Tags
3, acceptance, day three, Experiencing God, grumpy, headache, love
Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from Me, you can do nothing. John 15:5
Truth: God is crying out to us, “Don’t just do something, stand there! Enter a love relationship with Me. Get to know Me. Adjust your life to Me. Let Me love you and reveal Myself through you to a watching world.” A time will come when doing will be called for, but we cannot skip the relationship. The relationship with God must come first.
My response to this: I have this heart and mindset to DO, DO, DO! I can’t be useful if I am not DOING something, and in the process, I’ve allowed my relationship to suffer. Not my faith, that doesn’t waver, but my ability to be still and allow God to LOVE ON ME has suffered. I have this idea that if I DO enough stuff, people will like me. If I work hard enough, serve enough, give enough…than I will be approved of and accepted. God is not like that. He wants to love me FIRST….then do His work through me after. That blows my mind…for someone who has fought to feel accepted and approved by everyone, that just makes me sit here with a gaping mouth in disbelief.
Lord, I am seriously in awe of Your love for us…for ME. I don’t fully understand it, and probably never will. Your ways and Your thoughts are so much higher than mine. Lord, I so desperately want to DO and to WORK and to ACCOMPLISH great things for You, help me to be still and feel Your love first, and to realize that apart from You, I can do nothing. Help my brain to wrap around the concept that I do not have to work for you but that You work through me. I don’t have to work for Your approval, I have Your approval, and THEN I work. Lord, I pray for the other people in my class that they are getting as much out of it as I am. Help each person to set the time aside to do their work everyday. And Lord, I thank You that even though my head hurt and I was grumpy when I first started the lesson today, You answered my prayer that You would speak to me even through my headache and grumpiness. In Jesus mighty name….
And yes, that was my prayer before I started the lesson…Lord, my head hurts and I’m grumpy, speak to me anyway…. π