Conviction

This morning I have been convicted.  I feel as if I have settled into my life and have become quite comfortable. I am happy-- there's no doubt about that. I have a kind, sweet and patient husband who loves me.  I have an adorably-addicting-blue-eyed-baby boy who has cried, cooed, wiggled and crawled into every nook and cranny of my overflowing heart.  I have been blessed with an amazingly supportive family who love Jesus and have been a constant example of what it looks like to follow Christ....In-laws included (double bonus!).

Sure, I have had my trials and times when it honestly hurt too much to breathe and get out of bed each morning. Times when I had to learn to allow Jesus to take my hand and walk me through those "valleys of the shadow of death".  Looking back I realized that in those dark moments I clung to the hope that God would bring brighter days, I clung to knowledge that God wouldn't give me more than I could handle. And I clung to the existence of God and that if I fell to my knees He would pick me up.  And He did.  In fact, He not only picked me up off the floor, He wiped my tear-stained face, dusted off my knees, and tenderly guided my wounded heart to life abundant.  He became my Almighty, my El Roi (The God who sees), and my Jehovah- Rapha (the Lord who heals). I realized that when times were bleak my faith was actively stronger, I actively pursued my Maker, and I actively grew in the knowledge of who I was in Christ.  However, when life is good it is easy for me to sit back and enjoy the ride.  But that is not how I want to get accustomed to live my life, I don't want to forget the fact that I was made to bring glory to my creator. I don't want to lose the fervor that drove me through  tough times, and I want my life to be a constant reflection of Christ.  For in the end everything else will fade except for who we are in Christ.  Bottom line, I need to be more Heaven focused in both the good and the bad times. I need to have more discipline and I want to passionate and active spiritual life with my Heavenly Father.  Charles Swindoll said it perfectly in his book So, You Want to Be Like Christ?.

"The Kingdom of God as a real part of our daily lives....But the hardest thing in the world, it seems, is for God to have our full attention so that intimacy with Him glows from within and can be seen by others as a passion that is authentic.  He wants no mere show religion but a passionate spirituality, where God still does miraculous things through His people--often in spite of us--where God reveals His will in ways that are full of mystery and surprise and wonder.  A humble spirituality that leaves us, the clay, willingly soft and malleable in the hands of the Potter, our Sovereign God."

That is my conviction. I want pure authentic passion in all aspects of my life, every single day.

"For my determined purpose is that I may know Him--that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding more strongly and more clearly, and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection; and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed to His death." Philippians 3:10 AMP