I'm writing from a bad place mentally today - fighting the fight, but feeling low in the trenches, ducking the Enemy's well-aimed barrage. We have a history - he and I - he alters between all-out waling and gentle wooing. Knowing how I work, he wants me to act like I'm on his side again. He wants me to sin and then justify myself, alienating God.
Today, he's mostly wooing and it's the quiet invitations I'm more likely to respond to. It'll be little things, small allowances and a bit of a compromise. So I fall, not far, but closer to the temptation so when it does come, I'm more likely to just step in. He whispers lies. I listen.
Recently, my friend Caitey and I were talking about what we were reading in the bible and she wrote out the beginning of Psalm 1 for me. For several reasons, I love the word picture of the man meditating on God's word being like a tree planted by the river.
I love it because it means we Christians can be strong, rooted, deep - planted in the right place. Yet we're not sheltered. When we're born again, we're not put into a greenhouse for protection. We're held in the palm of his hand, but we're still living in the world.
I also love the picture because it compares God's word to a stream. "Come, all you who are thirsty and drink from the river of life." It's flowing constantly, fresh and alive, it flows to refresh us, restore our hearts and take us beyond ourselves. The tree would be nothing without the water. It wouldn't even be alive.
Today, I feel a bit more like a blown dandelion than a strong tree. I want to be a brave dandelion, though, that aspires to be a tree and wades into the stream. I want to take God at his word and believe that I can be a tree. Buffeted yet standing. Attacked yet firm. And I know that even just ankle-deep in this stream of life-words, I'll be blown away by God's sufficiency. He can do so much more than I can ask or think and Satan will not prevail.
R<3
Listening to Leeland - Too Much
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