I should have been rejoicing because what He was actually doing was for my good. I think sometimes we get so stuck in what we want that we forget that what we want might not be His best for us. I have to remind myself of that all the time. It was an interesting faith walk to be praying for a job and considering lying to people to get one and then I got an awesome one that didn't require me to lie PLUS I love my boss. I had to wait though...over a month for this opportunity. What was different this time was that even though I was considering doing something that clearly disturbed me (lying), He had the how already worked out and my job is so awesome. Like really really awesome.
What He's told me He's going to do, He's done each and every time in my life. What He's told me was His will for me, has come to pass. Trust...
II Corinthians 6:14,16
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers [do not make mismated alliances with them or come under a different yoke with them, inconsistent with your faith]. For what partnership have right living and right standing with God with iniquity and lawlessness? Or how can light have fellowship with darkness?
What agreement [can there be between] a temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in and with and among them and will walk in and with and among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
A long time ago, when I was first coming into the reality of who God made me to be, we were talking. The we here is me and God, and I said to God "I don't ever want to physically intimate with my wife until I know for a fact that she doesn't believe what we are doing is sinful. At no point in my relationship do I want to do anything that leads another person to sin. I want her to know this is worship, from the very first time to the last." The idea of a being in partnership where she believes God is frowning upon our lives and I believe He's blessing them is not something I can live under. I can't abide that. The God in me won't let me.
I'm constantly around people who don't believe like I believe and that's fine but to be tied to someone who doesn't believe what I believe wouldn't be possible. There's a certain level of openness to God that I operate in that can't exist in all spaces. As an active participant in my relationship with God, it is my literal responsibility to hold the space. Its not that I can't be tied to someone like that, but I know better. The people around me who love me and know me spiritually, wouldn't let me do such a thing. They know better too.
I am the living temple of my Holy God. I am His Beloved and He is mine. He lives in me. I live under grace. His unmerited favor is the fabric of my life. The truth is, even if I tied my life in some capacity to someone who didn't believe as I do, celibacy would continue until the light that shines into my life and through me lit up the darkness in them. Light always drives out darkness. Always.
II Corinthians 6:17
So, come out from among [unbelievers], and separate (sever) yourselves from them, says the Lord, and touch not [any] unclean thing; then I will receive you kindly and treat you with favor,
So I'd been praying about something and I really felt like this verse spoke directly to that. I love that about my God. My God always talks to me in fasting....fasting has been a way of life for me for a long time. What I also love is that I asked another question and got taken to the last verse of a chapter of Isaiah....they don't contradict but work in perfect harmony. He is with me. I love Him.
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