I’m sitting here getting ready and waiting for my family to come over for our annual Christmas Eve get together. We have been doing this since I was born, my grandparents would have us all over at their place in their huge living room and we would all have German food and just hang out and open presents. It honestly is one of my favorite moments that I have. Now they are have passed, it has moved to my parent’s house. Its great, but I still do miss the feeling of walking up and seeing my grandparents smiling faces because they are so stoked that we are over. I miss them. Regardless, i am super excited that everyone is coming over tonight and I am in need of some great family time. It fills me up in every way.
I have been reading this devotional book called “Devotional Classics” (click HERE to get it) and it’s absolutely amazing. I highly recommend it to everyone.
The section I read today from Scripture is Genesis 22:1-12, about Abraham and how he obeyed God always in the moment. What ever God told him to do then, he did it, and obeyed.
I read a section from Jean-Pierre De Caussade (if you couldn’t tell, this guy is French). He says “All we need to know is how to recognize God’s will in the present moment.” For me, I sometimes have a hard time determining what God wants me to do in a present moment. I know for me, I am a slow processor. When something happens, I need a few days to think about it, process it, and then I will tell you what I think about it. I’m like a 4 year old trying to understand Algebra kind of slow in certain situations. And when it comes to obeying God in the moment, I think I fail in a lot of it. There has been many times where I have felt this certain tug to talk to someone or act on something, but I miss out on the opportunity because I think about it too long instead of obey right away.
Its like when you are thirsty, thinking about being thirsty will not help quench your thirst. Doing something about it and going and getting a drink will be the only thing that will help your thirst. Same thing with acting on what God is telling you to do in the present. If we think about it too long, it is not going to help anyone, and you will be disobedient in that moment. We just need to act, and it will be taken care of because of our obedience to God.
I think something that I happen to do, and its unfortunate, is that as much as routines are great (reading the Bible, praying etc.) they can negate the fact of what God is willing you to do. If you feel at a certain time that you need to read, or to pray, then do so. But if we feel something else, but we have this routine of reading at a certain time or praying at a certain time, and don’t do that certain thing at that moment, then even if we are reading Scripture, at that time it is not what God is calling us to do. We are being defiant. Its crazy to think about but its true.
Let's say I am visiting my parents and my mom asks me to help her by taking out the trash, but instead I clean the bathroom because that’s what I always did when I lived there and would help her clean, I would be disobeying her. Even though I think I am doing the right thing, its something that she didn’t ask me to do. Same thing goes with God. We need to be ready to act in obedience like Abraham in the present. We feel that tug on our heart to talk to someone or do something; we need to act because at the moment we HAVE to be obedient to God.
I know for me, I am praying that I get better at this. Obey in the present, in the moment, at that time.
Is this hard for you? Can you determine when a command is in the present and you needed to act on something right then and there? What did you do?
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