Halfhearted vs Wholehearted
Thank You, Father, today was a much better day than yesterday. I have been more in step with You and that’s the way I like it, too!
Romans 6:15-23 (<<click here to read the passage)
When you were in school did you ever have a partner in some project or lab assignment that could not have cared any less about the whole thing? There were things that had to be accomplished and you ended up doing everything because they had no interest in doing anything. To say their attempts were halfhearted would have been the understatement of the year!
People who succeed in life, those who are at the top of their game or their field, give it all they’ve got. Whether it’s in athletics, the arts, or the business world. Those who wholeheartedly give of themselves are the ones who are victorious.
Top-notch athletes in any field of play didn’t get there because they were good-looking or because they knew somebody, they got there because they worked hard and pushed themselves to be the very best they could be. Early morning hours before school, and grueling practicing until way after dark, were the norm.
The same can be said for musicians. One does not become the first chair of any instrument without hours of practice. Listening to those who would teach them and again pushing themselves to the limits of mental and physical fatigue to get all the nuances of that particular musical piece just right, was how they got to the place where opportunities became available to them. Good wasn’t good enough, they had to be the best – halfhearted efforts get you nowhere.
I would say that many of those things would require a certain amount of raw talent with which to work. But what about our relationships with God? Reading verses 16-17 can you honestly lay claim to the very last phrase?
Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. NLT
Firstly, no “talent” is required. No one has a leg up on anyone else. Just because I was raised in a Christian home, just because I am an ordained elder and pastor churches, doesn’t make me special. Yes, I have a fair amount of experience, but if my relationship with God is shallow or non-existent – if I live out my relationship halfheartedly – a newly converted follower of Christ would be leagues ahead of me. Their relationship would be vibrant and impacting on themselves and others.
I could have all kinds of head knowledge but if I am not wholeheartedly obeying the teaching given me, it amounts to absolutely nothing.
May we be driven to invest our lives into our relationship with God. May we read, may we study, may we pray, may we listen to things that draw us to God and not things that build a wall between us. And the most wonderful thing of all is that it can all be done right in the middle of life. We don’t have to hole up in a monastery. We just need to pray and ask for the Holy Spirit’s infilling and His direction. And those prayers will surely be answered!
Jan 10th, 2023, Tues, 5:00 pm
Pressure!
I am sitting down far too late in the day, Father – but You know that of course. Reel me back in. Realign me. Use this flawed vessel once more, I humbly plead.
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Pressure. Most of us aren’t fans of pressure in our lives. We often see it with a fairly negative perspective. The more pressure we have in our lives, the less we enjoy our lives. Pressure can drive many people to extreme actions or reactions – violent outbursts, shutting down from interaction with others…even suicide.
But pressure can be beneficial. I read recently where two men who were serving in the military together had made a pact that if one of them was killed the other would not leave them but would make sure their body got back to be properly taken care of. Through the course of their service, one took a sniper’s bullet in the chest, and miraculously, he survived! All his buddy could do was apply pressure to where the bullet had entered his body, all the while dragging him to safety! It was enough to save his life!
Almost three months ago, I began using a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine to address my sleep apnea. Basically, sleep apnea is when you stop breathing while you are sleeping due to some sort of obstruction in your airway. Snoring can be a sign of this issue.
I’m not an expert on it all but the CPAP machine as the acronym states creates continuous positive airway pressure. The one I use automatically determines how much pressure is needed to keep the obstruction at bay. It takes a bit of getting used to, but one thing – I don’t snore anymore, for which Karen is very grateful. And reading the results from my machine tells me I have very little time when I stop breathing – before using the machine I had serious issues in that area.
And it all comes down to pressure!
There are some areas in life where we need to avoid pressure but there are times too when we must use the pressure to help ourselves to be victorious. Instead of letting pressure destroy us, we need to let it fortify us, making us stronger.
What does the Bible have to say about how we should deal with pressure? Here is Proverbs 3:5-6 from the Amplified Bible.
Trust in and rely confidently on the Lord with all your heart
And do not rely on your own insight or understanding.
In all your ways know and acknowledge and recognize Him,
And He will make your paths straight and smooth [removing obstacles that block your way].
From experience, I know that life is just too much to bear alone. Clinging to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is the only way to handle the pressures of life. We must trust him; we must rely on Him and we can do so confidently! And we must do so, not half-heartedly but with all our heart. We cannot rely on ourselves. We must come to the full realization that He is the one that can take that pressure from us and in doing so can remove the obstacles that block our way!
Without pressure, we’d be very apt to think that we could handle everything. But with pressure, we realize that we can’t, and it is then that we seek out the Lord…and then we are victorious! Amen!
Jan 9th, 2023, Mon, 5:52 pm
Light Up Life and Faith
Even with all the hecticness of the last week, there is a peace about sitting down with You tonight, Father. Use me as You will. May the words flowing through my fingertips be the words that someone needs – myself included – as we walk this journey of life. Amen.
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When I sat down to write last Tuesday, I had every intention to pick up where I had left off the night before, but life happened and that didn’t!
So a little further down in the prayer GOD THE SPIRIT from The Valley of Vision there is this:
When I feel my lack of him, light up life and faith,
….for when I lose thee I am either in the dark and cannot see thee,
….or Satan and my natural abilities content me with a little light,
….so that I seek no further for the Spirit of life.
Teach me then what to do.
It never ceases to amaze me how God can bring seemingly random melodies in life into perfect harmony! I am continuing to read The Valley of Vision and I have also taken up, The Way of Love: Re-Discovering the Only Path to Peace in This Life (by Ted Dekker) a devotional that Karen and Massey gave me for Christmas 2021. (I’ve also been reading The Life of Christ by Umphrey Lee, loaned to me by a dear friend. It linked very well to today’s sermon!)
The Valley of Vision and The Way of Love intersected in the paragraph quoted above. In Dekker’s devotional, he speaks, as the Bible clearly states, that we are born into a world shrouded entirely in darkness. Only as we are in Yeshua (Jesus’ original name in Hebrew) is light brought into the darkness. Even as believers, we are blinded while living here unless we fully embrace the path that Yeshua has set before us. And it may sound far too simple, but it is what Yeshua calls us to, and that is love.
Dekker quotes 1 John 2:10-11,
The one who loves his brother and sister remains in the Light, and there is nothing in him to cause stumbling. But the one who hates his brother or sister is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. NASB
One of our overwhelming issues in life is the lack of truly genuine, agape love. From a Biblical viewpoint, agape love is unconditional love. That is the kind of love God shows and extends to us, but it is certainly difficult to come by in this world. Even amongst those of us who would lay down our lives for those we love, to love them unconditionally is virtually unattainable. But that must be our goal.
Lord Jesus, as our Puritan friend prayed, when we feel a lack of Your Holy Spirit, when we are in the dark and cannot see thee…light up life and faith. And when we ask then that He teach us what to do, may we be filled to overflowing with Your love – not the shammy here-today-gone-tomorrow love of the world but Your agape – unconditional love. So be it…Amen.
Jan 8th, 2023, Sun, 7:15 pm
Seal and Impression
It wasn’t an overly eventful break but there was enough downtime to recharge my battery and get a good start on some beneficial habits. Father, I would ask for Your blessing on our time together.
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Over break, I made a point of reading the same prayer in The Valley of Vision pretty much every day. The Puritan that wrote the lines I read packed a lot in and his words stretched me. Although his original terminology has been written into more contemporary English, I still must look up words fairly regularly. And certain lines just take me a while to fully grasp the author’s intent.
In the prayer entitled GOD THE SPIRIT, the author is lamenting that he is shorting himself, if you will. God’s resources are infinite. They never run dry. They’re never in short supply. But us? We often let ourselves get to the bottom of the barrel.
Often, I feel like one of the foolish virgins (bridesmaids) that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 25:1-13. Part of their cultural tradition was that they come prepared with their lamps (small clay pots with a wick that was fueled with oil). The five wise virgins had everything they needed, extra oil included but the five foolish virgins neglected to bring extra oil.
They may have been lazy but for the most part, they were negligent. In all the excitement of the occasion – a wedding mind you! – they may have just forgotten. Regardless, when the bridegroom arrived, they were off in the middle of the night, trying to find oil.
There may be times when I ignore the Spirit’s words to me, but more oft than naught, I’m just not paying attention. Or I’m distracted by other things that I feel are important…but those things are never more important than what the Holy Spirit is communicating to me. The Puritan author writes,
I pray not so much for graces as for the Spirit himself,
because I feel his absence,
and act by my own spirit in everything.
Give me not weak desires but the power of his presence,
for this is the surest way to have all his graces,
and when I have the seal I have the impression also… (emphasis mine)
I’ve wrestled with that last line. I know what a seal is and how an impression is made. But trying to wrap my mind around it has been a challenge.
Hundreds of years ago, it was a common means of securing correspondence. Initially, it was used by the powers that be – royalty and then the “church”. The seal was of wax and the impression was made on the hot wax with a ring or something that would leave an identifying mark in the wax.
In 2 Corinthians 1:22, the Apostle Paul stated,
[God] has also put His seal on us [that is, He has appropriated us and certified us as His] and has given us the [Holy] Spirit in our hearts as a pledge [like a security deposit to guarantee the fulfillment of His promise of eternal life]. AMP
God has put His seal on us, and the Holy Spirit is the impression – He is that security deposit to guarantee the fulfillment of His promise of eternal life.
God has surely done His part. Now it is our turn. We must lay hold of what has been given us. We must not let the paltry offerings of the world distract us!
Our Heavenly Father is more than generous, and we can’t ignore it! Amen? Amen!
Jan 3rd, 2023, Tues, 12:40 pm
Quiet Christmas Needed
Thank You, Father, for where you have me. It is not always a perfect place to be, but You are always with me. I’m not perfect myself, so You get me through it all in spite of myself. I cling to Your mighty power to do so. All praise to You!
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I am somewhat hesitant to do this, but I am in need of a little hiatus. I am weary on many fronts – physically, mentally… I am just grateful that I am rekindling my walk with the Lord. I’ve not stopped walking by His side, it’s just that our (my) conversation has been dragging in recent times. There has been far too much silence and far too little interaction and, as always, listening. And indeed, those failings have been on my part and not His. As I wrote yesterday, that area of my life is coming along and I will most certainly keep at it – it is too important to do otherwise!
Anyway, I am taking a respite for a week or so. We are on our Christmas break, and many of my friends and family are so in need of it. If you think of us, say a little prayer for us, that we may return refreshed and ready to continue our work. And let me stress, for myself and many others, it’s not just a job…it is a privilege and a responsibility. Everyone in our line of work, be they teachers, bus drivers, custodians, administrators, or any other position of authority, we all are in places of influence. May the Lord use us as He deems fit even in the most common of situations. When there are vacancies in the lives of children – and for that matter in the lives of our fellow workers – may we be the instruments of love that You need, Lord. May we be Your hands and feet to impact. May we be Your voice that we in our small way may be heard over the tumults of life.
May the Lord bless you abundantly in this season and the up-and-coming months. May your Christmas be merry and your New Year be filled with an abundance of His presence in every part of your life!
(Also, feel free to look my archives for plenty of reading material! Blessings!)
Dec 22nd, 2022, Thurs, 6:51 pm