“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3).
Sometimes I think we are engaged in prayerful tug-of-war
that goes something like this:
We look to the heavens and call aloud to Christ to come down
to us, to involve himself with our earthly issues: “Help me with my finances,
my family, my sickness, my discomfort, my fears, my loneliness, and my
halitosis.”
Meanwhile, Jesus is calling down to us saying, “Quit
worrying about those things and come be with me in the embrace of God. Come experience all that is holy, lovely,
beautiful, musical, peaceful, wonderful, and joyful.
“But I live in the real world,” we say.
“Reality (truth) is where I am,” Jesus says. “Come to me.
You’re weary and burdened. Take a rest with me.
Don’t wallow down there; come up here with me.”
“But I am wallowed
down here. This is my body, these are my responsibilities and struggles, and
they’re real.”
“But your true home is in heaven with me. Use your prayer time
to visit here with me.”
“How do I do that?”
“Ask me what I’m thinking about. Ask me what I care
about. Listen for the things I want to
say rather than what you want or expect to hear. Ask how you can get involved with my work
instead of insisting on my getting involved with yours. Or maybe you could just be quiet and be with me.
“There’s only one way this relationship is going, my child,
and that’s up.”
How true this is! We tend to pour out our concerns to Jesus, for the most minuscule of things, well - I certainly do. When things are going wonderfully, the first thought in my mind is unfortunately not to praise Jesus for my many blessings.
ReplyDeleteIt is a wonderful thing to be reminded to be an instrument for God's love and peace.
Debbie
Debbie, I've often marveled that Jesus told us we could move mountains but we'd rather stay with the small stuff.
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