From Center of Attention to Christ Centered

A child young and beautiful praising the Lord, hands in the air waving and swaying to the beat of the music, her voice raised for all to hear.  A painting of innocence, a wondrous moment of pure delight in life.

Is it possible to taint such a moment. Sadly, the answer to that is Yes.  As the child grows up she notices she is being watched and smiled upon by others oowing and awing over her faith. To the point, in fact, that she starts noticing when others are not watching her when she is worshiping. This was my moment last Sunday at worship service.  I stopped smiling at my daughter as she worshiped and I entered in to God's presents myself, eyes closed. There was a tap on my shoulder to get my attention, to get my eyes back on her arms raised and this time little dancing jig before the Lord. We were in the front row at church and that was not embarrassing, or what frustrated me and asked her to settle down. No, it was the fact that her innocent worship had turned from telling God "I love you!", to "look at me I know how to worship God." 

I love my daughter so very much and I am seeing myself in her when I was her age more and more. She is very needy in the way that she must have approval of her actions and words and when she fails to please others she is devastated.

One of my prayers for her is for God to help her to learn to be Christ centered and not the Center of Attention. How does this process take place? How can I help my daughter grow in Christ and not in the desire to please others?

I looked inside myself and I asked God to show me my journey and how I have come to place him as my Center instead of being self centered and desiring the crowds of attention?  Then I found myself asking another question. Does that little girl dancing and doing the right things for all to see and admire still exist inside of me? Has she ever grown up, or is she still seeking out attention, to be heard and seen?

I think as adults we have to be in constant pursuit of God's will for our life. That we need to keep ourselves and motives in check by making sure it is our daddy's attention we are seeking not the world around us. But as I say this I realize that even this can be a state of stagnate growth.

Let me explain in child like terms. Picture a child always seeking attention from her momma. She pouts in the corner, interrupts carelessly because her every need is more important than phone calls or anyone you might be talking to. She cries whether she is hurt or not at even the possible need of a band-aid.  Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with this. Children will be children; they are growing and learning. Children have parents because they need them. However picturing these moment with my kids, their attempts to get my attention, I realize in those moments their actions do not prompt my desire to stop everything and pay complete attention to them. A pouting winy child is hard to love and adore. Why? Because life is all about them, their needs and their wants, and all about them getting what they want. As adults we know that is not what life is all about, at least I hope we know.

I think as we grow spiritually, as we draw close to our daddy Jesus, we can fall into this child like behavior.  We talk to him and tell him things and He listens, but when he speaks and it is not what we want to hear we ignore him. We decide to just keep pouting and wining over not getting our own way and complaining about how miserable our life is and asking him to change it. 

The only way for us to change is for us let God grow in our center. For God and his will to be our center. For God, his love, and will for us to be more real than anything the world has to offer, including relationships. When we give our life to Christ it is no longer our own to live. It can no longer be about whether we are comfortable, heard or seen but rather about how God's love can be spread, his word be heard, and His death on the cross to save us lost, be received.

1 Corinthians 14:20 Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.
 1 Corinthians 3:1-3  Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly^, mere infants in Christ.  I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?

So how do we go from mere infants in Christ, to living a Christ Centered life? How do we go from always tugging at our daddy's pant leg for attention or desiring the attention of those around us in order to feel good about ourselves and gain a false self worth, to living our lives for the benefit of others and God's glory not our own?

This is the journey I am on through the bible and prayer. Not that I have gone from total infant to adult in the Lord spiritually. I do not believe I have arrived. I think I still say things just to make people laugh, to have a feel good moment, a self pat on the back. Is that wrong?  Heart motives are behind everything we say and do. We are all growing and have not arrived to our full potential. I feel like this journey from here to there and remembering the steps in between I have already taken will help me to know the ones up a head I know I still need to take. Perhaps this is a journey Christ is asking you to take as well. If so pray and ask him to show you through his word and life experiences how you can grow and make him more the Center of  your life.

Lord let us be less and you more. Lord let you be the Center of our lives. Grow in us from the inside out and help us learn to grow from the stage of needy children to servants of others, being your hands and feet humbly, unselfishly out of our love for the lost, not for an empty pat on the back or smile of approval. Bring understanding of your word and help us keep our dates with you to listen to you speak as we read your word and chat together about it.

Praise you Jesus for teaching us how wonderful it feels to serve you unselfishly with out thought of reward.  Praise you Jesus for giving moms and dad's the love their children need even in their most difficult to love moments. Praise you Jesus for being our perfect example of unselfish serving love, and life lived to the fullest for us. Grow me and others on this Journey from Center of Attention to Christ Centered.

Amen in Jesus Name

People

Our relationships with people must be second so that our Love for people can come first.

When we gave our lives to live them for Jesus something was suppose to change. We are no longer our own to govern, rule, and determine. It is not about just us any longer. We have victory living as His; our life's standard is set in our very being. So in reaching our victorious destination as His, we begin our new life lived for Him by loving people. All People! His People, lost people, smelly people, puffed up proud people, people in charge, people who want to be in charge, happy people , and sad people. I could go on for ages but you get the point.

Our relationship with the Lord can give us the unique ability to see others through His eyes and not rely on our own. We can get past the "What's in this relationship for me?" Our petty human standards. Instead we can ask, " How does God desire me to bless this person through using me?" or "What does God want me to learn from blessing this person?"  Using God's eye view the impossible becomes possible. Past hurts and wrongs done unto us in relationships can be forgiven. By His grace filling in our gaps it is possible when we remember that He who forgave us much, has asked us to do the same for others.

Matthew 6:14-15 says pretty clearly how important forgivness is.
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Read Matthew 18:21-35 The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, For more study on this.

When we put loving people first and relationship with people second it frees us to love them how God would have us love them.  It keeps us in the right perspective in reality. We live to please God, not ourselves or others people. Speaking truth in love can happen more proficiently when we are not self indulged in keeping our own reputations in relationships intact. When we know where our allegiance is in the Lord we can freely forgive, speak up, stand up, direct, correct, and love the people he has called us to love.

Why? Why not?

Why do we do the things we do? Why do we enjoy memorizing lyrics to songs and lines to quote from movies but make a chore out of memorizing life giving scripture?

Why do we say the things we say? When life gets tough we let hopeless complaints pour out like rain on a sunny day. Instead we could practice speaking truth and know that God works all things for the good of those who love him. We could speak hope and know that the love of our Lord abidith in all things and is stead fast, unshakable and with us at every moment.

Why do we act the way we act? We are shy, lazy, and sometimes a bit crazy. We speak up when it is not important to be heard to be known as funny or special, puffing up our pride. We get choked up when the Lord's words come into our throat and His name is to be glorified. We feel it is a heavy load instead of an honor to carry God's message to be told.

Are we honest when it matters? Do we shine forth our faith when people are looking or only when we are safe from ridicule, safely tucked inside our church shaped box?

In public  He was ridiculed,  stripped bare, and spit upon.

Isaiah 53:4-6

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
   and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
   stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
   and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
   each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
   the iniquity of us all.

Surely if the Lord our God can stick up for us, live his life on earth for us in such a profound way... We can boldly step up our walk with Him. We can claim victory in His name that he has paid for by His blood. Surely we can remember to place God's will above our own and Gods ways before our comfy cozy ways. I pray each of us would learn  to step up our walk with the Lord. That we would learn what it means to Glorify His name with our life we live. May we seek his face and desire his presence. May we know that in Him and our life lived for his Glory is where true freedom, joy and peace begins. May we remember that to love him is to obey him. He has called us to love the lost, share the good news,  and make disciples of all nations. May we live life on purpose, His purpose for the applause of one, the One that matters, God!

Choices

Life is full of choices; decisions to go to the left or to the right, up our path or down. There are bad choices and good ones; joyous out-comes and deteriorating consequences. Each day we will choose when we rise and when we lay down, when we smile or frown. We choose to love or hate, to be graciously kind, or to complain. We choose God to rule our day or try and force things to go our way.  

Isaiah: 66 3-4
They have chosen their own ways, and they delight in their abominations; so I also will choose harsh treatment for them and will bring on them what they dread. For when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, no one listened. They did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me.”

Today I choose to live in victory and not let life's circumstances negate my positive state. Today I choose to be healthy in my body, my spirit and my mind. I will not let stress be my excuse to desecrate my health. I choose to meditate on the word, on things above, things that are excellent and worthy of my contemplation. I will take my thoughts captive that are not beneficial to my joy, my peace, my happiness that God so wonderfully gives.  I choose to live my life in the moment that I am, giving my loved ones my full attention they seek.  I choose this day to not stand on my tight rope of self reliability, but rather I choose to stand on the strong shoulders of God who holds my feet and keeps me from falling even when I am weak. I Trust in the Lord, my God to be my all in all this day and the next. This day I give to Him to help me succeed in the choices I have made. I f today I stumble and fail to comply, if I compromise and forget, tomorrow I will start again. I will learn to keep my word to myself, my loved ones and my God! Each day we are given is a new day with no mistakes in it....yet:)

Thank you Jesus for your ever Faithfulness! Praise you for your embrace and grace! Guide my steps today
 Help today be victorious and not another disgrace. Amen

Isaiah 30:21 "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

In Whom Do You Place Your Trust?

As people, we tend to get nervous placing all our eggs into one basket. We want plan A B and C all the way down to plan Z, all worked out just in case. We want to know for sure what's ahead so we rely on our GPS instead of the memory in our head.  In whom do we place our trust through out the days we live going by one by one. In whom are we relying on? Each day we crawl out of bed and begin to walk our days tight rope act, but not until our imaginary safety nets are complete and intact.

 

Isaiah 26:3-4 You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal. 

 

Have you found yourself basking in perfect peace lately? No? In whom are you placing your trust? 

 

Isaiah 30:1-18 “Woe to the obstinate children,”    declares the LORD, “to those who carry out plans that are not mine,  forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit,  heaping sin upon sin;  who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge. But Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame, Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace. Though they have officials in Zoan and their envoys have arrived in Hanes, everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them, who bring neither help nor advantage, but only shame and disgrace.” Through a land of hardship and distress, of lions and lionesses, of adders and darting snakes, the envoys carry their riches on donkeys’ backs, their treasures on the humps of camels, to that unprofitable nation, to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the Do-Nothing. Go now, write it on a tablet for them,  inscribe it on a scroll, that for the days to come it may be an everlasting witness. For these are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the LORD’s instruction. They say to the seers, “See no more visions!” and to the prophets, “Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!” Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant. It will break in pieces like pottery, shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces not a fragment will be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern.”This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’ Therefore you will flee! You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’ Therefore your pursuers will be swift! A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee away, till you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,  like a banner on a hill.”Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! 

 

We want to go about our own business and feel good about what we do. We want things to be easy and simple yet we continue down the roughest route. We compromise our health with feel good sweets, TV sitcoms instead of a healthy work out, or quality time with actual friends. We want to be happy so we read self help books and romance novels to give us the momentary fixes we think we need. We start feeling stuck and wonder why we can't seem to just get a grip. Life starts unreeling, because with tangled fishing line on your pole, making the big catch can't quite happen yet. We place lines the media feeds us in our hearts replacing Gods word. Such as " You want the Truth? You can't handle the truth!" When the Lord tells us in John 8:31-32  “If you live by what I say, you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  

 

Perhaps you are like me and you place your trust in yourself and soon every little thing that needs to be done seems unending, mundane and even unnerving. Big things, little things, ginormous things, we try and carry on our own. Pretty soon our schedule is all upside down and those that matter the most are swept aside down to our last priority instead of our first. Our families constantly learn to get by with what is left of us at the end of the day instead of the best of us that they need to feel loved by their mom or wife.  By the weight of the world, begins our crushing defeat. When we place our trust in people and things rather than God we loose sight of whose we are, why we are and where we are going in life.

 

I have always said when you put God first in your life he places everyone else and thing in the order it belongs and that means family is next in line. But there are times I try too hard to place God first by getting busy doing things to prove my love for him, instead of just knowing He loves me and I love Him and letting Him take charge of my day and the rest of my life.

 

Proverb 3:5-7 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

 

If you like me have had trouble placing all your eggs in one basket, all your trust in the Lord your God. Please Join me in praying this prayer.

 

Lord God I ask you to forgive me for placing my trust in people and things more than I have placed my trust in you. I ask for your help to continue to open my eyes to the ways in which I sin toward you, especially when I lack faith in my one True God. I ask for forgiveness for when I have turned away from your word looking for something that made me feel better in the moment instead of what I needed to be nourished and grown up in you. I pray that you would teach me how to place you as my first priority in my life. Only then can I begin to feel the peace of balance in my life. Then my loved ones you have blessed me with can have the time they need from me. Lord help me to keep my quiet dates with you a priority. I want your words guiding my life. I want to be your disciple and your truth to continue to set me free. Lord my God, my King I praise you! In you I can find perfect peace. I choose to wait on the Lord for you, my Jesus, have been so good to me. AMEN

 

“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength...The LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! 

 

Isaiah 12:1-3  In that day you will say “I will praise you, LORD.  Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD himself, is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.”  With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

 

We all like sheep have gone astray.

^{Isaiah 2:22} 

"Stop trusting in mere humans..."     

 

So often we try and fail. So often we seek and pursue things of our own choosing with out asking God's advice at all and wonder why things just seem to be going all wrong. We try and try and start feeling like with all our effort put forth we deserve success in at least one endeavor we seek. 

 

Isaiah 40:7-8 The grass withers and the flowers fade beneath the breath of the Lord. And so it is with people. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.” 

 

I believe this is saying man in all his glorious triumphs will fade away and God's word is what is left standing in the end. Man in all his ways will try in vain to succeed but those who give all glory to God and humbly live simply His will live victoriously.

 

Isaiah26:3-4 You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal.

 

Oh how we have fall again and again. We place our trust in man and self rather than God. How many years in the dessert during Moses's day in vain did the Lord, teach us to simple follow His lead?

 

Exodus 13:21 The Lord went ahead of them. He guided them during the day with a pillar of cloud, and he provided light at night with a pillar of fire. This allowed them to travel by day or by night.

 

The Lord is our shepherd and we His sheep. When will we learn that life lived to the fullest is a life lead by our shepherd; Not  a life lived gone astray, with our shepherd following our trail of destruction, coxing us back to Him and our flock again and again?

 

Isaiah 31:1-2 What sorrow awaits those who look to Egypt for help, trusting their horses, chariots, and charioteer and depending on the strength of human armies instead of looking to the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

 

Isaiah 30:15-16  This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’ Therefore you will flee! You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’ Therefore your pursuers will be swift! 

 

Isaiah 50:10-11 Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant? Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on their God. But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment.

 

There is hope! Though we have given up on God time and time again He has never given up on us!

 

Isaiah 9:6 "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

 

Isaiah 53:5-7 But he was pierced for our transgressions,  he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 

Isaiah 12:2-3 

Surely God is my salvation;
   I will trust and not be afraid.
The LORD, the LORD himself, 

is my strength and my defense;
   he has become my salvation.”
With joy you will draw water
   from the wells of salvation. 

Remarkable Distraction

The Lord almighty made Adam as a companion for himself. The Lord desired a relationship with Adam. However Adam walking in the Garden chatting with God alone was not satisfying enough. I imagine it going something like this.

"So mm  God you know what I named that animal with the flappy wing a things?"
"Eagle....right?" 
"mmm Yes... How about the four legged furry little jumper over yander?"
"Rabbit"
silence....silence...."SO you gave me this task of naming the animals to make me feel important. Some how it loses that effect since you still know every thought that comes to my mind thus knowing what I am naming them before I do myself."  " Do you think you could just humor me and pretend I know something you don't when we chat?

"What did I call that furry hehaaing hooved creature?"
"Adam what did you call it?"
"MMM well I called it....an an...oh you already know."

" Yes Ass is an unusual name. You were riding it at the time of naming it weren't you?"

"You know everything!"

"Yes I do."

Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Have you ever had a best friend? Or perhaps a brother that you loved dearly and wanted to keep all for yourself forever? I had a brother who got married young. I adored him and he was the one I always wanted to spend my time with. I wanted to hate his new wife. I wanted to despise her. She not only took the time that my brother used to spend with me. He moved out of our home and I no longer saw him hardly ever. He was too distracted by the love of his life to keep a little kid sister the center of any part of his life. Sure, I knew he loved me somewhere down deep in my heart. I mostly felt I had lost him.

How amazing of God, knowing man through and through to make for him Eve. The greatest distraction ever created. God made Adam a help mate to keep him company. God loved both Adam and Eve. He walked and talked with them in the garden. But you can bet that things were not the same ever again. God was not the complete center of Adam's world any longer. But the love of our God is so great, So wide and so deep, truly no one can fathom it. He put the love for Adam first before the reason he created him in the first place, to have a relationship with him. God loved Adam so much that he made for him someone to love, someone that if he so chose, he could love even more than God his father, his creator, his reason for existing.

I learned to love my new sister inlaw. How can you hate someone that makes someone you love so happy. And so it is with God. He is a jealous God. He desires us to put our relationship with him first. But he also knows us through and though and understands our need for a helpmate in our life. He is and always be our first love, love baring through all our hard times, ups and downs. Our Daddy is always there waiting for us to chat with him, longing to hear our voice, longing to be the center of our world again. 

How remarkable of God to create us such a profound distraction from him, just because he cares about whether or not we are happy!

Isaiah 55:8-9  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.
 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."