Survive or Thrive?

Most days I feel completely happy if I have survived it.  If I was able to weather my daily chores and errands, manage to get through my daughter's ample supply of irrationalities, and the hours of schooling my boys, it was a success.  I often give advice to new mothers "Its all about survival."  True, to a point.  But lately I have been encouraged.  I can have more that just making it through.

John 10:9-11

Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁹I am the Door; anyone who enters in through Me will be saved (will live). He will come in and he will go out [freely], and will find pasture.
    ¹⁰The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it ^[a]overflows).
    ¹¹I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd risks and lays down His [own] life for the sheep.
 

Romans 5:17

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹⁷For if because of one man's trespass (lapse, offense) death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive [God's] overflowing grace (unmerited favor) and the free gift of righteousness [putting them into right standing with Himself] reign as kings in life through the one Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

So many times I settle for survival.  But here in Romans it says that when I accept the gift through Jesus I will live and reign as a king through Him.  I've seen how some  kings lived, they had abundance.  I'm not talking about "stuff."  I'm talking about life, abundant life.  Abundance is marked by an ample supply, great plenty, more than you need, a life that is so full and secure in the life that Jesus has brought you into that you ooze it all over everyone else. 

I wanted to get a clear picture of how life was determined.  I looked to the dictionary: An organismic state of characterised by capacity for metabolism, growth, reaction to stimuli, and reproduction.  The quality that distinguishes a vital and functional being from a dead body.  With life we are able to react, grow, and have a vital (meaning: existing as a manifestation of life, full of life and vigor, tending to renew or refresh the living) function. Its far beyond survival, but abundant life is impossible without Jesus.  We must not try to live this life out of abundance on our own, the only hope of abundance lies in our relationship with Jesus.  There is nothing more I can do to create more vigor, only through the Holy Spirit will my life thrive (grow vigorously, progress towards a goal despite my circumstances, flourish, and prosper)

Isaiah 44:3-5

New Living Translation (NLT)

 ³ For I will pour out water to quench your thirst
      and to irrigate your parched fields.
   And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants,
      and my blessing on your children.
 ⁴ They will thrive like watered grass,
      like willows on a riverbank.
 ⁵ Some will proudly claim, ‘I belong to the Lord.’
      Others will say, ‘I am a descendant of Jacob.’
   Some will write the Lord’s name on their hands
      and will take the name of Israel as their own.”

Holding out, or Holding on?

I've said it before, but obedience is bliss, not ignorance.  In ignorance you do not see, there is only what you perseve.  In obedience there is a true sight, the opportunity to see who God truly is through a clear lense and not through the eyes of the fleshly character.

My husband has been searching for a new position with in Wells Fargo.  For months he has been waiting for God to show us what to do.  Recently he began applying for jobs, praying for favor and direction.  We would pray that God would close doors that shouldn't be opened and make the path clear.  Then an amazing opportunity arose and Lewis was one of the last two vying for the position.  Due to an HR technicality, he wasn't able to accept the position, even thought the manager said he really liked him. 

We were crushed.  Through our human eyes, our fleshly ignorant lense, we felt like God had let us down.  (Just like humans can sometimes do.)  We were looking at God and reacting to Him like in a human relationship(ie: because I let others down, I feel like God lets me down).  We thought "we are faithful, this job would have been such a blessing for our family."  We were confused and even angry.

I got upset and honest with the Lord.  He asked me to confront some issues with our finances, I had to be honest with myself and with my husband.  I had to take responsibility for some things that I didn't want to even look at.  It wasn't fun, and God is still working with me.

I was then able to see.  God reminded me that He isn't holding out on me, He is holding onto me(just because I hold back with others, doesn't mean God does).  He was waiting for obedience, honesty with Him and ourselves.  I knew that no matter what what it looked like, God has what is best for me.  Even if its not conveneint, easy, or what I had in mind.

We kept praying and seeking God's favor and wisdom.  This last week Lewis was presented with not one job offer but two.  He was able to choose, and we can now see how this place the Lord brought us is far better than the place we would have brought ourselves.  We are so impatient, but the Lord holds us back for what is better.  He isn't holding out, He is holding on. 

"Just another thing I do"

I love the words of wisdom from Oswald Chambers, the problem comes in desiphering it.  His studies are usually wordy and creates an amazing enviroment for picking, processing, and really digging deeper.  I'm not objecting to this in any way, but the season of my life makes this process painfully slow.  I can maybe get one devotional done a week, and I still feel I'm lacking the internal processing that I love so much.  My mind feels bombarded by other issues which seem far less important, but are ever present.  You know, the dishes, kids neeing water, taking little ones potty, and teaching a 5 year old to read.  Okay, so after I listed it, I guess there is some merrit there.  But I feel that there is no consistancy in my daily devotion.  I'm grabbing bits and peices thorugh out the day and I some days have almost no focus on the things of Heaven. 

Anyway, my point is, I feel so very off from where I'd like to be.  Then the good ol' O.C. reminded me today, (well, actually November 14 if you want to go here and read it) that it is very easy to make consistancy with the Lord a fetish.  To just go about our things in an empty, imitation of a relationship with God and more as an instinct.  There is nothing wrong with consistancy, but if we look at the life of Jesus, there was never a more inconsistant being; but He was never inconsistant with he Father. 

This life leaves tons of room for consistancy (mundane everyday stuff), but I guess I can thank God that I have to search Him out.  I have to make time, find time, and sometimes steal time in order to be with Him.  I'm able to take my mundane activities of consistancy and I get to turn them into meetings with my maker.  Dishes become a worship service, just ask my kids- they are usually yelling at me to be quiet.  Folding clothes becomes a time of prayer over the one who wears the garments, every bite of their food holds a blessing. 

I feel God asking me, you will worship and follow me in the fanatical things;  thats the fun part.  Now follow me in the quietness and consistancy of your home life, but don't make it consistant, don't make it boring, don't make it "just another thing I do."