I work out at the gym a lot. Its a brutal place, full of mirrors that are hard to avoid. My inadequacies are on display, taunting me.
But for me they serve an important purpose, confronting me with what I need to work on. Which can be best described as that which is located between my hair and my feet. I have a lot to work on..
And reading the Bible is like those mirrors. Presenting my reality, sometimes brutally.
Today I read John 15:7,
‘If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.’
BOOM!
There it is clearly exposed : my need to look after myself and meet my material desires, satisfy my ego needs, and forget, or at best give lip service to God’s will.
If I am in tune with God, like really seriously in tune, then what I desire should be closer to what God wants of me. Ditch the lip service.
So how to get in tune? [Enter John 15:7 stage left..]
To abide in God is to pray, to spend time with God. This leads me deeper into Him, to deeper reliance and stronger sense of confidence that I am doing God’s will.
And to have God’s words abide in me is to be drenched in the Bible, to find perspective and understanding to the sometimes chaotic and painful world around me.
Time to go deeper, to have a more generous commitment to prayer and Bible reading.
And the time is now.
WOW!
You are right on the mark -Mark, no pun intended. So few people get that verse.
I’ve seen a lot of people, Christian people take that verse and say, “see it says that I can ask for the desires of my heart and God will give me whatever I want if I believe it and not boubt.”
They don’t get that there’s a condtion to that statement, ie “if you draw near to me”,
so they treat God like a big Santa Claus, or Genie and ask for selfish things for themselves. That is what God says in the Bible as “asking amiss”.
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Thank you Mark. We as a family is taking a big step of faith. Literally walking on the water and trusting God for His provision.
The scripture is a reminder and a boos of faith.
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Thank you for your words of encouragement Pastor Mark, I am a young woman still trying to find herself spiritually and I never thought it would be so hard. What I know for sure though is that like in the gym I must take things slow then gradually grow as my body, well my spirituality gets stronger. I know that one day when I look into that mirror I’ll be proud of what I see.
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