Refinement pt.2

Apparently refinement is something that God is trying to get into my hard brain. Do hard things. Don't get trapped in by comfort. Pick up your cross. Offer your body as a living sacrifice. These things just don't ever go away from me these days.

I had Wesley tonight. It was great. super challenging. David talked about Growing in Christ and the times that God calls us to a deeper level of our walk with Him, like when the Israelites were being led into the promised land. He calls us and we can either listen and follow, or we can say "no, no God. I'm fine here. I don't really want to venture into that unknown land." That's complacency. We should not be content with where we are. We should want to go deeper. In 10 years, I do not want to be in the same place spiritually that I am now. Similarly, I don't wish that for anyone else. Then the kicker: we are to pick up our cross daily. Well, the cross kills. In fact, it kills flesh.It hurts. The hurt is our flesh being ripped away. Graphic? yes. Painful? yes. Beautiful? yes. We can be tempted to run from the cross. Run from our flesh being torn away. Run from pain. Run from sacrifice. Or, we can run to it- because that's what running to God is. yikes. it's hard.

refinement

"In my life, be lifted high.
In our world, be lifted high.
In our love, be lifted high."

I am learning that for this to happen our flesh has to be ripped away.
What a painful, but glorious thing.

Psalm 40

I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.
I proclaim your saving acts in the great assembly;
I do not seal my lips, Lord, as You know.
I do not hide your righteousness in my heart;
I speak of your faithfulness and your saving help.
I do not conceal your love and your faithfulness from the great assembly.
Psalm 40:9-10

[I recommend reading the first ten verses, but it was a lot to type out and copy/ paste doesn't work on this machine...]
I call myself a Christian. Sometimes I think I do a good job at being one, other times God reminds me that HE alone is good. This chapter led to one of those times. If I call myself a Christian, then why do I so, so often remain silent? What could be more important than my God? My flesh allows fear to take over and say that my acceptance and comfort are more important. My flesh tells me a lot of lies. But the truth is so far from that. my desire is that I will be able to say these things: "I do not seal my lips", " I speak of your faithfulness and your saving help." If Christ has truly changed my heart, His love, His truth should just be flowing from me. I should be so excited to talk about what he has done and is doing. So, I am praying for boldness. Boldness to push the flesh away and speak truth. truth. to not speak God's truth to people is to not love them. There are a lot of people that I am choosing to not love because it might make me a little uncomfortable. This needs to change.

The very first, and the inspiration for this blog

I am reading a book right now: Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. It's a good one so far. At the beginning, John Piper talks about a painting that was in his kitchen growing up. It said:

"Only one life,

'Twill soon be past;

Only what's done

for Christ will last"

So, I have been reading about not wasting our lives, and how the cross is most important. How to love someone is to let them know their need for a savior, not to make them feel happy or good about themselves. It's been a difficult pill to follow, but good. So, this is a goal: to fill my life with loving like Christ.