http://www.myutmost.org/09/0919.html
Do You Continue To Go With Jesus?
Luke 22:28
“Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations.”
Key Passages
- We wear His badge, but are we going with Him? “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him.”
- The temptations of Jesus continued throughout His earthly life, and they will continue throughout the life of the Son of God in us. Are we going with Jesus in the life we are living now?
- We have the idea that we ought to shield ourselves from some of the things God brings round us. Never! God engineers circumstances and whatever they may be like we have to see that we face them while abiding continually with Him in His temptations.
- Do you continue to go with Jesus? The way lies through Gethsemane, through the city gate, outside the camp; the way lies alone, and the way lies until there is no trace of a footstep left, only the voice, “Follow Me.”
I think the first point hits me the hardest here. "We wear His badge, but are we going with Him." Kinda conjures up the imagery of the crusades to me. I'm a member of the "God" party, thinking I am doing what He wants, or maybe just doing what I want and saying that it's God who really wants it. Did I stop following Him a long time ago, go home, and now I am just telling my buddies of all the great stories I have with my buddy God? I know this is where I am at quite often. I have been convicted lately of my own attitude, and in my being a part of the church body and family. I quite often think I am just there to get my weekly dosage of God, then I am off to my week with no more change of attitude or life than I had before I got to church. Did I gather there to worship a God whom I say I love, or was I just serving myself? It positions me in the place of being an enemy of the God I like to say I serve. It's a scary thing to say out loud that you are an enemy of God. But that is the position I am putting myself in when I just get in His way. That is my temptation... to float through life comfortably never taking God seriously. Then I wonder why I struggle with feeling loved and validated, and worth anything to anyone. The enemy has me so deceived into serving and looking after myself that I don't even want to look up and around or anywhere away from myself. And when people don't look after me the way I want them to, I think they don't love me. When that somebody else is God, and I think He is ignoring me, I think He doesn't love me. This in spite of me knowing that He loves me much more than I could understand.
So Father forgive me for being a self-centered, self-worshiping individual. God help me to take my eyes off myself and look around at others who may have a need I can be used by you to fill. Forgive me for being your enemy.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteYou're not a self-centered individual, and it is not your fault that you go about your week in stark contrast to your weekend spiritual experiences. You have adapted to your environment - your weekly life. No inspiration of a higher being will magically shake you out of said adaptation. It is simply the way things work, and you should not feel guilty about it, as long as you do what you know to be right.
First off, I don't know who Mike is. But if you want to call me Mike I am cool with it. Secondly, I'd have to disagree with you. I am a self-centered and selfish person. It was never more apparent to me as when we had kids. Having kids will show you real quick that you are a selfish person. Finally, I don't feel bad that I am working a normal work cycle. I understand how the world works and that I have a full time job (of which I am thankful) that I have to be at 5 days a week, then I have church on the weekend. I understand that cycle of events and I don't feel guilty for that. What I realize is wrong with me though is that I attend church to connect with God, whom I believe in, but I put no effort into the communication between He and I. It'd be like putting no time into a marriage relationship. Sooner or later, its going to fail. And believe me if there is one thing I will never adapt to, its my weekly schedule. Things are always to crazy and changing to adapt to. And if I believe in the "higher being" I say I believe in, then I also believe that His Spirit of inspiration can shake me out of any drought I may enter into. I've seen it happen.
ReplyDeleteJust my piece.