Routine matters

What does the Lord your God really want from you? The Lord your God wants you to respect him and do what he says. He wants you to love him and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. So obey the laws and commands of the Lord that I am giving you today. These laws and commands are for your own good. (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)

I like it when scripture actually poses the question and then follows with a very clear answer. There is nothing vague about what God wants from us, is there? Love him! Give him your entire heart! Serve him from the heart! Put you entire being into your actions of obedience! Do what he says all the time, not just when it pleases us. Pretty plain instruction indeed.

How does one show respect for God? It begins by getting to know who he is and then it continues as we step out in obedience to the things he asks of us. It begins by listening - really paying close attention to his still small voice. As we recognize his power and his sovereign rule over all things on this earth, we soon begin to submit to his authority or leadership in our lives. We willingly allow him to lead us.

Respect for God involves what we do with our heart and our desires. Does our heart reflect we hold all the control or does it reveal an intense desire to let him control the direction of our day? The truth of who is in control is most evident when we look at what we do with our time and where it is we place our attention. If the majority of our time is "our own" without any attention being placed on him at all, we are likely in control.

The more we relinquish control, giving the first priority in our lives, the more we will realize an exchange of power - ours for his. We might still have very routine daily stuff to accomplish, but we do it with a different focus. We feel his presence and we see opportunities to be his hands and feet even in the routine. God is in the routine, not just the supernatural! He uses people doing routine things in his love and grace to actually change a hurting world. Respect him by being willing to allow him access even into the routine. You never know when God may turn the routine into the SUPER in our day. Just saying....

Stirred and Spoiled

Even if you have never been "in love" with that special man or woman in your life, you likely understand this statement - where the heart is, there is your focus. If you have ever been in love, you might understand what I am about to say - no one else captivates your attention quite the same as the one you hold in that place of closeness deep within your heart. Over the past several days, I have felt God directing me to focus on my heart. As most may recognize, to teach, one has to be taught. Therefore, if you are picking up on anything in my blog, you are likely to know God is continually dealing with my heart, attitude, and commitment. In turn, he is dealing with my focus. How about your focus? Is he dealing with yours, too?

Your profile turns all heads, commanding attention. The feelings I get when I see the high mountain ranges—stirrings of desire, longings for the heights—remind me of you, and I'm spoiled for anyone else! (Song of Solomon 5:7)

I love this passage because it speaks of what "stirs" God's heart - his kiddos - you and I - we stir his heart! When he looks upon us he is "spoiled for anyone else"! No one else captures his attention like us - no one! I wonder if we can say the same about our own hearts - that no one else captures our attention quite like him? If you have ever read through the Song of Solomon, you may have been a little uncertain about the meaning of it because it is kind of a love story plopped right in the middle of the Bible. I know most of our Bible is not written in chronological order, but when it was constructed in the typical 66-book outline from Genesis to Revelation, I think there was a specific design in placing the Song of Solomon right where it is. Think about it...

Genesis through Deuteronomy encompasses the creation of mankind, the tenderness of God to care for his creation, and the redemption of a people who would ultimately be the delight of his heart. Joshua through 2 Chronicles outlines the struggles of putting down roots in a land which was not their own. Ups and downs are recorded for our learning - lessons on the hardships of disobedience and the blessings of remaining true to your first love. Then comes Ezra and Nehemiah - hope for rebuilding what was lost in times of disobedience. The message of redemption rings true once again. Esther bespeaks the lessons of obedience and submission. Job the testing of faith and the blessings of steadfast commitment. Then we launch into the Psalms - praises and prayers designed to show us how living in the presence of God affects our lives. Proverbs and Ecclesiastes presents practical messages of living uprightly, making right choices, and learning how to control what otherwise might control us.

Then along comes the Song of Solomon. A book of intense love - the captured thoughts of two so in love that the connection of heart is almost palpable to us as we read those passages. All along, God has been directing us to this point - the connection of heart, not just mind, not just body - but our entire being - mind, will, and emotions settled upon him and within him. The following books from Isaiah through Malachi cement the idea of a life without God as being void of substance, bound by the very thing we'd hoped would have given us liberty. They bespeak the message of a heart grown cold - the first love lost or squandered. We don't even need to outline the message of the New Testament - the word "new" bespeaks it all. God gives what man cannot - a new heart. 

The feelings I get when I see the high mountain ranges—stirrings of desire, longings for the heights—remind me of you, and I'm spoiled for anyone else! God looks upon us and he is stirred with desire. Desire to provide what will make us whole again, completing us in every good and perfect way. If you read the rest of the book, you will see times when it seems like the two lovers are never separated, followed by the times when there seems to be a huge distance between them. Isn't this the way of our walk with Christ? Times when we just cannot get enough of him, followed by times when it seems like we are a little distant from each other? When God looks upon you, his heart is stirred. When he sees your obedience, his heart is enraptured. When he gazes upon your heart, he sees it as no one else does - perfect (even when we know it is not)! When we pause long enough to take in his image, our image becomes one with his. If we stir up a longing in his heart, just think how much beholding him can stir up a longing deep within ours! Just thinkin....

Just askin...

If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both. (I John 4:20-21)

Let's take a moment to get honest with each other here, shall we? Do you think you are a pretty good person? Go ahead, answer that one honestly. If you answered affirmatively then a follow-up to that one is who do you NOT love? Who do you find yourself around that you kind of feel like you are just at opposite ends of the pole and you are forced to kind of like them so you can work with them, live nearby them, or perhaps even live with them in your own family/household? If you could name someone there, good! You are being honest with yourself and God. Now back to the one who answered they are a pretty good person. Who do you NOT love? Chances are it doesn't matter which end of the spectrum we find ourselves on today - good person or not so good - we all have at least one person that came to mind. Why? It isn't easy living with other people sometimes. It isn't easy for them to live with us either! We 'make do' in the circumstances of those relationships because we kind of feel forced to, as though we have no other choice. The truth of the matter is that we DO have a choice - to love them as God loves them, or continue to go on NOT liking them and showing very little of God's love toward them. 

We ALL have issues with loving as God loves others - there is just no way around that one, my friends. We are going to be challenged by the things we don't 'like' in the other individual, forming some type of opinion of why they make the choices they make and why they act like they do. God never told us we had to 'like' others - he told us we are to love them the way he loves us. That equates to letting go of the opinions, extending grace when and where it is the least deserved, and then living as the example of God for them. Notice I did not say we live as the "Holy Spirit" in their lives - we aren't there to convict them of their short-comings. We are there to love them with the heart of God - the new heart we were each given the moment we said 'yes' to Jesus. Does it make their actions right? Not at all, but in our uncompromising love we reveal grace again and again even in the face of those 'wrong' actions. Does it make them 'lovable' individuals? Nope, but with God's love flowing through our veins, we are bound to find something lovable in them!

Take note - it isn't just that we are to love God - we are to love people, too. We have to love both. We love God with all our hearts and in time, we begin to see ways we can bring that love into each encounter with those 'unlovable' individuals we find in our path. Is it easy to love them? Nope, but God's grace has never failed to come through time and time again when we allow it to affect our lives at the core of our being. I imagine God emphasized the need to love both - him and others - because he knew it would be a struggle for us to do both. We don't always reveal we are loving God, do we? Some of our actions reveal we are still pretty concerned with our own lives, almost demanding to get our own way at times. We find it hard to submit to another - the very basis of love is laying down one's own agenda to meet the needs of the one we love. Isn't that what Christ did? He laid down his life so our sins could be forgiven - so we could have a new heart capable of loving even the unlovely. He loved us BEFORE we got that new heart, my friends. How can we do any less for those around us? Just askin....