Wednesday, August 16, 2006

JUST DO IT!

I read several different blogs this past week and a common thread kept jumping out at me.
The concept of fellowship with God...communion with Him....maintaining our spiritual relationship with Him...
We have been taught well in our Christian churches....we know the rules...we should spend time with God every day...we should pray and read our Bibles....we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, which means we should attend church, right? We should witness ....we should, we should, we should...

We have high expectations of ourselves...and we try...we try really hard but we keep falling off the wagon...our schedules get mixed up, trials come into our lives that prevent us from maintaining our relationship with Him other than to cry out for help, we are extremely busy, we have families and jobs and situations to deal with and its just so darned inconvenient. We are tired...we are stressed, we are overwhelmed, we forget, ....or perhaps we are just plain lazy.
Can I get an "Amen?" :)

STOP!!

Did He not say, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light" ?
Did He not say "Draw nigh unto me and i will draw nigh unto you"?
Did He not say "Repent" which means simply turn?


This is the same Lord I serve...isn't it the same one you serve?
I think we forget that He desires our companionship more than we desire His. His love is greater...He is standing ready and willing to meet us anywhere, anytime...for an hour or a moment. This relationship with Him is, after all, about love...and lovers make time for each other...
All that is necessary is that we make a move...in His direction.

How hard is it to take 5 minutes..yes only 5 minutes as soon as you open your eyes to do nothing but be with Him. No knee bending praying, no exaulted praise and worship...just be.

How hard is it to write out a scripture...just one or two verses, in your own words and look at them a few times during the week....maybe breathe a prayer over them...

You'll be surprised to find how much difference just a few moments can make...
Of course if you feel the need to pray several hours daily, read chapters and chapters of scripture, listen to nothing but praise CDs or even take a weekend retreat to spend time with your Lord, I'm all for it...but really...is it truly necessary to work so hard to touch Him? To love Him?...Isn't it the small daily touches that keep us close to our families and friends? And by the way...this same principle (I hate saying that...so many people correlate principle with formula)...anyway...this applies just the same to cultivating relationship and fellowship with other believers...especially the fellowshipping together, of brothers and sisters with God Himself....
I know we love a good potluck or a night out with the gang from Sunday School and these things are good and are fellowship of a sort...on a human level...but if we want to begin to experience fellowship together with God....a totally different kind of fellowship...a spiritual one...it really isn't so hard....
Drop a sister an email encouraging her with that verse you've been looking at, share it together....meet for a quick cup of coffee and spend a moment praying together or stop by her job to say HI and offer a hug...

I have a few blogs that I read that encourage me often to simply DO SOMETHING...fellow bloggers read them in wonder and can not fathom how these bloggers continually seem to hunger after the Lord, or how they continually seem to grow in Him...they marvel at the depth and wisdom of these bloggers who seem to have found the secret...but they, the reader, don't see the secret. It is there...clearly in plain view....
What stands out about these bloggers who seem to have real relationships with their Lord is this one thing:
They DO SOMETHING about their faith. Perhaps they are ultra spiritual but I don't think so... in reality they are often driven by great personal difficulties to a place of dependence on their Lord and subsequently they have fallen in love with Him. They DO SOMETHING about their relationships with God and with His people. Practical, physical, simple exercises to touch Him and share love with Him... a walk, a drive, a break in their routine, they stay up a little later or rise a bit earlier, they forgo chores to grab a moment with Him...they meet with other believers to share their hearts and turn to Him in everyday experiences like dealing with children or spouses, nature or chores....

Could this then be part of the secret? Simply taking the time to be with the One you love?

The thing I am most convicted of right now is not that I should spend more time with God or work on my relationships in the body....
The thing I am most convicted of today is to JUST DO IT! Do something, do anything to turn to Him, either alone or with sisters/brothers in Christ, to love Him and Be with Him...to JUST DO IT! Its really very simple and can take only a moment...but I need to MOVE...I need to draw nigh...I need to DO SOMETHING....ANYTHING...to turn to Him....to make time for Him....to love Him.
...its simpler than we think...
JUST DO IT....

14 comments:

dille2@cableone.net said...

You are right - it is easier than we think but it takes being able to be in the moment which is not easy - think that is where we get hyng up...

TJ said...

I love your post today...I realized recently I had given up my quiet time alone with the Lord and had replaced it with ~~Horrors~~blogging!!!
I have now invited the Lord into my blogspace...superceeding all else...He is over all and I want Him to be a part of my day...before I ever visit anyone else...I visit my sidebar under Quiet Time and reflect upon His Daily Bread (word) for me today then I go to the prayer list..and pray for those that I visit that I list that request or need a prayer...I don't say this to toot my own horn...just as a way to share that He is important...more important than blogging...He loves every blogger I meet and I want Him to be reflected in me...through blogging. I am not very good at sharing like you spoke of other bloggers that are so eloquent, but I can pray...

Gigi said...

This relationship with Him is, after all, about love...and lovers make time for each other...


love this.....

Deb said...

amen amen amen and amen!
Great post!
I hope you don't mind that I've referenced your post on my blog today. It's just too good not to share!

Bar L. said...

Excellent post - I am one of the ones who needs to JUST DO IT. Thanks for such an encouraging post to motivate me in that direction.

Nancy French said...

Girl, you are preaching to me.

Tammy said...

Amen Sister!! Sometimes it is truly so hard to just get those five minutes...and I'm just as guilty some days as anyone, but it truly is five minutes well spent...and I believe God knows our hearts...He would rather have someone who will spend a heartfelt five minutes with Him than a hypocritical "look at the 3 hours I spent in prayer" person who is just doiong it out of pride...I'll get off my pulpit now...thanks for your post.

Anonymous said...

Your message touched me in so many ways...it inspired me to do many little things a whole lot more....thank you. You have motivated me to start a section on my side-bar of posts that have inspired me...yours is No. 1 :) Thank you for all your encouragement.

Bek said...

goooood thoughts.....i've heard this recently and so agree.....religion loves to talk about God but its not for today and it hates the word now.......life with God is really all about today and now. our lives are not our own. we can't afford to make excuses that we'll "do it" when we are better at listening or obeying Him. i preach to my own heart when i say, we just need to get over ourselves, and be with Him. love Him................thanks for wrestling with this.....what a subject...it is the subject isn't it?

Pat said...

Good preachin' today. You are so right we can "just do" what ever it is we want to, we need to want to draw closer to God..Just Do IT!

Mrs. Mac said...

Great post today. If we live in the moment and have God at the center of our heart, then we are "Just Doing It" without guilt, without "if only I could find the time" ... His Holy Spirit needs to be a running faucet from out heart that won't take a break and be shut off and turned on again when it's convenient for His believers.

Live, Love, Laugh said...

awesome post!!! without Him, I can do nothing! There is much wisdom posted here!

Vicki said...

Ah, yes, this really spoke to me:
...in reality they are often driven by great personal difficulties to a place of dependence on their Lord and subsequently they have fallen in love with Him

Circumstances and pain have often driven me to my Lord, and yet, even in the drawing near to Him, it takes His precious grace to get me there. It's all grace.

love ya,
V.

Amydeanne said...

I've been learning this too! Just do it.
What happens when you do it?

my day goes better (even when chaos hits)
my attitude is better
I just plain ol' feel better!

Amen sister!