Readjusting My Grip
Philippians 3:12-14 (Amplified Bible)
12Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own. 13I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.
As my children have transitioned into young people, I have had to modify the way I deal with them. I have had to readjust the methods in which I use to deal with behaviors, teaching lessons and providing guidance. I have had to readjust the reigns in which I have on them, because they are older now and they need to understand the power of choice and how it affects the way they live and their relationships with God, people and the world around them. It has been an interesting journey to say the least. Many times I have felt that my grip was slipping and I had to learn to readjust it to apply just enough pressure, but nothing that would choke or stifle their growth and development.
God does us the same way. His commandments and His love remains the same, but as we grow and mature He lessens the grip that He may have first needed to keep us on the straight and narrow. As we grow and mature in Him, God knows what we can be trusted to put in check, get a grip on and stand in without Him, standing over us. He knows that there are temptations that do not affect us the way that they use to, but that there are others that He still has to keep reminding us to check. It is when we begin to choose God over self and so many self-motivating factors that we have begun to readjust our grip on God because of the value that we place upon Him in our lives. When God loosens His grip because He trusts us, often we need to tighten our grip on Him because as we grow and mature in Him, the realization that we need Him all the more should set in and become more tangible than ever.
Look at where you are right now, has God had to tighten His grip to keep you in pursuit of Him, or have you seen the need to tighten your grip on Him, because you realize you need Him more now than ever? Whichever one has taken place is an indicator of our level of maturity and responsibility in Him. Just like my daughter when she hugs me now she about falls on me and grips me with such fervency, because simply stated she realizes who I am to her and what she sees in me. What does God see in you and what do you see in God, the answer may be in whom is readjusting their grip and by how much…
No comments:
Post a Comment