A question from our Pastor's mid-week update really struck home to me today: Are we so preoccupied with our own personal lives that we haven't taken the time to look around us to see all the people searching for God?
Which led to a second question, Are we so preoccupied with our own personal lives that we haven't taken the time to look around and see the hurting people around us? Maybe they already know God, maybe we know they know what His word says, maybe we don't have the words to ease their pain...but are we ignoring the cry of their heart because it's drown out by our own busy-ness?
I don't ever WANT to become so consumed with my own life and it's "stuff" that I lose sight of those around me...hurting, celebrating, searching or whatever. I find myself drawn to this passage in Romans 7 that I affectionately refer to as the "Dr. Suess" passage.
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.And this is the battle I fight daily in my mind & in my flesh. Questions like today's raise my awareness once again...that I MUST surrender to all that God is because in my inner being I DO DELIGHT in Him! But in my flesh, I want what I want when I want it...I can not have both. I cannot be consumed with my life that I truly miss the opportunities to be His hands & feet to those around me more than I actually AM His hands & feet.
8-24-15....
Do you find your self caught up in life's busy-ness that you too miss the moments God places before us? I think I need to take a good hard look at this for myself. Recently, I was reminded about a book I WANTED (I actually already own it, just never opened it...yet) that addresses this topic...The Best Yes, by Lysa TerKuerst. I think God is nudging me to pick that book up & start reading it. You can check out an excerpt HERE (it's a pdf!)
