"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart" Psalm 37:4
I am reading "Chasing Daylight - Seize The Power Of Every Moment" by Erwin McManus. I love inspirational books that hit the mark and this is right up my alley. Chapter 2 is about initiative and it is really speaking to me. I confess that I regularly get caught up on the merry-go-round of Passion - Initiative - Striving - Discouragement - Passivity .....so I am looking for some perspective here.
I tend to be a cautious person. I will second guess myself and look around at what others are doing. Often, I have said to the Lord "show me exactly what to do because I don't want to drop the ball". However, it's now occurring to me that God wants me to take initiative and to take the risk. McManus says "Do what you know you should do, and you will know what to do. God clarifies in the midst of obedience, not beforehand."
He goes on to say "There is a direct relationship between passion and initiative. The more passionate you are, the more proactive you will tend to be (even if you boldly do the wrong thing). Here's where the dilemma lies: this can actually be paralyzing for a sincere follower of Jesus Christ. You don't want to passionately do the wrong thing. You desperately want to do what's on God's heart, not just on your own heart. Here's the liberating reality: when you are passionate about God, you can trust your passions. God uses our passions as a compass to guide us. To put it crassly, when you are madly in love with God, you can do whatever you want. I am convinced this may be the best contemporary translation of Psalm 37:4 "
This is soooooooo freeing to me! I can trust the desires of my heart!!!! I can throw caution to the wind!!! Oh yes I know that being grounded is still an important factor. And we really need to keep our good friend discernment around. And of course there is our ever present need for wise council. But this is RUTH talking here. I'm the Steady Eddy.......the responsible one. I think I have enough ingrained caution to take me down the road of WILD ABANDON without leaving too much of a mess behind.
I soooooooo do delight in the Lord and as McManus says "When we delight in God, we become anything but apathetic......These desires of our hearts are born out of the heart of God."
New Years Resolution.......... to live a life seizing divine moments, throwing caution to the wind.
5 comments:
Ruth,
The book you're reading sounds fantastic. Another book that fits with this theme is one just released by Eileen McDargh called Gifts from the Mountain: Simple Truths for Life's Complexities. I got it from her website at http://www.eileenmcdargh.com/shop_books.html
I highly recommend it.
Hey, Ruth.
It's an amazing truth, isn't it? That you can trust your heart, cause your heart loves God?
It's been very freeing for me as well.
Blessings. :)
Hi Che,
I like the way you put that........."you can trust your heart cause your heart loves God."
I'm so tired of second guessing myself. I want to trust God's spirit in me. Stay tuned cause I just might report any wild and crazy things I do.
Hi Ruth! I have a friend who I was quizzing one day about the idea of stepping out for God but getting it wrong. She said something to me I've never forgotten. She said "Rachel, if you do something with the right attitude and a heart that just wants to please him, he will move heaven and earth to bring good out of it, even if you were wrong."
In the end, it's all about heart! If our motive is his glory and to please him, then he will be glorified no matter what.
Ruth…your writing is really very good…a pleasure to read…
I am presently planning out one of my upcoming blog articles and what you wrote fits in very nicely with walking in the Spirit found in Galatians 5, one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control, God in His transformation of us gives us the ability to “turn the gauge” during our God-walk…
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