Thank you Deanna for saying that our fear about accepting our dominion is laziness. Yes, I think that this is so. We are afraid, overwhelmed, guilty, and stuck.
Getting unstuck is quiet the challenge. It is only for those who are willing to hear the words of Jesus and allow them to sink deep into their hearts. It means giving our whole realm of influence over to His kingdom.
Jesus gives us everything we need to live with Him as our king. He gives us a new identity as his holy and beloved children (Colossians 3:11). He gives us His living, breathing presence to guide and direct, and teach us (John 14:26). He gives us His peace and His promise to never leave us (John 14:27-15:11). He has created us to enjoy such a life.
Jesus is giving us everything! The ball is now in our court. We have to decide that we want to be unstuck and grab His hand so that he can pull us out of our mud. Reaching for His hand and grabbing hold takes trust and surrender. It is not easy, yet it is easy. If we intend to really trust then it is easy. Yet, so many seem to say that they want Jesus' hand, but they really don't intend to take it. They think that they can have just a little help while remaining in their mud. Jesus and the life that he offers doesn't appear to work that way. Unless you really intend to follow, you won't.
"On all the wooing love of God falls urgently, persuadingly. But he who, having will, yields to the loving urgency of that Life which knocks at his heart, is entered and possessed and transformed and transfigured. The scales fall from his eyes when he is give to eat of the tree of knowledge, the fruit of which is needed for the healing of nations, and he knows himself and his fellows as comrades in Eden, where God walks with them in the cool of the day." (Thomas Kelly, A Testament of Devotion, p. 57)
The loving urgency of Jesus...what else could be want? Some days I want it a whole lot more than others. Some days I think I'm just lazy. Other days I think I might be doing fairly well at bringing good about in my little kingdom.
1 comment:
Laziness. I recently made a move in the direction of my personal and professional life as a beginning of repentance from this laziness that you are talking about.
For, I have experienced laziness in the context of the personal comfort zone. Like, when things just are not challenging anymore and life becomes a sort of 'bird course' if you will. It struck me several months ago as well that I had no goals and that I was in danger of losing my value of hard work.
Pragmatically, I realized that a clear goal (good, focused telos) that urges me to strive for the fringes of my comfort zone is primarily what keeps me "out of the mud." The new challenges in life are how God's helping hand is being facilitated in my life at the present moment.
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