The Disconnect

Brace yourself. This post will not be light and fluffy.

Let's just say it's been a long month, filled with joys and sweet memories of the holidays. But in many ways it has been a season of testing, of reflection, and of self-examination. I don't know about you, but when the Lord takes out His magnifying glass and the Spirit begins to move in my heart, it is not always peachy.

Growth often requires pain as the Lord cuts away anything that is not of Him in our lives.

One thing I have been pondering is something I call the "disconnect." That is, the tendency believers have to know a lot about God, to worship Him faithfully each Sunday, and then to "disconnect" what they know from their everyday living. The truth is our fleshly tendency is to be like the man in James 1, who looks in the mirror and upon leaving immediately forgets what he looks like.

What I am convinced of is that we serve a holy God. A perfect God. A God who cares about the daily life decisions we choose to make. There is no way to separate our actions and our choices from His presence. The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit is a reality to every believer.

Whether we like it or not, Jesus is always right beside us.

He is concerned with how we speak to our husbands, how we parent our children, what clothes we wear, what areas of ministry we serve in, what we watch on TV or listen to on the radio, what books and magazines we peruse, and how we treat the clerk at the check out counter.

He has called us to holiness, not mediocrity. Through His shed blood on the cross, He has made the way for us to live abundantly.

So the question is, does that excite you? And more importantly, do your choices excite Jesus, or grieve Him?

I don't know about you, but I want 2010 to be different. I want to live as an heir to the throne because I am a daughter of the King. I want to be free of the sin in my life that so easily entangles me. And you know what, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I can be. And so can you.