Friday, February 16, 2018

Personal Conviction

I wholeheartedly believe we can not teach personal conviction as theology. What God whispers to each of us individually is not meant to be taught or preached corporately with the expectation that everyone will follow suit. However, I do believe we are to share the peronsal convictions we are given on the off chance that someone else needs that same word spoken over them. This is one of those posts.

There are so many Scriptures we read, hear, or have brought to the forefront of our minds on a semi-regular basis. They become so familiar that we often dismiss them until they fall on fresh eyes, alert ears, and an open heart.



Until now I had no idea I was using this verse as my ability to ignore reality. Just keep on moving while keeping my eyes fixed on the right stuff. But in doing so, I have pretty much eliminated God's perspective on what's happening. If I don't go to Him with what is weighing on my heart, He can't effectively lift the burden. And FYI, ignoring it doesn't make it go away. It lets it fester, untreated; and what is untreated with truth, will grow in lies.

As I am currently reading No More Faking Fine, I am beginning to see how I have lost my ability to hurt effectively. Yes, hurt can be effective. If I take it to God and allow Him to speak over it and to it, it can be wildly effective in having my perspective realigned with His. But if I don't, my tunnel vision will remain.

Oh and just because we take it to God once, does not mean we can not, or should not, continue to take it to God repeatedly. I guess I'd kind of liken it to an antibiotic regimen. If we stop taking the medicine after just a few days when we start to feel better, 9/10 times it comes back worse. Typically, it takes time to work stuff out and if we minimize the effect something has had on us and operate under the assumption that our feelings should magically change after one treatment, we are sadly misled. Some things are just really hard and take time. And the last I checked, a day was like a thousand years to God. So, if He writes a prescription for 7-10 days, we are in it for the long haul.

And if that analogy doesn't cut it, in western PA this ought to clear it up.....If all you do is a patch job on a pothole, that pothole reappears really fast. We have to quit doing patch jobs with our hearts and minds. Sometimes you need to dig up the entire road and start over from scratch and that kind of work takes time, effort, and intentionally rerouting traffic. Our hearts and minds are no different. We have to quit rushing God's healing process, or worse yet, ignoring it all together.

I don't know who among you that might speak to, but it has spoken loud and clear to me. We have taken thinking of only the good things, taking every thought captive, and renewing our minds to an unhealthy extreme by ignoring what God might be trying to teach us through our responses and emotions. And frankly, we are killing ourselves at a soul and spirit level in the process. And we have to stop it.


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