Further Faster
Our culture has a very strong message about self achievement; that we are our own gods if we will work hard enough, long enough, be disciplined enough then we can accomplish anything we put our mind too. I was told this all the way through junior high and high school. The problem with this message is that it doesn’t take into consideration the will of God. When I went through an unexpected year long battle with breast cancer at 31 with 3 small children it seemed from the outside to be a trial that caused my husband to have to put off seminary classes and put off taking a full time ministry position. I was so weak and tired during that time no push, no surge of self discipline but that is when God gave me a cancer blog and as I shared the strength and comfort he brought me through the trial I was able to tell more people about his grace then ever before. The truth Paul learned, “that when we are weak he is strong,” proves true in our lives again and again. When we feel like we don’t see enough happening, we feel pressure to achieve, accomplish, to be successful and so we begin to push the way the world has taught us to push to complete the call. But what was given by God can only be achieved by God on his time table, “Only crazy people think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God” (Gal 3:3 MSG). We must keep in mind that our ways aren’t God’s ways nor our thoughts His thoughts (Is 55:8).
The danger in our cultural push is a soul that becomes parched. Jer 17:5-8 is a passage God has put before me again and again, because in my flesh I want to get on with it, check it off, accomplish what I set out to do. The problem is I seem to have a default that says muscle through-make it happen, if you push hard enough, try long enough it will happen. This is what Jer 17:5-6 says happens to a person who depends on their human strength to accomplish,
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who draws strength from mere flesh
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.”
The dry withered tree becomes our soul. Our relationship with God is no longer alive and adventurous and full of wonder. It feels empty, void, dry, dead, because we’ve unintentionally left him and the spirit behind. We may have received the call from Him, but are we now trying to accomplish it on our own?
A few months ago I went on a hike feeling empty, not sure how I was going to accomplish all that was needed on my own strength. I felt the Lord prompt me towards a stream where there were 3 groups of fish. The first group was a group of small fish that were stuck darting back and forth in a small inlet. My shadow scared them into a frenzy. When I allow fear, anxiety or stress to take over I can be just like that fish and spend all my energy darting from place to place, activity to activity without really making any progress. The second fish was swimming with all of its might but hardly covering any ground because it was swimming up current. I can also be like this fish when I push to accomplish or make something happen on my own strength often thinking that it’s what God wants or expects of me. Then God showed me a big fish swimming almost effortlessly down stream with the current. He was swift and beautiful, he seemed so free, like he was doing just what God created him for. This is the place God wants us in the current of His spirit. Doing what He is empowering us to do by his spirit. That same week a friend called and encouraged me with this truth, “God can take you farther faster”. When we surrender our calling or our goals to the spirit’s leading then we will go further faster. In Phil 2:13 God says, “God is working in you giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” If you are walking with God you aren’t going to miss it. He’s placed his desires in you and gives you the power to walk it out.
The second part of Jer 17:7-8 gives us a different picture a flourishing tree, with green leaves and constant fruit.
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
This is a man whose confidence is in God whose roots go down deep into him. This is where we focus, where we rest knowing him more and more; and as we walk with Him in greater trust and intimacy, He produces the fruit in and through us.
2016/10/27 at 8:23 pm