Reaction

I make choices everyday.  Coffee or tea? $4.58 from Starbucks or home French pressed?  Apple or Orange?  Self-controlled or Edgy?  Positive or Negative?  Time wasted or Time spent well?  Relationship focused or Task focused?  Information in, choice made.
And the absence of choosing is in itself is a choice.

Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. - James 4:17


It's much more than apples and oranges.  The good I ought to do.

Where do I begin?

Submit yourselves, then, to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Come near to God and He will come near to you.  Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded...Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up. - James 4:7, 8, 10


Submit (verb) : to defer to another's judgment, opinion, decision; to yield oneself to the power or authority of another.
I begin by actively putting my will, my plans, and my opinions on hold- until they are congruent with Gods.  I yield myself to the unfathomable power of the creator of the universe.  I will run with purpose away from the web of lies and temptation the devil spins in this world.  For when I flee the world and draw near to God He promises me He will come near to me.  When I see me for who I am, so small compared to Him, and truly humble myself before Him, He will lift me up.

Do you see the reaction?

He asks us to react.  To be faithful, to choose Him, to defer our ideas to His, to be humble before Him.
And
He will draw near to us, He will lift us up.  


God, forgive me when I choose my own way.  It is a daily process to submit myself to you, sometimes a minute to minute process - Come near to me as I read your word, and stay with me.  Hide your word in my heart and fill my mind with your priorities, opinions and actions.  Give me a meek spirit that I may continually walk in humility before you.  Thank you for your promises, and your faithfulness to carry them out in my life.   Help me react.

Believe

The song echoed in my heart, the lump in my throat produced crocodile sized tears which streamed down my face.  And it wasn't the song, more, the realization of the reality of the words.  Stop and listen....

Take a look at the mountains
Stretching a mile high
Take a look at the ocean
Far as your eye can see
And think of Me

Take a look at the desert
Do you feel like a grain of sand?
I am with you wherever
Where you go is where I am

And I'm always thinking of you
Take a look around you
I'm spelling it out one by one

I love you more than the sun
And the stars that I taught how to shine
You are mine, and you shine for me too
I love you, yesterday and todayAnd tomorrow, I'll say it again and again
I love you more

We "know" God loves us...But do we stop to relish in the amazing love of an infinite, all powerful creator and God?  My eyes well with tears now as I breath in the love of God and I allow myself to believe.  Really believe.  With all His heart God loves me.  More than the big and beautiful stars he designed, more than the sun which gives us light.  I am His own unique design, and He loves me. 

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.  God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. - 1 John 4:16

Am I relying of God's love?  Am I living in love? 
Too many day's I rely on my to-do-list, my plans.
It is not the daily tasks that complete me.  I could never do enough. 
I am completed only in His love, and forgiven through Jesus and his sacrifice.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  - 1 John 4:9-10

How could my response be anything but to love Him too.

We love because He first loved us. - 1 John 4:19

God make me complete in you again, as I recognize how you love me.  May each day I stop to praise you for the way you love me.  Perfectly, forgiving, merciful love.  I am unworthy, just a single grain of sand in this amazingly beautiful world You've created.  I have sinned, I have a tarnished this life.  Yet you give me Jesus.  And in his sacrifice I am made clean, spotless before you, and complete.  I want to love you - may my life be filled with obedience in response to your love.

Owie

His eyes welled up with tears, his leg banged up and bloody.  The blood disappeared under a transformer band-aid, and with a strong will he dammed up his tears.  Heads bowed and hands folded we gave his hurt and his worry to God.  And we imagined together a place where band-aids are rendered useless, where our bodies will be ever strong, without pain, without injury, always perfect.

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. -1 Corinthians 15:42-44

This body; full of weakness, perishing a little bit hour by hour, imperfect and experiencing pain.  Clumsy  full of mis-steps and misguided choices. 

No tears in heaven no sorrows given
All will be glory in that land
There'll be no sadness all will be gladness
When we shall join that happy band.

No tears (in heaven bear) no tears (no tears up there)
Sorrow and pain will all have blown
No tears (in heaven bear) no tears (no tears up there)
No tears in heaven will be known.

--No tears in Heaven (Skeeter Davis, 1967)

A perfect body; never withering, in a glorious place surrounded by the presence of our Heavenly Father.  Full of grace and gracefulness.

God, thank you for the temporary status of this body, and for the promise of a life everlasting with you in heaven.  Thank you for the health you've given me - what a blessing, may I use my body to glorify you and do works that reflect you.  I seek you to cover my worry, and my pain - I know you will take care of me and I trust in you.  Until the day you bring me home may I find joy, and peace in this life you've blessed me with - tears pain and all.                                                                                                                       

Joe-Christian

While perusing one of my favorite blog sites I read an article about being an "awesome-christian."  As if there's some attitude + servant hood formula that equals a gold-star from Jesus.  What's my ruler, my scale, my gold-star standard?  How am I judging my heart, and to what am I comparing my service? 
Is it?
Me vs. Joe-Christian.   Because if it is; My attitude compared to Joe's, well there's no comparison.  I'm serving more than Joe.  I'm in the Word just as much, maybe more than Joe.  I might even follow the law of the land more closely than Joe.

For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.  Why do you look at the speck of saw dust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? - Matthew 7:2-3

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. - Proverbs 16:18

When I begin to compare my life to others; I'm not only judging their walk, but I'm neglecting to examine my life against the ONE standard that matters.  I forget that the grace credited to me was not earned, but a free gift.

For who makes you different from anyone else?  What do you have that you did not receive?             1 Corinthians 4:7a

So, when I compare my life to the ONE from whom I received the gift.  It's laughable, the idea that my life could equal much of anything against His.
His life was perfection.  Given fully in obedience to serving, healing, helping, teaching, guiding, loving.
Mine full of imperfections.  Divided attention at best, as the battle of self against spirit wages.

God, please bring to the forefront of my mind areas of pride, and feelings of self-righteousness that I need to release.  May I have an attitude of humility and gratitude to you for the gift of grace.  Give me peace and joy in the relationships I have with others.  Equip me to be a servant of others and a light for you.