Time to face the hard truth
This is a hard one to write. I meant to sit down and do this one a few days ago but it is even harder to write today because I don't want to face exactly what I thought was so great and inspiring just a little bit ago.
I ask Billy to get me stuff all the time. If I am sitting on the couch, I sometimes wait to see when he will get up and then ask him to grab something for me while he is "up anyway". I do this unknowingly most of the time but he always gets me what I ask for...then sets it down in front of me but just out of my reach.
I mean, I am laying in bed writing a paper and realize I need a book. I ask him to grab it since he is walking that way and he sets it on the edge of the bed just far enough away that I have to practically get up and get it.
This is very funny (or at least it is in hindsight) but very annoying as well. I figure, if he wants to take the trouble to bring me something, why put it just far enough away that I can't reach it without moving!?
He did this one time this weekend with a playful grin and I had to laugh. And, as I headed to work, I realized something. Yeah, I have to lean forward and reach for the desired object but I didn't have to get up and move across the apartment to get it. And this, friends, is what God is always doing with me out of love.
I pray for big things, most of the time. I pray for things I know he can make happen and I cannot. The reality of this life is that I am capable of nothing worth it's salt without Him working in it. So, I ask. I ask for financial help. I ask for self control. I ask for some freaking unsurpassable peace. I ask for joy and love and protection and His Will. I ask for all kinds of things.
And He gives them to me...but they are usually one or two steps away. He brings them closer than I could ever have brought them to myself and asks me to move a little, get my hands dirty, not just sit there receiving but putting forth some effort. He wants to give me the things I ask for, so long as I am letting the desires of my heart reflect His Will, but he wants me to prove it by accepting it, by making an action towards it.
There are more things going on in my life today than I care to actually deal with. I am tired and exhausted and amazed at how little I have actually moved toward receiving His responses to my prayers. Man, I am a sinner. I have little self control with more doubt and fear than I care to address but I am set free. He is setting me free. My Lord Jesus has already set me free and I am sitting on the couch staring at the freedom He set right in front of me. What the heck!?
It is time to realize and to stand up and to take action, do maybe just one or two thousand things, in order to receive what I have so desperately asked for on so many occasions. All I have to do is work, sometimes a little and sometimes a lot. The overwhelming majority has been a little work but I lose faith so easily when it seems there is more than one step in receiving what He has given me. The ball and the blessing are in my court. It is time to get up and take it.
I ask Billy to get me stuff all the time. If I am sitting on the couch, I sometimes wait to see when he will get up and then ask him to grab something for me while he is "up anyway". I do this unknowingly most of the time but he always gets me what I ask for...then sets it down in front of me but just out of my reach.
I mean, I am laying in bed writing a paper and realize I need a book. I ask him to grab it since he is walking that way and he sets it on the edge of the bed just far enough away that I have to practically get up and get it.
This is very funny (or at least it is in hindsight) but very annoying as well. I figure, if he wants to take the trouble to bring me something, why put it just far enough away that I can't reach it without moving!?
He did this one time this weekend with a playful grin and I had to laugh. And, as I headed to work, I realized something. Yeah, I have to lean forward and reach for the desired object but I didn't have to get up and move across the apartment to get it. And this, friends, is what God is always doing with me out of love.
I pray for big things, most of the time. I pray for things I know he can make happen and I cannot. The reality of this life is that I am capable of nothing worth it's salt without Him working in it. So, I ask. I ask for financial help. I ask for self control. I ask for some freaking unsurpassable peace. I ask for joy and love and protection and His Will. I ask for all kinds of things.
And He gives them to me...but they are usually one or two steps away. He brings them closer than I could ever have brought them to myself and asks me to move a little, get my hands dirty, not just sit there receiving but putting forth some effort. He wants to give me the things I ask for, so long as I am letting the desires of my heart reflect His Will, but he wants me to prove it by accepting it, by making an action towards it.
There are more things going on in my life today than I care to actually deal with. I am tired and exhausted and amazed at how little I have actually moved toward receiving His responses to my prayers. Man, I am a sinner. I have little self control with more doubt and fear than I care to address but I am set free. He is setting me free. My Lord Jesus has already set me free and I am sitting on the couch staring at the freedom He set right in front of me. What the heck!?
It is time to realize and to stand up and to take action, do maybe just one or two thousand things, in order to receive what I have so desperately asked for on so many occasions. All I have to do is work, sometimes a little and sometimes a lot. The overwhelming majority has been a little work but I lose faith so easily when it seems there is more than one step in receiving what He has given me. The ball and the blessing are in my court. It is time to get up and take it.
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