September 5, 2010
| From the Pastor's Study |
Are You a Microwave Christian
June 3, 2010 • By
Being a child of the 60's I have seen society literally transform itself before my eyes. And though I'm nearly 50 years young, I have made it my aim to keep up with the technological changes that continue to occur almost daily. However, I am all too aware that many children of the 80's and 90's have never really had to wait on anything. Why have a one on one, telephone conversation or a sit down, face to face conversation when you can send a text? Why wait on the "snail mail" when you can send an email? Rather than sitting down at a restaurant, we order "to go" from that same restaurant. It seems as though the value of waiting has been lost to this modern generation. This becomes problematic when you try to bring this over into the realm of the Spirit. No matter how fast this generation moves, we all still have to wait on God.
The obsession we have with our toys and our microwave mentality has distracted us from seeking a true relationship with the living God. However, no matter how anxious we are or how impatient and obnoxious we behave, He still requires us to wait for His presence before He shows Himself to us. Two songs and a lukewarm prayer will not force Him to move any more than merely haphazardly "reciting" words from a page of what we call confessions. It takes us sincerely going back to Him as our first love while patiently, obediently, and reverently waiting on Him on His terms, not our own. This is form without substance.
There must be a balance in our understanding of what I'm saying. Once we have waited on God to find His purposes and plans, then we must aggresively pursue them with all of our God given power. In fact this is one reason that most believers never accomplish much in life, even though we have the power of God, the authority of God, the wisdom of God and the resources of God available to us. We aren't aggressive enough in our pursuits. We somehow believe that God is going to do it all for us; but He's not. Again, once we have discovered what God wants us to do then we no longer need to wait, we must aggressively act.
The area that I'm addressing comes before knowing what He wants. I'm referreing to discovering God's purpose and plans for our lives. Ask your if you are truly being led by God - mastered, influenced and controlled by His Spirit; or are you simply trying to lead Him in the way that you want to go? Is your worship a true and sincere effort to move into the "secret place" where you wait on His presence so that you may know Him and make Him known to others; or is it a form of worship that is simply used for show? Do you truly love and trust Him enough to wait on Him; or do you really think that you can handle it all on your own without Him? Each of us has to answer that question in our on hearts for ourselves. Selah!
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