Ears That Hear

"I need to be, SHOULD be, transparent." When I hear this, I suddenly realize that if I truly were transparent all people would be able to see were fears and pride. Sure God would be in there somewhere, but He would be so hidden by all the other junk inside of me that people wouldn't be able to see Him without getting to know me for awhile. If God is truly "my all in all" then you shouldn't see me at all...it should be ALL Him. Every day. No exceptions.

Being "deep" or "spiritual" when we're alone or in a bible study is great, don't get me wrong, but if people can't tell that we are sold out to God within a few minutes of knowing us, then there is a problem. He should always be evident in our lives.

We ought to be so wrapped up in God and His love that we can do nothing BUT do for Him! We should never "do" simply to get recognition but should do for Him because we know how to do nothing else. The bible says "They will know you by your works." What is your life telling other people?

Listening to God is so very important, but often the noise of the world is so loud that we have a hard time tuning it out. It's like a radio station coming in great but with the tiniest bit of noise from another station. Most of the time we try to get the loud station clearer, and drown out the little fuzz that's coming in. If we would just focus on that soft bit of music...we might be pleasantly surprised.

What is God saying to you, and what will you do about it? Being fully in tune to God means we have to listen...something I can do with people, but often forget to do with God. People say He only speaks to a few now days, special people set apart by God to hear Him correctly; I am so glad that is not the case! When God died, the curtain was torn so that all could come to Him and speak, so that He could speak to everyone freely. Are we listening? Having a one way communication with GOD, the Creator of the universe, the very One who breathed life into your lungs....that should bring us to our knees in humility.

One thing I think I've always asked God for is self control and self esteem; I wanted to be able to control myself in situations and stand up for myself without getting trampled on. But you know what I've found out? Those two things are all about one person: ME. I do not want "self" control or "self" esteem or anything else for mySELF. I want HIS-control, I want esteem through HIM. I can control nothing. I cannot be esteemed now or ever. But the good news is that God has found worth in me, "in that while I was a sinner, He died for me" and that worth is not found in "self-worth" but worth found through and of HIM alone.

I don't always like what God is telling me to do, I'll be quite honest. Most of the time the things He tells me to go for scare me to death! But as I move forward, watching Him break down wall after wall...I suddenly realize that my life begins to glow with HIM.

Think of it like a glow stick. You take it out of the package and break all of the pieces inside and it slowly begins to glow.

This is how God makes us better! First He must break us down so we rely on Him to light our path, then we slowly begin to glow with His goodness, love, peace and forgiveness. It is an amazing feeling. I heard someone once say, "God is breaking me, and it is beautiful!" and it is so true! Painful as it may be during the process, we are so much happier when we finally realize He is all we need, and that our hope is found in Him.

Hope in man will fade away, no matter how great they seem to be. I'm not cutting down the great men in our history that have lived a life filled with the spirit of God, but even those men are not to be labeled as "holy" because they are not God. Even they wouldn't accept such a title. We can join groups and look up to Christian leaders, but do not put any man on a pedestal. "There is none good, no not one." This is simple, but very hard for me to do. I'm afraid I place man too high in my own eyes too frequently, because they seem so "good" or "holy" but that is not where they ought to be placed. There is no man that is so amazing that they should be thought of as a "gift to God." No my friends, God is THE gift to MAN, not the other way around. "Do not conform to the world" is a deep passage; the world wants to make their own god. They want to replace what we think is "good" and "acceptable" so we no longer see God as anything special.
We must look up to God as the powerful One that He is. We must follow, honor, love, praise, give our time and talents to God and most importantly, LISTEN to God. Man has no wisdom that has not been given by God. "You would have no power unless it were given by the Father." We can think highly of whomever we wish, there are people we might think are pretty perfect, but they will always fail you. Nobody will ever know the perfect Christian life to live and where the "perfect" boundaries are, despite what they might tell you. There is always growing that needs to be done because man will always make mistakes. But the marvelous thing is this; God will NEVER fail us. We can rest assured that when we trust God with our whole being, He will not let us down.

The power of God's presence is something so amazing it hardly has words to describe it. It's so heavenly. Because it is not of this world we can rest assure it will not fade away. He is God! What He does and how He chooses to do it are unlike anything we have or ever will see this side of heaven. Yet He chooses to do it all for us and allow us to see what His mighty Hand can do.

Are we listening to all that God is saying, or going our own way?