Wednesday, October 13, 2010

SomeOne I Can Be Real With

I love this quote from Chan: "If you merely pretend that you enjoy God or love Him, He knows. You can't fool Him; don't even try." p. 110

Chan then goes on to list all the things you should tell God: confessing that you've been lukewarm, that you've placed other things before Him. Chan ends the chapter with a prayer... and to give him the benefit of the doubt...I'll assume that this is his own personal prayer and not a specific prayer that he wants each of us to repeat. If it is the latter, I guess that I understand the purpose of a uniform prayer... but it just seems that a one-size-fits all, "cardboard cutout" prayer takes us a little... off course. It is a really nice prayer. I won't begrudge him that... but, Crazy Love, at least in my opinion, has been about focusing on our own, individual relationships with Christ. Each of us is unique, and as a result, the relationship we have with our Creator is unique. So, it only makes sense that our prayers should be unique... genuine to us. As tempting as it may be to use his words on page 111, I would encourage you to speak from your heart... if anything, use his words as an outline. Take each of his sentences and then expound on the subject: don't just deal with generalities...give Him specifics. This prayer is short on that... but don't lose sight that God loves the specifics. It's the specifics that make us unique. If you want Him to work in the minuscule details of your life... then turn them over to Him. NOTHING is too small for Him!

Chan's subtitle for this last section in Chapter 6 is called: SomeOne I Can Be Real With. A lot of thoughts rush through my head when I read this: "Of course, we can be real (honest) with Him! He's not doing to talk back (even though He has His own way of getting His point across...don't loose sight of that!)." I also find myself snickering a little because, truth is, we really don't have an option when it comes to God knowing our inner most secrets. We can hide them from others, but we can't hide them from God. It only makes sense that we come clean, if you will. At least, if we're honest, we can take one step closer to the freedom that is lovingly offered through Him.

But the problem I wrestled with for so long was this: How do I share the inner most workings of my mind, my heart, my soul, with SomeOne that I feel so disconnected with? I've said it before, it's kinda the whole "which came first" argument: the chicken or the egg? Will sharing these things with SomeOne I honestly feel very little connection to, by default, help me feel connected to Him...or does that connection need to evolve (at least, by some minuscule amount) before I can honestly confide in Him. Well... I have no idea! But, I WILL share with you what worked for me... in hopes that it might be helpful to you.

This past week, I shared with the ladies in my Bible study group, how we can become more aware of God's presence in our lives everyday. I shared the importance of prayer and how it's just more than blessing a meal or placing a laundry list of requests at God's feet. Our prayer time should include praise and worship to our Creator (which, for my son, is a simple, "You're Awesome, God!"), followed up by a word of thanks. There's always something to be thankful for in our lives... but sometimes we forget. I always follow this up with intercessory prayer... praying on behalf of someone else... because, plain and simple, it's not all about us! Then, for the longest time, I would wrap things up with my own personal prayer requests and then a plead for God to reveal His will for my life... because that's really what's most important, right? Living out God's purpose for our life? Maybe... But about six months ago I stopped asking God to reveal His will for my life. Instead, I asked Him to reveal His will for me on that day. And, almost instantaneously, I started becoming more aware of His presence in my life everyday... through a conversation about Jesus with my youngest child's preschool teacher (a teacher that all my kids have had, someone I've known for 5 years, but not once had shared my faith with), in conversations with my neighbors, my husband's co-workers. Opportunities to talk about God and serve God just came out of the framing of my life. In these situations, you have no choice but to draw closer to Him... resulting in a desire, a longing, to share everything with Him.

THE PUSH

It's time to start Chapter 7! Take a look at the video. I love this chapter!

http://www.crazylovebook.com/videos_chapter.html



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