What are you focusing on? What are we walking towards and embracing? Yesterday, we looked at the WORLD charging our batteries. Today, I wanted to look at SELF charging our spiritual batteries.
We shake and we shudder and we are going down for the count - overtaken with circumstances......and the Lord is standing next to us- arms wide open, ready to receive that which we are willing to give Him.
His hands wait for us to release it to all to Him, yet, We .....are...not...sure.....about...that. To release it ALL? To relinquish ALL control ? To release ALL control of outcome and expectation? Hmmmmm,that will require some thought and preparation, as we continue to try and control our own, personal universes. Trying to spin our world on the axis of our perceptions and our details....spinning our universe on the epicenter of our control and micro management. Spinning the world we have created to try and steer towards our expected outcome. Fixing things and planning, creating and moving, we create our own Ishmael's on a daily basis. Things born of our need to control, not out of the heart of the Father.
In this reality,w e are the masters of our own Bodily corporations. We are the CEO, The VP and the President. We create business plans for our marriages, our jobs, our children, our careers...so many business plans...so little time. We create the plans, we write them up and we hand them to GOD to sign off on. He is a gracious God, He has given us Free Will. He looks over the binder of business plans that you have presented Him with, and a tear slips from His eye...because, He sees the beginning and the end.....and He knows the implication s of Page 4, Subcategory 3a, Section 14- and He knows that is going to wreak havoc in your marriage. But, he signs off on it. He turns the page and a sigh escapes from His lips - because He knows what is going to happen when you get to page 15...you will enter a dark night of the soul, that you will curse Him for your circumstances....But, He signs off on it. He continues to look at your plans and your schemes, as you stand before the throne- shuddering from the weight of your world on your shoulders, and your eyes meet.
We were not created to run the universe, thank goodness! We were not created to hold our worlds on our shoulders, spin them and make them dance to the heartbeat of our desires. Jesus stands and asks us to trust Him and relinquish the need for power and control into His loving hands. We stand before Him, holding our world, holding all of our worlds atop our shaking shoulders...... What is fueling our motion sensitive Livecell battery in this scenario?? The shaking of our bodies as we strive under the weight of our created circumstances.
We can switch out that fuel and we can heave our carefully controlled universes onto His shoulders. We can watch as those things that were not of Him spin into the ethers. As they spin off, we feel lighter somehow....our batteries are being fueled by a new source. He takes our universe in His loving hand and He starts rearranging things. Our pulses quicken....surely He didn't mean to do THAT??? To move that?? To remove the thing that had taken 2 years to get done?? Surely that was a mistake..... You reach out and you think it might be time to take your world back onto your shoulders again, because surely- He doesn't understand the implications of what He is moving around, removing and adding into your world. His eyes search yours....They implore you to trust Him with your world, your circumstances, your health, your occupation, your family, your marriage, your finances, your spiritual life.....His eyes question..."Can you trust Me with your world? You want to say yes...you want to be the good Christian that walks by faith and not by sight. But, to let go of it ALL and trust Him?
What if we used our ONE.STEP.AT.A.TIME here as well. I can remember the day that I handed my children to Him. I think it took over two hours to really let them go and release them into His arms and His, ultimate care. He asked me to trust me with their hearts and their lives. The Creator of Universes, the Maker of All, gently asked me to give Him my kids and trust Him with their hearts and their lives. It was, possibly, the hardest thing I have ever done.
I cried out, "But do you know how much I love them????"
"I created them, do you know how much I love them?"
"But, they are everything that I hold most dear"
"Let Me be that which you hold most dear"
"What if something happens to them?"
"Things ARE going to happen to them, do you trust me?
"Yes...for me, but these are my CHILDREN"
"Do you trust Me with their care and their life and their hearts?"
I wrestled for hours with Him. I wrestled and cried and implored that He would understand how much I loved them. I needed them to be alright. I needed them to be cared for and alright. I needed them to be loved. I needed to control them and be in control of their destinies. These were walking expressions of my heart, that had found a place in the tangible world. If I controlled their worlds, surely I could keep them safe....
He whispered directly to my soul,
"Your love for them is so great, so deep....how much deeper is mine. I entrusted you with their hearts for a season, will you trust me with their hearts for eternity? "
And, I broke, as He washed over me with His love and His adoration for the little hearts that I hold most dear, and...I ...passed....them....to....Him....one...by...one, through countless tears of trust and gratitude.
ONE.STEP.AT.A.TIME. Is there something that you can give over to Him today? A circumstance, a relationship? A situation? A job? A need? If we were to relinquish control, ONE.STEP.AT.A.TIME......our backs would stop straining, our knees stop aching. The fuel of CONTROL would be replaced by the fuel of TRUST and FAITH. Pick that ONE.STEP today, and begin the process of letting go. Tear up Your business plan and present Jesus with a blank journal for Him to write the desires of HIS heart for your life, and then, walk it out ONE.STEP.AT.A.TIME, holding His hand!
