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Friday, January 27, 2012

Why do I linger?....

I am falling in love anew with the Word this year with our "Year of the Bible" at church.  Whenever I'm with someone from church we immediately start saying "Man, did you read...." it's great!  Last night my precious friends from One Voice came over to practice and as soon as we finish singing we immediately start talking about the Word of God.  "Aren't you glad we're out of Job?....but don't you love the truths of God's faithfulness...what about Sarah and Abraham?....I never got that Sarai laughed when God told Abe she was gonna have a baby!..."  these were some of the conversations!  All I could think about was Jer 31:3 "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people."  He is definitely writing His law on our hearts....LOVE it!!

So today I'm thinking about Lot.  Something that jumped out at me - it's kinda been jumping out with several people thru the Word - the fact that we settle, we linger.  Lot was in Sodom, God was coming to destroy it, Abraham had prayed for Lot's deliverance from the destruction, and the destruction was coming!  Lot had already seen the miracle of the three men blinding the men of the city who were trying to "know them" and their prediction of God's wrath on the city and His protection of Lot and his family was coming to fruition and what did Lot do?....."As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.”  But he lingered."  (Gen 19:15-16)  The city is under attack for it's sin and yet Lot lingered.  Don't you think he would want to run as fast as possible?  Get his family out of there?  And yet, he lingers, he waits around. 

I can relate.  How often do I feel the Lord calling me to something, something better, something bigger and yet I linger?  How often do I hear him say, 'Get away from this place, this PERSON, now and don't look back!' and still I linger, I delay.  Sometimes it's out of fear, or uncertainty, but sometimes it's because I LIKE where I am...who I'm with...what I'm doing.  Sometimes it's FUN, or I'm getting some attention from it.  But ultimately, if I don't go, destruction follows.

God is faithful...He is gentle...He is loving....and all too often, He needs to shake things up!  He's got some destroying to do in my life.  He's got some things in me that need to GO and I do not need to ever look at them again!  THAT's what I love about Him.  I heard this quote this year and it's the truth in my life right now...."God is the constant page-turner"....I'm anxious to see what page He turns in me!!

3 comments:

Melissa said...

YEP! Um... no progress yet on that little project He has put in my heart. Need to be listening and praying for sure! Change is hard and trusting in big things is too... like leaving some things behind and moving on to things that He has for us, but He does know best and we can trust Him so I'm with you! Turn the page!

Melissa said...

oh... and I forgot to say that I like your new look! :) Very fun!

Mandy Goldbach said...

Great thoughts Val! Our SS teacher focused on Lot this week and one thing in particular stuck out to me - his daughters, after being raised in such a corrupt city (even by a "semi-righteous" man Lot who God decided to spare) had been corrupted enough to do the unthinkable (Gen 19:30-38) It was just another confirmation about how our actions affect the next generation, namely our children but even beyond that... young women. They see how we dress, they hear what we say, who we talk about, our topics of conversation, and all the sunday school lessons in the world combined aren't as impactful a lesson as our actions day-to-day and the personal choices we make. God keeps bringing that message home to me - that my life is truly not my own. How I live my life and the choices I make affects others around me. Powerful stuff.