Have Your Way

I think it is safe to say that I'm currently in a dry spot spiritually.  I haven't had much desire to get into the Word lately.  It just hasn't been there for me.  I don't really know why.  It seems so quickly that I go from the high points with God where I feel his presence to the places where I'm just not feeling it.  Today has been the first day when I've gotten into the Word in a few days. 

God brought back a famous passage to my mind and it just happened that this section is the section in Mark where Jesus is asked about the Great Commandment.  This is a pretty common passage, I would say.  Jesus answers the scribes question that the greatest commandment is to love God and to love people.  But I don't think the scribes response afterward has even been brought to my mind.  The scribe says, "You are right, Teacher.  You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him.  And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."  I don't know if I've ever heard that before, but that's where God chose to reveal himself at this point in my journey. 

A lot of times when I struggle, I feel like after I sin I need to do all these things to almost make it up to God.  I need to read my Bible a lot, scriptures that address sin and brokenness specifically (Psalm 51 being a favorite).  I need to workout to just Christian music today.  I need to do this and that so me and God will be okay.  As dumb as that sounds, welcome to my mind.  The passage in Isaiah 64 about even my righteous acts appear as filthy rags before the Lord float far away from my mind.  I have to make it okay.  1 John 1:9 never pops into my head to dwell on.  This is where religion screws with my mind.  It's rough.  And it's something that him and I are working through.

In addition to reading the above Scripture, I read My Utmost for His Highest for the first time in probably a week.  And wow, it was great stuff.  This is the part that spoke to me: "In learning to walk with God there is always the difficulty of getting into His stride; but when we have got into it, the only characteristic that manifests itself is the life of God.  The individual is lost sight of in his personal union with God..." That's my prayer.  That I can walk through the difficult points of getting into stride with God and walking in his footsteps so that Matt will be gone, and all that is seen is the life of God.

My prayer for tonight will resemble a song lyric:

My whole life is Yours
I give it all
Surrendered to Your Name
And forever I will pray
Have Your way
Have Your way

Here I stand, arms open wide.