The Plumbline

7  For if you offered him thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of olive oil—would that please him? Would he be satisfied? If you sacrificed your oldest child, would that make him glad? Then would he forgive your sins? Of course not!  8  No, he has told you what he wants, and this is all it is:  to be fair, just, merciful, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:7-8 TLB) I have often said we complicate this walk with Jesus way too much by adding a weight upon our shoulders of all kinds of "things" we imagine God must want us to do or bring or give. We get so bogged down under the burden of trying to meet whatever "demands" we believe God has of us that we miss totally it is just "us" he really craves! He wants time with us. He desires communion with our heart. He yearns to hear us tell him what is going on in our minds and hearts, and to allow him to unburden both! We imagine huge offerings are needed - he already provided the "ONE...

When God asks us to lay ourselves bare before him, he is actually telling us we need to be totally and completely exposed to him.  At first, this seems a little disconcerting to most of us because we are not used to exposing ourselves! We live life kind of "covered up", don't we?  In fact, there are even some of us who will even struggle to be totally exposed in the safety and security of our own homes!  Why?  It brings us to the level of being left without anything to hide behind and that is uncomfortable for some.  The hardest lesson for us to learn sometimes is the one of trusting God not to laugh at or mistreat our "nakedness" before him.  I don't mean this in a crass sense, but a nakedness of emotions, thought, and even our will.  When we are THAT transparent that he can see beyond all our attempts to hide our true feelings, tumultuous thoughts, and battle of the will, this is the place where we can truly begin to heal from those things...