Lord may these days be consecrated to you for this purpose: to know you and to draw all men to yourself...
As this Spring Break is upon us, my thoughts turn to you all often. I hope and pray that this week you will find delight in the things all around you-the GIFTS that He places in people, environments, situations to stir your heart- for the purpose of knowing God intimately and bringing glory to Him.
Today I made the choice to not be critical or even analytical, but to intentionally seek out qualities to delight in, to be thankful for, and to worship God about. This lifts my spirit in a way that only God can do. I want to cultivate worship in every corner of my life and be a blessing to others. I want Him to fill the places that need His presence where I have been idle minded. I want to step out and expect Him to be there (He promises He will! Isaiah 43) and in the places that are lacking or even rebellious towards the presence of God to feel His heart beat for those places. I want temporal things in which I find delight to increase my affections for Him all the more, because every good and perfect gift comes from Him. (James 1:16-18) That which brings pleasure and sense-invigoration is HIS IDEA. He CREATED pleasure and He fashioned our physical senses and felt emotions, for His glory.
The question is, do I stop at finding pleasure in the "thing" or do I let it stir my heart towards worshiping HIM?
I find that life is lacking if I don't take that latter step. Thankfully there are many, many things to delight in, which reveals His pursuit of us even more. If I see life as anything less, I miss the relationship in it. It's not the delicious meal, a long awaited message or the deep conversation in and of itself that the soul craves (this will NEVER satisfy), but it's Him who made those things. Those are simply the open doors to encountering the Living God- the Person of all Joy, excitement, adventure, and infinitely more.
Unfathomable, unsearchable, uncontained, intentional.
He is capable of stirring in the tiniest things. He is not in the earthquake, or the fire, but the gentle whisper (1 Kings 19), but where we least expect it. Tune your eyes and ears to the Spirit around you. I pray you discover more than enough of these gifts in your week. He's calling you to Himself through the reflections of His true character in our daily lives in unexpected places. I hope that through you the hopeless and hurting world sees a God who loves them and who strategically places moments and people in their lives to show them that they are valuable to Him, ultimately pointing to the ONE moment in time where He gave HIS life for us. Like we talked about in our Romans 8 time- WHAT MORE COULD HE DO TO DEMONSTRATE HIS LOVE FOR US??!! You all are messengers of reconciliation- good news that CHRIST, in His death and resurrection, HAS MADE EVERYTHING RIGHT between GOD and MAN!
I hope you find time in this week to be still with Him. I acknowledge a holy fear of the One who has set this universe into motion and could stop it at any second. He is real and He LOVES you!
When I think of you, my heart grows and grows... and it causes me to worship Him as I consider the fact that He allows me to be a part of your lives... I am humbled, thankful, and blessed beyond words.
