Dependent on God

Most of us live only within the level of consciousness - consciously serving and consciously devoted to God. This shows immaturity and the fact that we're not yet living the real Christian life. Maturity is produced the life of a child of God on the unconscious level, until we become so totally surrendered to God that we are not even aware of being used by Him. When we are consciously aware of being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, we have yet another level to reach - a level where all awareness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is completely eliminated. A saint is never consciously a saint - a saint is consciously dependent on God. ~ Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, November 15th

Seeing God

We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the growth of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God's appointed order. Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and everywhere. ~ Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, November 14th

Temple of the Holy Spirit

Have we come to realize that our "body is the temple of the Holy Spirit"? If so, we must be careful to keep it undefiled for Him. We have to remember that our conscious life, even though only a small part of our total person, is to be regarded by us as a "temple of the Holy Spirit." He will be responsible for the unconscious part which we don't know, but we must pay careful attention to and guard the conscious part for which we are responsible. ~ Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, November 8th

Because I am very health and fitness conscious, I always think of my body being a temple in terms of food and exercise. This was a good reminder that not only do I need to tend to my body as a temple of the Holy Spirit through healthy food and exercise, but that I also need to watch the things I put into my mind through the things I watch and read and the thoughts I "entertain."

Intimate Theology

From my Utmost for His Highest:

"Do you believe this?" John 11:26

Martha believed in the power available to Jesus Christ; she believed that if He had been there He could have healed her brother; she also believed that Jesus had a special intimacy with God, and that whatever He asked of God, God would do. But--she needed a closer personal intimacy with Jesus. Martha's theology had its fulfilment in the future. But Jesus continued to attract and draw her in until her belief became an intimate possession. It then slowly emerged into a personal inheritance - "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ. . . "

Is the Lord dealing with you in the same way? Is Jesus teaching you to have a personal intimacy with Himself? Allow Him to drive His question home to you - "Do you believe this?"Are you facing an area of doubt in your life? Have you come, like Martha, to a crossroads of overwhelming circumstances where your theology is about to become a very personal belief? This happens only when a personal problem brings awareness of our personal need.

To believe is to commit. In the area of intellectual learning I commit myself mentally, and reject anything not related to that belief. In the realm of personal belief I commit myself morally to my convictions and refuse to compromise. But in intimate personal belief I commit myself spiritually to Jesus Christ and make a determination to be dominated by Him alone.

Then, when I stand face to face with Jesus Christ and He says to me, "Do you believe this?" I find that faith is as natural as breathing. And I am staggered when I think how foolish I have been in not trusting Him earlier.

Impulsiveness or Discipleship?

"But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith." Jude 20
There was nothing either of the nature of impulsiveness or thoughtless action about Our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into a panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the lines of our own nature, not along the lines of God nature. Impulsiveness is a trait of the natural life, and our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple. Watch how the Spirit of God gives a sense of restraint to impulsiveness, suddenly bringing us a feeling of self-conscious foolishness, which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves. Impulsiveness is all right in a child, but is disastrous in a man or woman -- an impulsive adult is always a spoiled person. Impulsiveness needs to be trained into intuition by discipline.
Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on water is easy to someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is a something altogether different. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he "followed Him at a distance" on dry land. (Mark 14:54) We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises -- human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God -- but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people -- and this is not learned in five minutes.

Missionary Weapons - My Utmost for His Highest

"When you were under the fig tree, I saw you." John 1:48

We presume that we would be ready for battle if confronted with a great crisis, but is it not the crisis that builds something within us--it simply reveals what we are made of already. Do you find yourself saying, ""If God calls me to battle, of course I will rise to the occasion." Yet you won't rise to the occasion unless you have done so on God's training ground. If you are not doing the task that is closet to you now, which God has engineered into your life, when the crises comes, instead of being fit for battle, you will be revealed as being unfit. Crises always reveal s person's true character.
A private relationship of worshipping God is the greatest essential element of spiritual fitness. The time will come, as Nathaneal experienced in this passage, that a private "fig-tree" life will no longer be possible. Everything will be out in the open, and you will find yourself to be of no value there if you have not been worshipping in everyday occasions in your own home. If your worship is right in your private relationship with God, then when He sets you free, you will be ready. It is in the unseen life, which only God saw, that you have become perfectly fit. And when the strain of crises comes you can be relied upon by God.
Are you saying, "But I can't be expected to live a sanctified life in my present circumstances; I have no time for prayer or Bible study right now; besides, my opportunity for battle hasn't come yet, but when it does, of course I will be ready"? No, you will not. If you have not been worshipping in everyday occasions, when you get involved in God's work, you will not only be useless yourself but also a hindrance to those around you.
God's training ground, where the missionary weapons are found, is the hidden, personal, worshipping life of the saint.

The Spiritual Search

"What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will he give him a stone?" ~ Matthew 7:9
The illustration of prayer that our Lord uses here is one of a good child asking for something good. We talk about prayer as if God heard us regardless of what of our relationship to Him (see Matthew 5:45). Never say it is not God's will to give you what you ask. Don't faint and give up, but find out the reason you have not received; increase the intensity of your search and examine the evidence. Is your relationship right with your spouse, your children, and your fellow students? Are you a "good child" in those relationships? Do you have to say to the Lord, "I have been irritable and cross, but I still want spiritual blessings"? You cannot receive and will have to do without them until you have the attitude of a "good child."
We mistake defiance for devotion, arguing with God instead of surrendering. We refuse to look at the evidence that clearly indicates where we are wrong. Have I been asking God to give me money for something I want, while refusing to pay someone what I owe him? Have I been asking God for liberty while I am withholding it from someone who belongs to me? Have I refused to forgive someone, and have I been unkind to that person? Have I been living as God's child among my relatives and friends (see Matthew 7:12).
I am a child of God only by by being born again, and as His child I am good only as I "walk in the light." (1 John 1:7) For most of us, prayer simply becaomse some trivial religious expression, a matter of mystical and emotional fellowship with God. We are all good at producing spiritual fog that blinds our sight. But if we will search out and examine the evidence, we will see very clearly what is wrong - a friendship, unpaid debt, or an improper attitude. There is no use praying unless we are living as children of God. Then Jesus says, regarding His children, "Everyone who asks receives..." (Matthew 7:8) ~ From My Utmost for His Highest

Ouch! This one convicted me. I have been praying for a new job for a LONG time. This convicted me that I have not been a good employee where I am currently. I have spent too much time checking personal emails, reading blogs, and surfing the net while I am at work. So, if you don't see as many comments from me, please don't be offended. I am just working.

Prayer-Battle in "The Secret Place"

From My Utmost for His Highest:

"When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret. place, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly." ~ Matthew 6:6
Jesus did not say, "Dream about your Father who is in the secret place," but He said, "...pray to your Father who is in the secret place..." Prayer is an effort of the will. After we have entered our secret place and shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray. We cannot seem to get our minds into good working order, and the first thing we have to fight is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is overcoming this problem of our idle and wandering thinking. We have to learn to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful, deliberate prayer.
We must have a specially selected place for prayer, but once we get there this plague of wandering thoughts begins, as we begin to think to ourselves, "This needs to be done, and I have to do that today." Jesus says to "shut your door." Having a secret stillness before God means deliberately shutting the door on our emotions and remembering Him. God is in secret, and He sees us from "the secret place" -- He does not see us as other people do, or as we see ourselves. When we truly live in "the secret place," it becomes impossible for us to doubt God. We become more sure of Him than of anyone or anything else. Enter into "the secret place," and you will find that God was right in the middle of your everyday circumstances all the time. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless you learn to open the door of your life completely and let God in from your first waking moment of each new day, you will be working on the wrong level throughout the day. But if you will swing the door of your life fully open and "pray to your Father who is in the secret place," every public thing in your life will be marked with the lasting imprint of the presence of God.

My prayer life has not been great lately. I have my "quiet" time that is spent doing my bible reading, but I am not spending much (really any) time in prayer and silence before the Lord. I will start working on that even if it means setting a timer for 5 minutes to just get myself started.

Demanding Perfection

If we love someone, but do not love God, we demand total perfection and righteousness from that person, and when we do not get it we become cruel and vindictive; yet we are demanding of a human being something which he or she cannot possibly give. There is only one Being who can completely satisfy the absolute depth of the hurting human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord is so obviously uncompromising with regard to every human relationship because He knows that every relationship that is not based on faithfulness to Himself will end in disaster. Our Lord trusted no one, and never placed His faith in people, yet He was never suspicious or bitter. Our Lord's confidence in God, and in what God's grace could do for someone, was so perfect that He never despaired, never giving up hope for any person. If our trust is placed in human beings, we will end up despairing of everyone. ~ My Utmost for His Highest (revised edition), July 30th

Inside versus Outside

If I have never been an openly rude and abusive person, the only reason is my own cowardice coupled with the sense of protection I receive from living a civilized life. ~ Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (updated edition)

Yes, this is very true of me. I am little Miss Nice Nice because I am a people pleaser, but I can think lots of nasty and rude thoughts inside my head. There is a person that is in my life that I am friends with - one of those friends you wouldn't choose again, but just end of stuck with. She can be terribly rude, obnoxious, over-bearing, opinionated, proud, boastful, judgemental. But if you needed something, she would be there for you. I like to think that I am better than her because I am not those things. Truth be told, I am probably all those things, but I keep my mouth shut and try to be kind, gracious, understanding, and humble on the outside because I am afraid of what people would think of me.

Don't Fret

Today's Reading in My Utmost for His Highest is yet another in a long list that is particularly relevant for what I am enduring right now.

We've had several problems recently. They are mostly minor and wouldn't be a big deal if they hadn't all hit one right after another. Yesterday when the wrong color of oven arrived, I had had enough and I was down on my knees praying for the Lord to help me endure. I felt much better after that, because relying on Lord for strength is so much better than relying on myself.

Judgement

Do you have a copy of My Utmost for His Highest Yet? If you've been reading my blog for long, you know that I refer to it a lot. (Next year I will probably be reading Streams in the Desert again, so that will be what I am quoting then.)

Today's Reading said:

Who of us would dare to stand before God and say, "My God, judge me as I have judged others"? We have judged others as sinner -- if God should judge us in the same way, we would be condemned to hell. Yet God judges us on the basis of the miraculous atonement by the Cross of Christ.

Praise the Lord that He doesn't judge the way I do.

Heavenly Father, Help me to look at others through your eyes instead of through my judgemental ones. Amen.

Prayer List

When Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes. In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before! ~ Job 42:10

I read this in My Utmost for His Highest today. At one time I had a prayer list of people I prayed for every day. I can not remember the last time I went through that list and prayed for them. I opened it up today and prayed. I have updated it and moved it to an excel spreadsheet that I open every day so that I will see it and remember to spend time in prayer for others. If the Lord blesses me and restores my fortunes (thinking "provides me with a new job") that would be wonderful, but I already feel blessed because I prayed for someone else.

The Routine Life

No one is born either naturally or supernaturally with character; it must be developed. Nor are we born with habits--we have to form godly habits on the basis of the new life God has placed within us. We are not meant to be seen as God's perfect, bright-shining examples, but to be seen as the everyday essence of ordinary life exhibiting the miracle of His grace. Drudgery is the test of the genuine character...We all have those times when there are no flashes of light and no apparent thrill to life, where we experience nothing but the daily routine with its common everyday tasks. The routine of life is actually God's way of saving us between our times of great inspiration which come from Him. ~ My Utmost for His Highest

I love my routine life. I miss it when I am thrown out of my routine. My routine has been out of whack for a few weeks now due to our kitchen remodel. But we are getting very close to being finished. I am so ready.

The Lord is my Helper

My assurance is to be built on God's assurance to me. God says, "I will never leave you," so that then I may boldly say, "The Lord is my helper, I will not fear." ~ My Utmost for His Highest

I think I need to repeat the phrase, "The Lord is my helper," over and over and over again. I have lots of worries - not really fears - but worries. Not really even worries necessarily, but thoughts. I'm always planning in my head, what to eat, what to where, when to exercise, how to exercise, the grocery list, the packing list, the snacks for the car, the clothes to pack, the things to do at home, the things to do at work, the next thing I need to do, the thing I need to do in ten minutes, ten hours and on and on and on and on.

Having God's "Unreasonable" Faith

"Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." Matthew 6:33

When we look at these words of Jesus, we immediately find them to be the most revolutionary that human ears have ever heard. "...seek first the kingdom of God..." Even the most spiritually minded of us argue the exact the opposite, saying, "But I must live; I must make a certain amount of money; I must be clothed; I must be fed." The great concern of our lives is not the kingdom of God, but how we are going to take care of ourselves to live. Jesus reversed the order by telling us to get the right relationship with God first, maintaining it as the primary concern of our lives, and never to place our concern on taking care of the other things of life.

"...do not worry about your life..." (6:25). Our Lord pointed out that from His standpoint it is absolutely unreasonable for us to be anxious, worrying about how we will live. Jesus did not say that the person who takes no thought for anything in his life is blessed - no, that person is a fool. But Jesus did teach that His disciple must make his relationship with God the dominating focus of his life, and to be cautiously carefree about everything else in comparison to that. In essence, Jesus was saying, "Don't make food and drink the controlling factor of your life, but be focused absolutely on God." Some people are careless about what they eat and drink, and they suffer for it; they are careless about what they wear, having no business looking the way they do; they are careless with their earthly matters, and God holds them responsible. Jesus is saying that the greatest concern of the life is to place our relationship to God first, and everything else second.

It is one of the most difficult, yet critical, disciplines of the Christian life to allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into absolute harmony with the teaching of Jesus in these verses.

Living Simply

The people who influence us the most are not those who detain us with their ontinual talk, but those who live their lives like the stars in the sky and "the lilies of the field" -- simply and unaffectedly. Those are the lives that mold and shape us.

If you want to be of use to God, maintain the proper relationship with Jesus Christ by staying focused on Him, and He will make use of you every minute you live -- yet you will be unaware, on the conscious level of your life, that you are being used of Him. ~ My Utmost for His Highest

This reminded me of my mother. She was quiet and always working in the background. She served at our church, but didn't draw attention to herself. I'm not even sure most people knew of the work she did - preparing flowers (from her garden) for the altar, keeping the supply closet for religion classes organized and prepared, filling in for the usual organ player, allowing the priest to come over and use our washer & dryer and have lunch with us. I don't think my siblings ever knew that she would always attend Mass on their birthdays. She loved to do kind things for other people and I'm sure there are many lives she touched that I don't know about. I want to be like my mom.

The Habit of Having No Habits

When we first begin to form a habit, we are fully aware of it...until they become such a spontaneous expression of our lives that we are no longer aware of them. ~ My Utmost for His Highest

This is talking about godly habits, but it got me to thinking about my daily healthy habits. There are some things in my life that started out as a struggle to do every day, but now I just do them without thinking about it. There are still some habits that I am still aware of and have to work on doing every day, but here is a list of things that are no longer habits, but just part of my life.

Drinking at least 4 20 oz bottles of water
Journalling my food every day
Running the dishwasher every night and unloading it every morning
Making the bed every morning
Taking my vitamins
Taking the stairs instead of the elevator at work
Wearing a pedometer

Take The Initiative - From My Utmost for His Highest

"...add to your faith virtue..." 2 Peter 1:5
Add means that we have to do something. We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save nor sanctify ourselves -- God does that. But God will not give us good habits or character, and He will not make us walk correctly before Him. We have to do all that ourselves. We must "work out" our "own salvation" which God has worked in us. (Philippians 2:12) Add means that we must get into the habit of doing things, and in the initial stages that is difficult. To take the initiative is to make a beginning -- to instruct yourself in the way you must go.
Beware of the tendency to ask the way when you know it perfectly well. Take the initiative -- stop hesitating -- take the first step. Be determined to act immediately in faith on what God says to you when He speaks, and never reconsider or change your initial decisions. If you hesitate when God tells you to do something, you are being careless, spurning the grace in which you stand. Take the initiative yourself, make a decision of your will right now, and make it impossible to go back. Burn your bridges behind you, saying, "I will write that letter," or "I will pay that debt"; and then do it! Make it irrevocable.
We have to get into the habit of carefully listening to God about everything, forming the habit of finding out what He says and heeding it. If, when a crisis comes, we instinctively turn to God, we will know that the habit has been formed in us. We have to take the initiative where we are, not where we have not yet been.

Readiness

READINESS
"God called to him...And he said, 'Here am I'" Exodus 3:4
When God speaks, many of us are like people in a fog, we give no answer. Moses' reply revealed that he he knew where he was and that he was ready. Readiness means having a right relationship to God and having the knowledge of where we are. We are so busy telling God where we would like to go. Yet the man or woman who is ready for God and His work is the one who receives the prize when the summons comes. We wait with the idea that some great opportunity or something sensational will be coming our way, and when it does come we are quick to cry, "Here I am." Whenever we sense that Jesus Christ is rising up to take authority over some great task, we are there, but we are not ready for some obscure duty.
Readiness for God means that we are prepared to do the smallest thing or the largest thing--it makes no difference. It means we have no choice in what we want to do, but that whatever God's plan may be we are there and ready. Whenenver any duty presents itself, we hear God's voice, and we are ready for it with the total readiness of our love for Him. Jesus Christ expects to do with us just as His Father did with Him. He can put us wherever He wants, in pleasant duties or in mean duties, because our union with Him is the same as His union with the Father. "That they may be one, even as We are one."
Be ready for the sudden surprise visits of God. A ready person never needs to get ready--he is ready. Think of the time we waste trying to get ready once God has called! The burning bush is a symbol of everything that surrounds the person who is ready, and it is on fire with the presence of God Himself. ~ Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

I thought it was interesting that this was my devotional reading this morning, the day following my post about procrastination. I need to break this procrastination habit so that I can be ready for the things God wants me to do.