I'm Not the Doggy Doo-Doo Person
In the midst of all the activity, all the things that we do each day, it is so, so easy to lose our first love. We can fall from that. We can be busy, even about things in the Kingdom. Busy even about the Father's Business, but not be in tune with the Father where it needs to be. It's possible to not be fully giving ourselves, not taking the time to be peaceful and silent and to have the time home to look to God and to love Him, not taking the time to cry out to Him, to renew our Friendship and our Love and our Adoration for Him.
"Our Father, we do love You. We see so many good things and they all seem to conspire against spending time with You and developing a relationship with You. Father, there are things from without - all the activities, the phone calls; the things to do that are very necessary and important. There are also things from the inside - there seems to be an inborn reluctance to turn to You, Father. It seems so strange, it seems so odd, but Father I know it is inside of me. At this time we put those things aside. We will not fall from our first love by Your grace. We call out to You. You are our Father; You are our God. You love us so much. You have done so, so many things for us. We could never tell you all the things You've done for us, there are so many. But we look to you, Father, and we ask that You will make things fresh and new. We ask that You transform us by the renewing of our minds and our spirit. Father, please get things into our hearts, not just our minds. Work Your life into us. We pray that we will be able to walk as Your Son did, and He was very busy; He had much to do. He was always about His Father's business, but He loved You, and He spent time with You, and He was always in touch. Our Father, as I see the sliding in my life, and for all of those to whom this applies, we come to You. We ask that You receive us and that You make things fresh and new with your touch. Please inject a little bit of heaven, divine life, into our lives. We do love You, our Father. Please draw us to You. We thank You that You let us know so quickly when things begin to drift and slide. We thank You; we praise You. Please renew these things. Amen."
Be Honest and Real
Don't let anything ever prevent you from being honest and real. Something I encourage everybody to do is never to give a false impression. No matter how much someone looks up to you, or how other people may perceive you to be. If there is a weakness, a struggle, a need in you for help, don't ever, ever let anything prevent that from being expressed. Give the priesthood a chance at washing and taking care of you, and loving and comforting you. Even rebuking you, perhaps. Whatever is required. Don't ever keep things bottled up inside. Not because of things that may have happened in the past, or the way your reputation might be perceived in the future because of what you might say. If there is weakness, hurt, or anything at all that somehow is on your mind, if it's troubling you and you need help, don't keep it bottled up inside. Don't ever do that. Learn from God. There is a time to keep things quiet as you are pondering and trying to come to grips. Don't ever let it be a lack or wondering about what others will think that keeps your mouth shut. Okay?
"He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust. Surely He will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. If you make the Most High your dwelling - even the Lord, who is my refuge - then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. 'Because he loves me,' says the Lord, 'I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges My Name. He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him My salvation.'"(Psalm 91:2-16). NIV
A Pilgrim Journey of Change
As I view the future and the passage of time, there is something that is so critical and so crucial. It is that as we go, there be something of eternal value, something that counts. The exterior things and the things of this earth, if you look at them from a worldly point of view, might get worse and worse as time goes on. Your income level might decrease and decrease. There may be many things like that. There may be more problems that you can deal with. Temporal things like automobiles, things to get fixed, or just details and things that have to get done. Those things may get increasingly difficult over time. As you glace back over a several year period, what you should look for in your own life, and what you should apply yourself toward, is God changing your life. The very God who created everything you see, who created you and your brothers and sisters. The God who is Lord of every aspect of everything that ever happens. Look for that God living in you and changing you from the inside out.
As a result of that, your life will change and you will get to know Him. There will be an increased sense of God. There will be knowledge over time, if you take time. Very infrequently would I advise that you take these times, to look back. But as you do infrequently take these times you can say, "My God has been with me and I've learned to trust Him. He truly is alive and He's convinced me of His love more and more. I've changed and I'm going on. This is a pilgrim journey and I'm in it for keeps. I know that I know that I'm in it for keeps. And I know that I'm willing to put things aside to follow Him, and to fall in love with Him. Regardless of circumstances, whatever it might mean." Things around you may look worse now than they ever have before, in terms of a worldly point of view. When I say worldly I mean the mundane things of life. You want to see God change you and you want to look back and know that your life has counted. By His grace there will be change. You're going on. Your citizenship is in heaven. There may be problems, but you're going on. You can say "I love my God, and my eyes are fixed. I will serve Him."
It's Faith That Overcomes
Part of the perspective of the tools that God uses to bring us down that path is something that I was talking with someone about recently. It was an analogy that I knew I couldn't keep from sharing too long, because it seems so appropriate. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. It's faith, even our faith. This is the victory that overcomes the world. The way to live that flawless life is from faith to faith. Not legalism, but knowledge of God's faithfulness, that He loves us. He is going to stand by us, and our heritage is Christ. Our heritage is eternal realms. If we have really made a covenant with God, if we really have given our lives to Jesus and come under His blood, if we have had our sins forgiven and been adopted into His family, then there is hope. It's that hope that doesn't disappoint. It's that hope that we have. It's that faith that we have in Him and the inner changes in our life and the knowledge of His faithfulness that gives us the strength to not sin.
I have been very unsuccessful being motivated by fear in my life. Sometimes it helps, and I'm not afraid of that. But I've realized that the thing that has made the most difference in my life for the long haul has been the knowledge of God's love for me, and His faithfulness to stand by me even when I fail. This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. There are a lot of responses you can have when you fall on your face.
This was the analogy I thought was so appropriate: We had a van packed with children driving away from the gym after basketball. All of a sudden, this odor overtook us. Someone said, "Did someone step in dog doo-doo?" Sure enough, that's what that aroma was, and it was smeared all over the carpet in the van. So we did a shoe check, and we discovered who it was. This wasn't a small thing - it was ankle deep. It was bad! Here's what happened: we discovered a problem. We discovered dog "doo-doo" in the car. Well, here's the response (there are a whole bunch of different responses, but you will recognize what I am saying). "Well fine then, if it's me that did it, fine then, I'll just walk home."
We have a problem here. We can solve the problem and go on if we are secure and we know where we are going, if in fact we have been bought by Jesus Christ, by the ransom. If we have been purchased by the Son of God, for Him to present to the Father blameless before His glorious throne. Then we messed up, something happened. We stepped in something, but we are going on, because our inheritance is secure. It's been purchased in a very secure way by the blood of Jesus, if we live for Him, if our hearts belong to Him, if we are married to Him. If we've made covenant with Him, then it's secure. But if we go away saying, "Well fine then, I must just be the dog 'doo-doo' person and you wouldn't want me around anyway," that kind of attitude is destructive. It's not faith from first to last. It's not the kind of attitude that will overcome sin to say, "Well I guess that's just the way I am, look what I did, aren't I terrible. I guess I'll just walk home now." As I look around the room, I've heard those words, "I'm just the dog 'doo-doo' person; I might as well walk home then." I've heard those words in a lot of different scenarios and situations. The alternative to that of course is to say, "I stepped in something, and it smells really bad, but let's clean it off and get on with it. Let's go. I'm secure because I know that my Father loves me and I know where I'm going. I made a mistake, but I'm not the dog 'doo-doo' person. I just stepped in something. It's not who I am, it's just a mistake that I made." I've found that my ability to go through a week without a lot of sin in my life has a whole lot more to do not with a commitment to not sin, as it does with just a peace and a security that my Father loves me. I have faith in Him; He's faithful. Let God be true and every man a liar, a verse brought out to us some time back that just keeps echoing. All right, so I stepped in something. I messed up, but I'm secure because of the blood of Jesus Christ. If He gave His son, how much more all things, as Paul said in Romans 8. I don't need to worry. I can adjust and change. That kind of grace in my heart doesn't give me license for sinning. Shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound? Certainly not, how ridiculous. But it's grace that makes the putting to death the misdeeds of the body possible. The grace of God appeared to all men teaching them to say no to ungodliness. It's grace that gives us the courage to go on and to live in freedom. Not the brutality to the flesh, but the grace of God and a gaze towards Him, if in fact we're in covenant with Him.