Awakening…a four month process apparently
- Bailey
- Dec 20, 2014
- 3 min read
[Disclaimer] Browsing through my blog, I found this post as a draft, so it never went public. Thank goodness because God used my own words and thoughts I wrote down four months as a kick in the pants for today. He’s awesome in that way (:
“While others turn over for extra sleep or anxiously tune in to the latest news, you commune with the Creator of the universe.” -Sarah Young, Jesus Calling
I have found it to be of increasing importance to carve out time daily just to be with Jesus. This is not easy. It’s actually really hard, and I am ashamed. I am ashamed that six out of seven days I “turn over for extra sleep” or just blearily bulldoze my way through the morning. Rare is the dawn when I’m on my knees in surrender and worship, praising my King for waking me up. I could easily put this off as a “teenage thing” or use the excuse that I stayed up too late studying, but the truth is I am lazy. I am too lazy and get too caught up in my flesh to even try to remember that I serve a God who created me to live a life intimately entwined with His.
Honestly, when waking up in the morning I make little effort to choose the good portion. Sleep or coffee or breakfast comes before opening God’s Word, yet I know in my heart that this choice makes absolutely no sense. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12) This amazing resource is available to me–a real treasure that can only benefit me, teach me, and equip me–yet I continually choose not to use it. What an example of the brokenness and sin that contaminates my flesh, that even when the most beautiful, quiet, and refreshing moments are awaiting me, I can move past them with no regret. That is what concerns and frustrates me most: I have the audacity not to feel remorse about skimping on spending time with the One who died to save me.
But, even more than the sin that entangles me, even more than the apathy of my heart, is the grace and love and truth that overflows from the lips of my Creator through His Word. When He is the first one I speak to in the morning, I get to experience an excitement for life much more invigorating than coffee.
A friend spoke some incredible words of wisdom into me a few weeks ago that have challenged me. She said that in our walk with Christ, there are phases of faith that are just the foundation, not ones that you continually revisit. It’s like when we make friends: we are constantly growing in our relationship together, trusting them and knowing them and spending time with them. Our relationship with Christ is the same. If we’ve known Him for five years we shouldn’t have the same level of relationship as we did in the first year or even the fourth year. And even though we will never ever reach the full depth of knowing Him completely, growth will always occur the deeper we go. When we follow Him into the deep, hard, and painful places we will be transformed by His glory and grace. Our relationship with Christ is not a stagnant place or a final destination at the brink of an adventure. It is the adventure. The farther we go, the closer and deeper we enter into His life. (see Heb. 6)
“Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and, the sheep of his hand.” (Ps. 95:6)
