Alive inside out!

from a devotion I wrote a couple of years ago...
Read Luke 6: 46-49

John 4:14
“but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”

Are you spiritually dead? Do you look alive on the outside and to others but inside you know you are anything but alive? Do you easily fall into the “going through the motions” trap or the “usefulness” trap? I can say that I have fallen into both at one time or another.

Do you ever wake up and realize you are just going through the motions in your marriage or singleness, at church, and or on the job? I have. You know how it is. You wake up in the doldrums. Then you realize when someone asks you how you are doing that you say, “great,” even though you don’t feel great, because you really don’t want to go into why you think your life isn’t great, and besides you know the other person doesn’t want to hear about it anyway. I used to get depressed when I would feel this way, but now I rejoice. I rejoice because it is a wake up call from God. He is helping me to realize this feeling as a sign that I am trying to become an island unto myself. It is time to remember who I am and whose I am and to be grateful for that. I am a child of God and I belong to Him. It is at these times that I realize that I am allowing my relationship with the Source of my being to drop out of first place.

The same effect can occur when I try to be “useful” to God. Useful service can be a subtle trap because I start to concern myself with how useful I am being for God rather than focusing on my relationship with Him. I have to watch myself from falling into this trap and remember that my relationship with Christ is above all the ways I serve Him. I have to remember to trust that God will use me when I place Him first in my life, and that I will not be aware of how my service will affect others most of the time nor should I be focused on that.

My relationship with my Redeemer takes intention and effort. When I return to the basics of prayer and study of His living Word, then I come to my foundation, Christ Jesus. When I am in right relationship with my Lord and Savior I am ALIVE! He pours “rivers of living water” (John 7:38) into me. When I return home to my Center, Christ, God transforms me into a spiritually alive being. Disciple Bible Study has been a vital method for me to remember who I am and whose I am. It always serves to waken me from spiritual forgetfulness.

I find that when God calls me to a particular ministry, His purpose is to transform me. His main purpose in calling me is for me to learn to be obedient and trust Him. He knows what I will face, what I will learn and what I need to overcome so that I can continue to place Him first in my life. In relationship, where I surrender in obedience and trust, He can transform me into the likeness of his most holy and precious son, Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for wake up calls and thank you for your transforming power in our lives. Thank you for your gift of being spiritually alive! Amen.

Thought for the day: Remember that faith is much more than stating what you believe to be true. Faith is more than appearing righteous to others. Faith is relationship, which requires trust and obedience. Faith is being true to your relationship with your Lord and Savior and loving him with your whole heart.

Prayer focus: Those who do not realize that they are spiritually dead