This week, I've been ambushed by God, but in a good way. He has surrounded me with messages, speakers, His Word, and sermons that all hone in on the heart of the same subject matter. Isn't it cool how God will do that? He knows we are just flat out dumb sometimes, so He hammers home His point a few times just to make sure it sinks in!
I listed to John Henderson speak at DBC Tuesday night and his talk laid out the descent into depression and then the flip side of that dealing with the ascent into joyful abundance...complete with flow chart and verses, which is just my nerdy style! It was phenomenal and I could see myself on both sides of the page...where I've been and where I am now. He showed that pride and self rule are the two main root causes for the end point of depression and they are devastating. They lead to lust or fear, depending on what kind of person you are, and then as you continue to try to control that lust or fear, you become angry as you fail (sometimes you succeed for a bit but it doesn't last), then the lust/fear increases, you keep running through jell-o to increase the effort and try to hang on to what you believe to be true, which turns out to be a futile process and you end up in the wilderness...depressed, hopeless, regretful, isolated and full of self pity and self hate. His point was that God brings you to that wilderness because of your pride to deal with you...we honestly believe if we get "our way", life will be good. But througout this process, He is testing our heart to see if we will obey Him...and He alone understands our heart. BUT, we often don't even know our OWN heart...so He takes us out into the wilderness to humble us, expose us, teach us and for us to have to honestly deal with what comes out of our heart during that process, which often is some pretty foul and smelly stuff that we need to purge out of our life.
I'm just going to pause here to let THAT all sink in...I can tell you when he went through all of that, you could have heard a pin drop as every person in that room knew exactly what he was talking about, some better than others (yes, I mean ME!), but we've all been there.
So, now the good news...
there is a path to joyful abundance (thank God for that!), and I am here to tell you it does exist! By submitting to Christ and HIS RULE for our lives (aka walking in the spirit and not the flesh/world), we become content and at peace, and we trust in God...sometimes through comfortable circumstances, but very often it is in the middle of pain and suffering...and that grows our faith. As we grow more faith, we trust more and we learn to love/obey God more, which increases contentment, increases faith and just like Pavlov's dog experiment...we see the positive reward feedback..so we trust more, have more faith, then more obedience, and we find happiness through the Father (the only one who doesn't let us down) and we realize, it was there all along, we were just looking in all the wrong places. So simple, yet so hard to do at times because we are deceived, lost and under attack of the enemy. We all know someone who is trying to be happy by getting the bigger house, more stuff, better job, nicer car, new spouse, etc. But are those people ever happy? NO...they just keep trying to fill the void in their life with more and more things...never realizing where that emptiness is coming from.
And that brings me to my next point...prodigals. Pretty much everyone has a prodigal in their life at some time...could be a child, a friend, a spouse, a parent, etc. I just read a GREAT book that is a must read called Bringing Home the Prodigals by Rob Parsons. In it, he mentions that in Jesus' day, HE was considered a prodigal by religious authorities. Interesting point. He also says that "in love's service, only the wounded soldiers can serve." That makes me think of myself and is an adequate description...if I hadn't been through pain, I wouldn't have the clarity I am receiving now and I wouldn't be available and open to share my story with hurting people. I would have missed out on the biggest blessing of my life and potentially missed what God was calling to do. And as Craig Groeschel quotes, "the path to your greatest potential is often straight through your greatest fear". I have had some on-my-knees moments of fear through this process and I had to make some tough choices, like do I want to be here anymore on this Earth if I'm being honest. But, I decided to walk through the fear, the pain, the refining fire and say there is a reason for all of this and I'm going to hold on to God's promises and see what He has in store for me. And, I'm so glad I did...not to say every day is an easy one and I have life all figured out and wrapped up in a neat little package, but I have found that joyful abundance...and the story is still being written!
The last point I want to make is a little twist on the prodigal son story in the Bible that Parsons discusses in his book. When prodigals do come home, they are straight out of the pigsty of this world and they are filthy, but we need to be very careful to treat them as the Father in the story did...and not the elder brother. It takes a lot of courage to make that walk home...but if we leave the light on, they will find their way home eventually. Very few people stay in the pigsty of life forever...I mean, we have our fun for a time, but who wants to live there when you have a whole Kingdom awaiting you? It reminds me of the old Motel 6 commerical with Tom Bodette "We'll Leave the Light On for Ya". Sometimes in the darkness of night, the prodigals of this world need to see that little beacon of light to grab on to and find their way back home to the peace that can only be found in our God. Just remember when they show up on the door step, to be the Father, and not the brother!
I don't know about you, but my light literally and figuratively is on, every night...
JOY
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