When Ordinary Just Won’t Do Because It Is The Uncommon That God is Looking For
Luke 7:2-10 Amplified Bible (AMP)
2 Now a centurion had a bond servant who was held in honor and highly valued by him, who was sick and at the point of death.3 And when the centurion heard of Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to Him, requesting Him to come and make his bond servant well.4 And when they reached Jesus, they begged Him earnestly, saying, He is worthy that You should do this for him,5 For he loves our nation and he built us our synagogue [at his own expense].6 And Jesus went with them. But when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent [some] friends to Him, saying, Lord, do not trouble [Yourself], for I am not [a]sufficiently worthy to have You come under my roof;7 Neither did I consider myself worthy to come to You. But [just] speak a word, and my servant boy will be healed.8 For I also am a man [daily] subject to authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my bond servant, Do this, and he does it.9 Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him, and He turned and said to the crowd that followed Him, I tell you, not even in [all] Israel have I found such great faith [as this].10 And when the messengers who had been sent returned to the house, they found the bond servant [b]who had been ill quite well again.
I woke up in the middle of the night, finding myself reeling with thought about so many things, and how we would be able to accomplish these particular things. I found myself feeling anxious and feeling almost overwhelmed, and then the Holy Spirit reminded me, “Without faith it is impossible to please God,” (Hebrews 11:6) and God will only more when we have faith, that is focused and solution motivated, not problem centered or focused. I began again to pray and I felt a calm wash over me, as I communicated with God, asking Him to intervene in situations in our lives and in the lives of so many that we know. This time when I prayed I did not fret because in those previous moments I remembered it is not about my ability to make things to happen, it is about God’s ability and my faith in Him to cause things to be as they are supposed to be and in the divine order of His Kingdom.
My husband and I have noticed that ordinary just won’t do in our pursuit of God here of recent, to accomplish, handle and do all of the things that God is asking of us, we have to maintain a focus, and a connection with Him that we had not thought we needed before. We have also noticed that we cannot be the ordinary. I don’t mean outwardly, but in our inward being. Our attitudes, behaviors, thoughts and even our words have to be filled with the Word of God and based upon Kingdom principles. I am far from saying we are so serious all of the time (Hardly), but I am saying that we are conscious of what we think, allow to come out of our mouths and how we treat people. I think sometimes people think that we can remain doing “us,” in the same way we have always, expecting God to move for us, in us and through us; providing us with blessings, His power, authority and wisdom, but not requiring us to change anything we are doing to include those we allow to fill out time, space and company, that is further from the truth. For some of us, we come into the understanding that God is looking for the ordinary to become extraordinary, and uncommon, He is looking for us to become someone that will not conform to what the world says in normal, like John the Baptist. Then there are the remainders of us that have to go through the Damascus road experience. We have to be knocked off our high horse and find ourselves on the ground blind and lacking the abilities we once had for God to be able to get into our space to change us, speak to us and for us to understand that our life in Christ is no longer business as usual, but it requires the uncommon commitment, sacrifice and perspective. God wants us to understand that coming out from among “them,” and becoming separate, touching no unclean thing and allowing Him to truly become a Father to us (2 Corinthians 6:17), is not a bad thing but it is the thing that allows us to sit in Heavenly places and to find favor, and God’s blessings because God understands He can trust us and now wants to entrust things, people and places us.
How common have you allowed your walk with God to become? Has complacency and leaning back on what you think is okay become the practice of your life, instead of allowing God true access and authority to change your heart, thinking, behaving speaking and living? God wants you to surrender the ordinary to Him so He can cause it to become the extraordinary. God is looking for us to walk in uncommon integrity and obedience to His word, in order for Him to provide us with uncommon favor. It is when we realize that not everyone is blessed the same way, because not everyone acts, submits and lives the same way, we will understand why the uncommon moves the heart of God!
No comments:
Post a Comment