We've had lots of crazy storms lately...power outages, massive hail stones, and I'm still trying to get better. Several friends have had pneumonia and ended up in the hospital, so I'm wondering by now if that's what I've been wrestling too.
Either way, Matt took the kiddos to the indoor pool for a few hours yesterday so I could work on a Bible study I was going to teach, and while laundry and meal plans waited for once, it was so truly life-giving to really spend good time on a short passage of His Good Word.
The Holy Spirit really opened my eyes to an outpouring of themes and focuses I'd never seen, and while I have since learned that I will not be teaching this Bible study....I keep being reminded by Him that no time in His Word is wasted. No digging is in vain.
Maybe He was just unpacking the richness for me.
A lot has been hard lately. Pastoring is not for the faint of heart, and neither is pastor's wifing.
Matt always says in his studies and sermons that we must remember who we are following.
We want riches...but we are following a homeless man. We want glory...but we are following a man beaten and crucified. We want appreciated and valued for our hard work...but we are following a man utterly rejected. We get following Jesus and then want to follow Him down paths He simply never walked.
He was betrayed, rejected, abandoned, misunderstood, lied about, hated, abused, murdered.
So when we suffer some betrayal or some unkindness or some lies, and get indignant that this should not be the reward of following Jesus, after all we've done...wake up.
This is exactly following Jesus. Nay, this is what it is to put our feet in his footsteps.
And I DO want to follow Him that closely.
The disciples missed it and misunderstood Him many, many times. How often did they point to B, and Jesus gently corrected, yes, but it is better to look to A.
His very last moment with them was no different, Acts 1, the passage I was to help unpack. They thought maybe His fulfilling of the new covenant meant His kingdom come, on earth, now....and He reminded them that God's timing wasn't theirs to know or worry. But He did promise they would receive what they needed.
And instead of forgetting this time, He ascended and they obeyed. And instead of fighting this time, bickering like my children at Kroger, Acts 1 tells us that they gathered in full accord. And instead of panicking and scurrying, the Word tells us they were totally devoted to prayer. Just as Judas hadn't spoiled God's plan by betraying their Lord to death, they trusted now that the HS was coming, because Jesus had said so, and no one can mess up what He's doing.
Their extreme differences hadn't disappeared. Their unique pasts hadn't been erased. But they were so intently trusting in Jesus Resurrected that their eyes on Jesus kept their eyes off each other. Eyes on Jesus, they were in notable fellowship. In notable prayer.
Stacey.
Are my eyes on Jesus? The real one. Who He really is?
Am I drawing, in these circumstances, on the super-natural power of the Holy Spirit, that which is truly needed? Are my emotions being filtered through His truth? Am I waiting on Him, confusing the world by my non-worldly responses to rejection, betrayal, gossip, unkindness...minor offenses compared to what our Lord faced?
The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.
May our obedience and our fellowship and our prayers be notable. Grateful for you, my little corner.
No comments:
Post a Comment