He said to them, "This kind [of unclean spirit] can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting" Mark 9:29
A quote from Chambers just to start us off:
We can remain powerless forever, as the disciples were in this situation, by trying to do God’s work without concentrating on His power, and by following instead the ideas that we draw from our own nature.
I think I am guilty of doing this very thing quite a bit. My own nature is flawed. I am not a perfect person. That imperfection gets in the way of serving Jesus. I get "weary" of people. I have to admit this. I am quite the introvert and sometimes I find it just easier to go away by myself. Then I don't have to deal with loving them the way the Lord calls me to. When I go away by myself, I do things for myself-like read, or take a walk, or surf the net. Jesus sometimes got away by Himself-but not for himself. He would go away to pray, seeking to get closer to his Father. He would go away because He was loving people the way He was supposed to. He was empowered by His Father to serve.
Another quote:
Your duty in service and ministry is to see that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself. Is there anything between you and Jesus even now? If there is, you must get through it, not by ignoring it as an irritation, or by going up and over it, but by facing it and getting through it into the presence of Jesus Christ.
Is there something between Jesus and me? I am currently examining myself to answer this question. I aim to get through whatever it is.
We must be able to “mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31), but we must also know how to come down. The power of the saint lies in the coming down and in the living that is done in the valley.
I don't always like living in the valley...but that is where I am called to live. My retreat is on the mountaintop, but he has built my house in the valley for me to dwell in and live in...and love people in. That is when I am forced to call upon Him for help.
Chambers was so good today that I just wanted to quote the whole thing. I'll end with his final thought:
Can I face things as they actually are in the light of the reality of Jesus Christ, or do things as they really are destroy my faith in Him, and put me into a panic?
Photo of my husband and daughter on Mt. Cardigan, NH.
I have been keeping up fairly well with reading my devotional, but Sundays are a little tougher to keep up with.
ReplyDeleteI also find that I like to retreat rather than face what is before me. Mondays, though not so hard as they used to be, come around much faster than I'd like them too. I must remember that this is the valley in which I live. Tomorrow I have children to love, little faces to wash, little hands to hold, and two bushels of apples to decide what to do with. :)