On Stepping Off the Path

-
At this stage of my life, I find that what seems just a slight bit of disobedience on my part puts a damper on my enjoyment of God's presence in my life.

When that cloud passes between me and the Son, it's a sign that something is wrong, and it always eventually brings me back to the source of the problem.  Then I can acknowledge the thing that is in the way, ask God to forgive me, and immediately bask in the sense of his Presence again.

He has promised never to leave me or forsake me, so I can count on it that he is present always, just like I can know that the sun always shines above the clouds on dark days.

So when it feels like he has moved away, it's really only that there's a cloud between us.  And he is always standing by, ready and willing to blow it away.  He just waits for us to ask.

David's 3000-year-old songs are universally true.  They are as useful to us today as they were to him back then.

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.
Psalm 51:10-12
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ten Ways to Open Your Heart to Renewal

-
The beginning of a new year is a natural time for thinking about renewal. We say good-bye to an old, tired year and look with hope and expectation to a new one. A clean page. A fresh chance. A time to think about how to make our future better--more productive, more significant, more successful, more joy-filled. For Christians, thoughts of renewal usually revolve around God. We belong to Him forever, but we are vacillating human beings, and our relationship with Him can easily stagnate. We need times of refreshing. We need to come again to the fountain of living water. We need to long for Him so deeply that it drives us back into His presence. Thankfully, God prompts that longing. He never forces Himself back into our lives, but the restlessness we feel without Him invariably draws us. So what to do when we feel the restlessness? When we become aware that something's not right in our spirits? God is the One who must rescue us from the doldrums of spiritual lethargy, but there are st...
Read more

My Truth, Spoken in Love

-
Image
As I’m sure all of you know, I have a policy of not sharing opinions about politics on Facebook. I don’t believe Facebook is a great platform for discussing things that we all tend to feel passionate about, unless those passions are strongly loving and able to be expressed positively. But I am challenged by my friend, Gina Bell’s post, to break with my tradition about that policy this once. At least the politics part of it—not the loving and positive one. I hope I can express my beliefs lovingly and positively here. I never want to offend anyone, not because I’m afraid of their reaction, but because I don’t want to hurt anyone, or add more heat than light to whatever issue we’re talking about. I want everything I share here to be not only truthful and loving but uplifting and profitable for making the world a better place. So here goes: my break with tradition—my thoughts on the current political climate in the U.S. Like many of my Facebook friends, I am worried ...
Read more

Five Common Myths About Sharing the Gospel

-
Image
This article was originally posted in the FECB blog on January 22, 2013 We mean well.   We really want our friends to know Jesus.   But too often we approach them with wrong ideas in our heads.   If we really want to be effective witnesses, we should be aware of five common myths about evangelism. Myth #1: There are two kinds of people:   them and us.   It's a mistake to see everyone as being on one side of the fence or the other.   That's not the appropriate metaphor.   There's no fence.   There's a road, and we're all walking on it.   For sure, there's a point in every person's journey when they choose to follow Jesus. But it's only a step along the path.   The road continues.   None of us has arrived until we get to heaven, and we're all learning as we go.   The people we want to share Jesus with are just fellow travelers.   Realizing this opens up a whole new way of seeing others, and it will cha...
Read more