Words Of Encouragement For Your Day ( Monday 03/26/2011)

High Octane Required, Low Octane filled

Mark 8:34-38 Amplified Bible (AMP)

³⁴And Jesus called [to Him] the throng with His disciples and said to them, If anyone intends to come after Me, let him deny himself [forget, ignore, disown, and lose sight of himself and his own interests] and take up his cross, and [joining Me as a disciple and siding with My party] follow with Me [continually, cleaving steadfastly to Me]. ³⁵For whoever wants to save his [higher, spiritual, eternal] life, will lose it [the lower, natural, temporal life which is lived only on earth]; and whoever gives up his life [which is lived only on earth] for My sake and the Gospel's will save it [his higher, spiritual life in the eternal kingdom of God].³⁶For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life [ in the eternal kingdom of God]? ³⁷For what can a man give as an exchange (a compensation, a ransom, in return) for his [blessed] life [in the eternal kingdom of God]? ³⁸For whoever is ashamed [here and now] of Me and My words in this adulterous (unfaithful) and [preeminently] sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory (splendor and majesty) of His Father with the holy angels.

            I quickly found out when I purchased my first vehicle, that when your manufacturer says that there is a specific type of gasoline is required for your car that there is a reason for that. I had a car that required midline to high octane and I made the mistake of putting regular gas in my vehicle and almost immediately the car began to respond in a way that was not its normal or ordinary response.  It began   to sputter   and stall.  It appear as if this new car was now an old rough rider that had seen better days and was giving me the impression that I had lost the high performance vehicle I had driven off the lot.  After taking it into the dealer and explaining my mistake, I was told that I would need to have my fuel system purged and cleaned and then my baby would run the way it had when I purchased her.  What a relief, but it taught me a valuable lesson that I had to be careful to ensure that I put the right octane in my vehicle in order for it to run at its best and in order for me to maintain its performance and have it at its best.

            This is often what we do with our bodies and with our connection and communication with God.  We put this low effort, into our relationship with Him and learning what His needs are.  We don’t even read the manual that specifies who God is and what He requires. We won’t even take the time to find out who he has made us and what we need to do and accomplish what He has called us to and to gain the  blessings of God that are outlined for us.  We want to put in minimal effort and minimum time, we don’t want to give God a low octane praise and to worship Him only when it looks good, feels good and is convenient for us.  But God is a High Octane God.  He has so much for us and He is a great God, whose vastness cannot be measured and to gain from Him, we must keep pace with Him and stop attempting to get Him to come to our level.  We are supposed to be Kingdom citizens that maintain a Kingdom perspective that keeps pace and order with Rulership of that kingdom.  We want the power without the praise; we want the Movement without a moment with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  We want God to enlarge our territory but we aren’t even in the territory that we are called to be in.  We want God to bless our live and send us love, when we can’t even love those who are in our lives and we cannot love Him enough to follow in His love and be obedient.

            If we desire to be in a place that we are prospering spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically, there is time required.  If we want God to be in the midst of our life we have to put something into it, not just a little something but a lot of something.  High effort, High standards of love, praise and adoration produces high levels of return back to us.  If we put Great in we get great out, if we put garbage in we can expect the same. Love on God with high intensity as if your life depended on it.  Gove to Him the best that you have so that He sees the sincerity of your heart, and understands that He can trust you with the best He has.  Run hot for God, so that He will run hot for you.  Ensure in all that we do our levels are high, and that requirements are met, in order to sustain what He needs from us!