"One Thing Remains"Jesus Culture
Higher than the mountains that I faceStronger than the power of the graveConstant through the trial and the changeOne thing… Remains
Your love never fails, never gives upNever runs out on me
On and on and on and on it goesIt overwhelms and satisfies my soulAnd I never, ever, have to be afraidOne thing remains
In death, In life, I’m confident andcovered by the power of Your great loveMy debt is paid, there’s nothing that canseparate my heart from Your great love...
Have you ever gone before the Lord with a waiting heart? This is one of the rare times that I enjoyed the wait of something. It is normally in the waiting that we get rather annoyed and impatient because we want things right away. What do we really get out of that though? What good comes out of something rushed? I really cannot think of examples that glitter with excitement that took no time to become something.
Our waitings in our relationship with Christ are probably the most beautiful things. It is something that we can say we are staying still in but yet we are moving forward all at once. God has marvelous ways of working in our lives and that is His main intent. He wants us to know that yeah He does know what is going to happen but we are to still come before Him with requests. Our relationships with Him would be nothing if we sat back and watched Him do everything so things planned out perfectly.
It has been in my waiting that Christ has shown me how messy things are. I am so use to things being in order and making sense. He has a totally different plan for me. My mind has changed on what I want for my career and my thoughts. This past week God has finally cleared away the fog from my mind that has been sitting there for a year now. It is so confusing to know where to go when you feel as if you are not getting any direction. The thing is, you have to be looking to receive direction in order to get it and use it. God is always there even when we aren’t. Isn’t that crazy to think how many times we push God to the side thinking it is harmless but yet it is how we feel when we lose touch with a good friend. It is the same principle! We need to realize that WE HAVE ABANDONED our God!
2 Corinthians 1:21-22 states “It is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us, and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything he has promised us.”
We often focus too much on the wait that we fail to realize that something remains there the whole time. Christ. Christ is the ONLY thing that will remain when we don’t stand firm. He has enabled us to be able to with stand anything for Him. So why is it so hard to stand firm for our commission? Because everything in this world suppresses and avoids the idea of a father in heaven. We must not fall into this lie because God has called us His own by putting the Holy Spirit within us. He promises us things that no boyfriend or even parent could ever bring us the glory that Christ gives us.
As I had mentioned before, God has finally lifted the fog from my eyes these past few days. This revelation is something that I have been waiting for a while now. It took a couple steps to get to the better state I am in now.
1) Sitting in God’s beauty in silence. Don’t bring anyone or anything (No Electronics!!) and just sit there. The amount of awareness and peace I gained from this was outrageous. I have never gotten this much breath from my quiet times with the Lord. For once I was able to just breathe. Just to live through Him. The one problem I have found is that believers fail to see that we can take that time to not be surrounded by other believers. God wants alone time with you and you only. He loves you so much and He actually gets jealous when we give our hearts to the things and ways of this world. Give Him the time He has made for you because the things you will find out in the silence is more than you hear in the noise.
2) Relief prayer. Praying can be a difficult thing when we are praying for things that are constantly asked for. It becomes dangerous when our prayers say “Lord help me…” a lot. We should be asking God to move through our lives and not make it sound like we are running our own lives. Our relationship with Him is a lifestyle and something that is to be constant. This love calls for a constant and daily conversation with the Lord.
3) A changed lifestyle with different actions through growth. As I look back through my journal I realized it is all marked up and I tell myself there is no way I was not under the hand of the Holy Spirit. The Lord was in my life this whole time when I thought I was not with Him. Those journal entries are something we call a relationship with Christ. A relationship is a two way street and when it involves the Son of God and a human it can get rather rough. Our relationships with Christ are not meant to be all rainbows and butterflies. It is okay to be confused!! Things actually don’t have to make sense 24/7 and if they did then what would we be pushing for? Change in our lifestyle is through growing. In order to grow you have to experience things that don’t take you the way you planned. If we don’t learn and experience then we will only know one way and we will always assume that is right.
These next few weeks focus on what your fog is. What is holding back your eyes from seeing what your next step is. For me, it was taking time to step all the way back to the root of the problem. In a matter of 20 minutes my mind was cleared and I was given the avenue to see the Lord’s face again face to face. My prayer of relief was clear and reached the Lord. Instant grace and relief had taken over my heart. The path and ideas on which I was following had taken a change. My heart screamed to help those around me back home to be able to talk to someone about our Father. I was given a job that I had all the chance in the world to do back home for 18 years. It took me moving to a different state to realize that God has been speaking to me this whole time. I realized that I could sit back and put shame on myself for all the time I have wasted or I could act. And I am acting. It is not easy but then yet it is worth it. So what are you acting on?
Consider the following passages for reflection times this month: Psalm 77Galatians 5 Ephesians 6:10-20 Philippians 3:12-21 2 Timothy 2:1-14 Hebrews 4:1-13 Ecclesiastes 3:1-15
