BeyondSeeLevel

Love this picture! One thing that I’ve come to understand about rearing my children in the Lord, is that I can’t make them worship God.  But my job is to position them to worship God. I’ve striven to be mindful of the distractions that I ALLOW them to have that interfere with the seed of God’s word being planted in their impressionable spirits. In addition, I’m also mindful of my own distractions and the example that I set for them as a woman of God. Am I an engaged worshipper of God? Am I a consistent worshipper of God? Am I a worshipper of integrity? Is the God I proclaim on Sundays demonstrated in my life on Mondays thru Saturdays? Is the God that’s apparent in my public life, the same God that’s apparent in my private life? How does the inconsistencies or consistencies of my walk with the Lord affect how my children develop respect, admiration, obedience & awe for God? Have I shown them that God isn’t a priority by the way I live, all the while telling them that He’s priority by the way I talk? Am I a hypocrite? Have I taken seriously this ministry of stewardship called parenting? Do I understand the consequences for failing to do so? I know that the greatest gift that I can ever give to my children is a personal commitment to God, myself. I know that, in my best efforts as a parent, God is able to give my children what I can not.

*tj

Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. 

Sometimes, when life happens, we will find ourselves bruised with burden. In our desperation, we will approach God asking Him to intervene.  We cry out, “Lord help!” We recognize God is the only one than can do anything about what we’re experiencing. And we have honest expectations that God will give us what we ask. As a matter of fact, he tells us in His word, that if you pray to Him have faith that He’s able. But I want to pose this question for thought:

Are we seeking God or seeking His blessings?

This verse says that God rewards those that diligently seek Him, not seek His blessings. Sometimes, we attempt to connect to God so we can qualify for His blessings. Outside of His blessings, we don’t really have a desire to know God. We treat Him like He’s a sugar daddy. Give Him a lil bit so that He can give us a lot. Is He more than blessings? Is He more than what He does for  you? Do you seek Him only because of what He can do for you or do you seek Him because of Who He is? Diligently seek Him.

*tj

Many of us would have never known we were sick had we never experienced any pain or discomfort.  Had we never experienced that pain, we would have never sought the expert knowledge of a physician. Had we not sought that physician for a diagnosis and prescription  for healing, we’d still be sick, if not dead.

Well, often times, life will offer us up a few pains and discomforts. Many of which, are  direct results of our own doing. Like physical pains, they are there to reveal to us our sin sick conditions. They are also there to remind us of our need for the Great Physician. Had we not experienced the pain, we would have, most likely, not sought relief & healing. The pain was necessary. The pain was merciful. The pain was a guide to the Physician. The only doctor that can heal your sin infected soul is Jesus. If you choose not to take His prescription of confession & repentance, you forfeit your healing. Satan has many of us fooled into thinking that just because the pain is gone, the disease is gone. We think that being rescued from the situation, means deliverance.  But you can be free from situations that have caused you pain, but still be a slave to the sin that dwells in you, that put you there in the first place. Some of us are seeking to be rescued from situations.  But we need to, 1st, be delivered from ourselves. Some of us are content with taking spiritual Tylenol for pain, when we really need a spiritual transplant.

*tj

Often times we will come to God making our  request known unto Him. We hope to stand at one end of the hallway of our prayer as God stands at the other end with blessing in hand. But often times, our blessings won’t be a straight shot hallway experience.  But they will be a lot like this maze; full of wrong turns, dead ends, U-turns & back tracks. Often times, we find ourselves in the dark places of ‘not knowing’, feeling our way around with only the thought of the blessing pushing us. No light in sight. No ringing bells. No aromas. No evidence that we’re anywhere close to what we’ve asked for. Time moves on, the maze experience start to get the best of us. We start to wonder if God wanted us to even have this blessing in the first place. The closed doors. The dead ends.  The start overs. The feelings of fatigue, defeat & hopelessness. We simply, grow weary & tired of wading and waiting. But every now and then we are reminded that God has Divinely orchestrated the maze experience to maximize our growth and His glory…..if we faint not, in due season. The maze was never intended to discourage us. But it’s intentionally designed to prepare us, position us & empower us. God knows that sometimes the “roundabout” way, isn’t the easiest, nor the desired way. But it’s always the best way. You see, the hallway (straight shot experience) doesn’t require faith.  But faith pleases God. Without it, it’s impossible to please God. God is so gracious, He affords us opportunities to excersize that faith by sending us through the maze. We grow in the maze. We’re strengthened in the maze. We please God in the maze. God is glorified in the maze. God is simply, a-maze-ing. You don’t get amazing without the maze. 🙂

*tj

There is absolutely no place you can find yourself in during your life that God didn’t already know about before you experienced it. This includes every hilltop experience and every valley experience. Particularly, the valley experiences are the ones we seem to forget this. God can’t be surprised by the events of your life. He’s never shocked. As a matter of fact, if you can manage to maintain a right/godly perspective, you’d actually be able to see how, when & where God was strategically preparing & positioning you for the valleys you (will) find yourself in. Unfortunately, many of us will miss out on this Divine preparation because we’re disobedient, unfaithful, slothful and lack commitment to our godly calling and purpose in life. We attended church, but we failed to BE the Church–preparation. We read our bibles but we didn’t study our bibles- -preparation. We vented to the Lord, but we didn’t pray to the Lord–preparation. We learned about God in our religion but we never came to know Him in a relationship–preparation. There’s power in preparation. Valleys will come.
God won’t do for you in miracle what you can do in muscle. He prepares us. But we have to prepare.

*Tressa Jo