Friday, June 24, 2016

Sluggish from Summer Slumber

As the deer pants for water brooks, So my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God... Psalm 42: 1-2a

It's the good ole summertime, and sometimes I get sleepy and sluggish toward my relationship with God. The heat and humidity help me wilt into a sweaty mess, and soon my soul gets sloppy toward the urgent priorities of this life. 

You see, I only have one life, and it's passing away quickly. That I realize more each day, as I look at the newborn life of my beautiful grandson, or the fragility of my precious elderly mother.

I easily am caught up with a million distractions. Has there ever been a time in human history when there could be more of them? Think of all the books, the channels on television, the movie theater, social media, breaking news headlines, and the lure of beautiful weather and vacationing. How is it that reading that "same old" Book every day could bring me refreshment when there are so many other things to choose from?

Sometimes a little voice whispers that my Bible routine is legalistic.  Well, anything under the "law" is not for us in the Church Age. As so wonderfully stated in today's reading from a beloved devotional:
"All harmony of truth is shattered when there is slightest commingling of the principles of law and grace. Grace alone now reigns through Christ to the glory of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."      None but the Hungry Heart, Miles J.Stanford  June 24

But I need the Word, you see, as my daily bread, and don't read it "under law" to please God, but as a means to get to know Him.That's how t I respond to the lie that I am being legalistic. I go to the Word to find fresh manna for my soul each day, and to find out just how finished the work of Christ was on my behalf.

On hot sluggish summer days, there is cool refreshment to be found in the streams of His living water. Oh, the devil might try to distract  by saying we are legalistic or will be bored with the Word, but as always, he lies. How can an infinite God ever be boring? God's Word is always new, always fresh when we see it through the eyes of the Finished Work of Christ. The Old Testament spoke of Christ coming, and the tabernacle which the Israelities made foreshadowed Christ. The temple they worshipped in then is represented now in every believer's own body

"Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?   I Corinthians 3: 16
No matter how much we think we "know," we know nothing yet as it ought to be known. (I Cor. 8:2) One day soon, in glory, we will see this Person of whom we read about on our days on earth, and will realize that pursuing Him was the one and only thing that mattered in this life.

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