Obedience.

Eden,

Obey. A humbling command that any child has to wrestle with. The bending of the will to another who has your good in mind, whether or not you can comprehend that good at the time. This is where the rubber meets the road, where what you say you believe turns in to flesh and blood action in actual context. Do you obey? Then you really believe. To you disobey? Then you doubt who God says He is.  

The battleground is mostly in your mind, in your heart, in your soul. God is good. There is a flesh enemy inside you that will fight that statement in you every single day. If you soak in His love and goodness toward you every day, if it’s tangible to you, you will find obedience vastly easier. 

There are intoxicating worldly songs sung in culture that blur your spiritual sight and muddle your listening for love. Take the cold shower of the Word when you cannot think clearly. 

When you have walked together with God for some distance you will have experience as your teacher as well -- how His goodness and mercy have truly followed you all the dark and beautiful days of your life. Proclaim His goodness to the difficulty of obeying in front of you and you will find your will melting. 

Sometimes you will struggle with obedience like Jacob, your rebellious flesh wrestling with God the King. Putting the ugly side of your will on the altar for a living sacrifice -- what a pleasing thing to our Heavenly Father, who can then “trade our trash for treasures” as they say.

I have seen the dangers of not obeying. People in God’s family circles who live shameless sin and trample the very Son of God. They think somehow they have a ticket of forgiveness that allows their terrible distance from God’s rules for His household. Terrible is the wrath of God on those who belittle His Son’s precious sacrifice, dragging His Name through the mud, leaving a bad taste in the world’s mouth for Christ-followers.   

There really is no such thing as two-faced spirituality or riding the fence. An active life of willful disobedience is not a Christian life. The faithful, too, fall to be sure, sadly, pitifully, shamefully; it is not perfect obedience that brings you to Christ. Christ comes for sinners. But when Christ has touched someone, they develop a deep distaste for the rubbish they used to crave.  They cry out in their deepest center for the Spirit to work in them a heart that follows hard after God and to produce in their hearts a delight in following God’s laws. For there is the real freedom. 

You want to be like your momma, and your momma wants you to be like Jesus. Holiness is to look like Him inside in a way that flows outside. Christ is holy. He won’t be with active unholiness; if you say no to God, if you stiff-arm Him -- you are at a stand still  with your Creator.  He won’t gloss over your behavior and tell you it’s ok. He stops talking, stops growing, stops working for you -- and starts working against the idol in your life. Those are scary days, when He will do whatever it takes to bring you back to Him. He is the greatest Enemy of all, in front of which none can stand. 

Do not be deceived little one. Do not forget the grave await us all. Live in light of that day. Many bear the Name, but many of these will not be recognized by Him, by the impartial Judge who sees all things.  Jesus requires all of you; in turn He gives you all. Just as in a strong marriage, there is a possessing of the other in every way -- this is Christ’s call on His precious bride. He loves her too much to let her destroy herself so He makes good laws to follow. If you are not an obeyer as a habit in the hard things, child, you are not led by the Spirit -- and with no Spirit you cannot call yourself one of Christ’s. 

You can trust Him. His rules weren’t meant to be broken; they were meant for fullness of life and rewards here and to come. He has wonderfully good things for you and He wants to make you wonderfully good. Your obedience delights His heart and brings the warmth of familial joy. Walk this path along with me, Eden, the path of His love.

Love,

Momma

“God is always good. 

And you are always loved” -Ann Voskamp

#1: Give

“…give, and it will be given to you.  Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put in your lap.  For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”  Luke 6:38

Searching back through my 23 years of life, the biggest rushes I can remember have come from when I’ve given something away.  ‘It’s more blessed to give than receive.’  This is true in the literal sense, but you can only taste the blessing when you take the risk and give.  The more I give, the more Jesus gives me.  And He always gives way way more than I ever gave, and not in a way I’d expect—it’s better than I could have hoped for.

Greed creeps in like a roach.   When I break the habit of regularly giving things away, I’m leaving my front door wide open to all sorts of nastiness wanting to get in.  But Jesus’ power is better and brighter than sin.  When I give, greed is defeated—banished from the house.

I wonder if the Lord asks us to give so we can interweave our lives together with other people and build our trust in Him through the gap.

2 Corinthians 8 talks about the Macedonians, who were in ‘extreme poverty’ and yet gave Paul way beyond their means, and begged him ‘earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.’  Later it says ‘they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to [Paul’s group].’  Radical.  

Let’s be a family who gives radically to other people, and even more radically to the Lord.  Let’s give every ounce of ourselves to Jesus.  Wouldn’t that be a great way to live?

Prayer

O little one,

How prayer is like breath. In and out. O God You must do this... I cannot make it without Your help in this... I surrender to Your will in this... Before each moment of decision, each difficult encounter, the Lord is ready to be Your strong Help at your task. 

He takes your daily mundane to a new significance as you offer it to Him, He takes your difficulty and works miracles before your eyes, He takes your emptiness and brings forth glorious somethings from the nothingness. If you feel dry and weary, pray. If you feel aimless and worthless, pray. He is the Source of Life everlasting in life tangible. 

Prayer is aid to a soul fragmented and bleeding from self-inflicted sins. It is connection to regeneration of the realest kind. It won’t necessarily feel this way as you do it -- but in the highest reality it is doing all these things for you and as you look back it will be undeniable. 

I think the lack of feeling during the process is the test of faith: how much do I really believe these things? how much will I push through to gain Him and His blessings? 

Your daddy likes to say that the spiritual reality is the highest reality. If only our spiritual eyes were open all the time to the fiery chariots in the fields we should be constantly crying out and praising, like the saints in Revelation. 

Your Grandpa Dean preaches on the Lord’s Prayer and for as long as I can remember he has spoken of the power in those lines to produce a prayer-life. 

Daddy God -- affection, delight, kindness, patience with my weakness; 

who is in heaven -- glorious, beyond imagining, unlimited resources and goodness; 
hallowed be Your Name -- precious to me, the most beautiful and treasured thing in my emotions, will and life; being seen as greater and more awesome all the time; 

Your kingdom come -- reign in all I do, submit our surroundings to Your hand that we might have true joy and delight; come King of kings; 

Your will be done -- my will curses and kills my life; Yours is good beyond all we could ask or imagine; 

on earth as it is in heaven -- let our home be a little heaven and light to the world of Your love; 

Give us this day our daily bread -- I am a spiritual beggar, I have nothing that has not been given to me by my Generous God.

Forgive us our debts -- I owe You, infinitely, terribly. To see things rightly is to be on my face before You for Your pardon of my impossible debt.

as we forgive our debtors -- i have no claim to hold on others in light of Your gift of grace; make me quick to let love cover a multitude of sins; before the cross we are all the same. 

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one-- I am a sheep, prone to stupidity and gullibility for the bait of the Enemy; let my heart be hard after Your steps; let there not be a pace between us, Kind Shepherd.

Journal prayers.

Pray with praise music.

Pray while running. 

Don’t hold anything back in conversation with God. He knows anyway. 

Pray with friends. 

Pray with praise at the forefront of your mind. It will ease anxiety.

I want to learn to live so that to see someone is to pray for them. 

-Laubach

Pray and let God worry. - Martin Luther

Every time you pray, good things come that would not have if you hadn’t prayed.