When asked what we could do to change the world, Mother Theresa
responded, "Go home. Go home and love your children."


Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The Habit of Having No Habits

It has been a long time since I have picked up my dear old Oswald Chambers book, "My utmost for His highest". That book is one of the most amazing devotionals I think I have ever owned. I have lots of things to say about today, but I thought I would post it so all my readers could hear the insightful words... always so challenging!

2 Peter 1:5-8 May 12th

"When we first begin to form a habit, we are fully aware of it. There are times when we are aware of becoming virtuous and godly, but this awareness should only be a stage we quickly pass through as we grow spiritually. If we stop at this stage, we will develop a sense of spiritual pride. The right thing to do with godly habits is to immerse them in the life of the Lord until they become such a spontaneous expression of our lives that we are no longer aware of them. Our spiritual life continually causes us to focus our attention inwardly for the determined purpose of self-examination, because each of us has some qualities we have not yet added to our lives.
Your god may be your little Christian habit- the habit of prayer or Bible reading at certain times of your day. Watch how your Father will upset your schedule if you begin to worship your habit instead of what the habit symbolizes. We say, "I can't do that right now; this is my time alone with God." No, this is your time alone with your habit. There is a quality that is still lacking in you. Identify your shortcoming and then look for opportunities to work into your life that missing quality.
Love means that there are no visible habits-that your habits are so immersed in the Lord that you practice them without realizing it. If you are consciously aware of your own holiness, you place limitations on yourself from doing certain things -things God is not restricting you from at all. This means there is a missing quality that needs to be added to your life. The only supernatural life is the life the Lord Jesus lived, and He was at home with God anywhere. Is there someplace where you are not at home with God? Then allow God to work through whatever that particular circumstance may be until you increase in Him, adding His qualities. Your life will then become the simple life of a child."

Isn't that good? My first initial thought is, I do not want God to be my little habit!!! He is way too amazing to be reduced to a habit. I'm sure at times in my life I have reduced Him to that and it breaks my heart. I think a lot of Christians are tempted in this way, because we are taught to have a quiet time....and NOTHING is wrong with that....but I think the question bears asking, are we truly meeting with our God during our quiet time or are we checking off our quiet time for the day? Thank God we serve such an amazing gracious God who yearns to spend time with us! Dare I say, even if we are just meeting with "our habit". But, I pray that Christians everywhere will stop worshiping their habit and start to worship their Maker!!

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