I am thoroughly enjoying my journey through the book and the workbook Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby.
I challenge you to get a copy of the book or workbook and make your way through it. You may be like me and have done it several times 20 or more years ago or you may never have heard of it. It is a rubber meets the road book of “how to understand the Bible and who God is”. A revolutionary book, it will make you squirm, it will make you think and it will make you fall in love with God all over again and truly, is that a bad thing?
The book is fairly like me – black and white, no grey. I think we get lost in grey. Grey is safe – God is not. Grey is comfortable – God is not. Grey does not evoke much emotion – God sure does. I think it is safe to say that if you are living a comfortable life, floating in a sea of grey where all is calm and all is fine, all is mundane, it might be time to rock the boat a little and rekindle some passion to become fully alive. It is how we are created to be! God designed us that way.
There is a book and a workbook by the same name “Experiencing God”, and there is an old version and a Revised and Expanded version. There is homework in the workbook – 5 days a week, I understand that this is a challenge for many people. I for one use the line “I do not have time” frequently about many things.
This is my memory verse this week in the study:
“Jesus replied, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37
I like to think I do this commandment fairly well because I certainly know that I love God.
My challenge line in the study this week hit home and boy did it hit home:
“I hear many people say, ‘I really struggle trying to have time alone with God.’ If that is a problem you face… People who struggle to spend time with God don’t have a scheduling problem; they have a love problem.” Page 59 Experiencing God Workbook
The author talks about what it is like to be in love. You remember, don’t you? The passion, the want to be together, to talk and talk and talk getting to know each other, you could not get enough of each other as you tried to get to know each other better. That is how it is to be in love. Does that describe your relationship with God?
Mine either. Sigh… I have some work to do.
There’s the catch, I just stated I have some “work to do". How many of you agreed with me when you read that statement?
Love is not like that. I get to spend the time with my God and my significant other because I “want” to, it refuels me, it refreshes me to spend time with the “love of my life”, it is not a chore, it is an honor and privilege.
How many of us look at our spouses or partners like that anymore?
Brian and I are celebrating our 10th year of marriage this week. Yes, 10 years ago, Brian and I got married in a hot air balloon, that was an adventure!
To be honest it feels sometimes like a lot longer, it has been harder than I thought and more delightful than I thought. It has certainly had it’s up’s and some down deep down’s, but that is how life is. It should not be stagnant and grey, it should be bright and colorful reaching to one end of the spectrum to the other. I am not sure if you remember the blog about the scale 0 to -5 and 0 to +5. Life balances, you have to be able to feel the full minus 5 low to be able to reach the plus 5 highs. Similar to a heart beat with its peaks and valleys on the screen when they monitor your heart, reminder: a flat line means you are dead.
This blog is a reminder that spending time with the God we love and even the people we love is not a chore, it is a privilege that we get to do.
Let’s purpose to ‘Do it well’.