ALONE WITH GOD…..

I read recently that the average pastor spends about 4 minutes a day with the Lord personally. Where would you think that leaves us??? I suggest, at less than that. If you were God, how pleased would you be with your people considering what it cost you to purchase back for them their salvation and eternal future with Him? Is it any wonder we have few spiritual giants among us??? In our everyday life, how many do you meet, how many in your neighborhood or at your place of employment? My son Pastor Bill reads a lot…and I mean a lot. He particularly likes to read about the Puritans and other long past believers. I have read many giants from the past and have the same opinion Bill does…we are the losers because we have allowed ourselves to get into a circle of “doing.” We are so busy, we never take the time we must have with the Lord alone, in order to maintain a quality spiritual life. I remember reading about Oswald Chambers and his relationship with Christ…he referred to it in a Biblical term, intimate. We generally think of that word as referring to a sexual relationship in marriage. Not so, God uses it as depicting such a close relationship with Him that even if we DO think of it in those terms, we won’t be far off. His idea of intimacy is being so close and in tune, we talk to Him continually, think through with Him our daily life and decisions, look to Him to think with us our choices and options. It becomes a matter of what or in this case, Who is in/on our minds. Every Biblical character we read about that did great things for God, was “with Him” continually. Our problem is we have allowed our lives to become too complicated, we constantly spin our wheels and frequently get no where. If we would spend more time with Him we would have spiritual giants among us once again. If we let Him, He will show us the “much more” of Scripture, more beyond what others see. He wants us to realize our true strength will come from our stopping the idea of controlling our own lives and turning the “control tower” (our minds) over to Him. Our entire human society teaches us the opposite. Consequently, when we spend little if any time with Him, we don’t take in enough to make the difference. We think like the world thinks because that is where our input is coming from.

Another contributing character quality that we have greatly neglected is humility. The world makes humility, meekness, gentleness, caring, seem to be signs of weakness not strength. Years ago an old friend of mine used this phrase, “meekness is strength grown tender.” I never forgot that quote, she was speaking of
Christ and it truly fit Him…He was the strongest man that ever lived…and died! We as believers need those qualities in our lives and in an active manner…those qualities show moral character, ethic, principle…qualities sadly lacking in our country today. There is a moral glut…if you pay any amount of attention to our congress and other leadership that is available to us on fox News and the few other conservative/fair and balanced outlets, you can plainly see the total lack of morality and ethics in many/most of our representatives. They have even forgotten they represent us…they say they do but don’t act like it. They do not listen to what their constituents are saying and voting and promoting those values and  issues that the people want. That is what our Constitution promotes, actually what our War of Independence was fought for…representative government. We elect individuals to “speak” for us by their vote. Today, our representatives think they know more and better than we do and will vote accordingly. Progressivism has taken us far away from what our Founders intended and wrote. I  understand we  living in the end time and much of this is being allowed by God to that end, so I try not to rail against what God is allowing. But it surely saddens my heart as I watch the Body of Believers that I am part of and care about, accept like the sheep we are, what the world wants us to accept. A humbled heart doesn’t accept such things, but looks to God for further instruction and for action. I trust you will consider and obey the Spirit of God as he leads us on to “higher ground,” which is being alone with God, drawing wisdom and strength from Him, for His glory.