(no subject)
Alright, so i wasnt planning on doing this (updating/posting) but I couldnt sleep and I just feel like the Lord might have something to say with this.
One thing i've been learning is how much we allow ourselves to put up with so much that we dont need to put up with. We allow ourselves to feel so desperate so lonely when we don't have to. When the simple answer is to give up ourselves and to follow the one who was sent to remind us that we're still worth all of heaven and earth.
Maturity.
This word has not stopped coming up in my life for the past month or so. Every where i look, in so many conversations it is always there.
In the name of maturity hearts have been left behind.
In the name of maturity people have spoke of a burden but decided it was not worth their love to carry--people are worth carrying.
In the fricken name of maturity Christians will focus themselves on what seems right, we will pick a goal, a path, a way, a bumper sticker with some neat little phrase on it that sounds great... yet we miss the whole point.
That is not maturity.
The hunt for maturity is not maturity itself. It's a hunt, like the many we go on.
Using big metaphors and great analogies is not maturity.
Spelling it right has nothing to do with it.
There are a lot of parts to this maturity thing we've been talking about as we go.
It seems to me that one of the main ones is giving up yourself. Is to be obedient to the Lord, even unto death--especially the death of your flesh. It is to submit to the way of the Holy Spirit, to the way of God. Our own will fails to make a difference, it fails to hold any sway. We give up knowing what we want, because what we want has too many times proved insufficient, empty, and filled with selfishness. Selfishness will not bring us Christ. It just wont.
I've heard "38and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:38-39) so many times, but it is really taking root, taking meaning in that the giving of yourself isnt just something you can say or think of, but consistently do. Picking up your cross isnt just taking the hard things of life in stride as we so often think of it, taking up your cross is giving your self to the Lord. And if you really give yourself to the Lord you will begin to find it more and more impossible to be selfish, selfpittying, self centered, self focused self anything. Because it no longer makes sense to make choices that revolve around you or have to do with what you want. And thus you will begin to walk like Christ, and where to His footsteps on earth lead Him but to the beloved cross? We take up His image, most importantly we take up HIS Love. For His sake.
None of this is to say that yes HAHA I am mature and ya'll are not. Or that I know something everyone else doesnt. It's just there. Some stuff God's been showing me. Its like giving up on yourself....but in a good way.
Anyways, there ya go. Happy week before Christmas.
One thing i've been learning is how much we allow ourselves to put up with so much that we dont need to put up with. We allow ourselves to feel so desperate so lonely when we don't have to. When the simple answer is to give up ourselves and to follow the one who was sent to remind us that we're still worth all of heaven and earth.
Maturity.
This word has not stopped coming up in my life for the past month or so. Every where i look, in so many conversations it is always there.
In the name of maturity hearts have been left behind.
In the name of maturity people have spoke of a burden but decided it was not worth their love to carry--people are worth carrying.
In the fricken name of maturity Christians will focus themselves on what seems right, we will pick a goal, a path, a way, a bumper sticker with some neat little phrase on it that sounds great... yet we miss the whole point.
That is not maturity.
The hunt for maturity is not maturity itself. It's a hunt, like the many we go on.
Using big metaphors and great analogies is not maturity.
Spelling it right has nothing to do with it.
There are a lot of parts to this maturity thing we've been talking about as we go.
It seems to me that one of the main ones is giving up yourself. Is to be obedient to the Lord, even unto death--especially the death of your flesh. It is to submit to the way of the Holy Spirit, to the way of God. Our own will fails to make a difference, it fails to hold any sway. We give up knowing what we want, because what we want has too many times proved insufficient, empty, and filled with selfishness. Selfishness will not bring us Christ. It just wont.
I've heard "38and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:38-39) so many times, but it is really taking root, taking meaning in that the giving of yourself isnt just something you can say or think of, but consistently do. Picking up your cross isnt just taking the hard things of life in stride as we so often think of it, taking up your cross is giving your self to the Lord. And if you really give yourself to the Lord you will begin to find it more and more impossible to be selfish, selfpittying, self centered, self focused self anything. Because it no longer makes sense to make choices that revolve around you or have to do with what you want. And thus you will begin to walk like Christ, and where to His footsteps on earth lead Him but to the beloved cross? We take up His image, most importantly we take up HIS Love. For His sake.
None of this is to say that yes HAHA I am mature and ya'll are not. Or that I know something everyone else doesnt. It's just there. Some stuff God's been showing me. Its like giving up on yourself....but in a good way.
Anyways, there ya go. Happy week before Christmas.