Do your religious friends make you feel like crap?

Never judge.

The heart of man is so delicate,

so complex,

only I can know it.

Each heart is so different,

actuated by different motives, controlled by different circumstances,

influenced by different sufferings.

Leave to Me the teaching of understanding.

Bring each heart to Me,

it's Maker,

and leave it with Me.

Secure in the certainty that all that is wrong,

I can set right.

Painful seasons can wake up a person's soul.

Cruise control Chrisitanity drives us to get through each moment,

causing us to completely miss its divine significance.

Simply scoop the present moment in your hands and lift it up to God.

 

Everytime we,

 like the boy who surrendered his lunch to feed the crowd,

give God what we have in our hand,

divine and eternal influence takes place.  

We must be fully present with God in our everyday circumstances

because our present moments are only valuable to the extent that we eternally invest them.

 

When our own legs threaten to give out,

God picks us up and carries us.

 

The problem is, if we stop looking for God in our daily lives,

if we stop seeking after Him and listening for Him,

we subtly move from a living, breathing fellowship with Him

to a rote and wooden walk apart from Him.

 

Without God's constant influence in our lives, it's all too easy to loosen our grip of faith and to trust our own footing more.  

When we rely on yesterday's laurels

 to help us navigate through today's trials,

we become autopilot Christians.

 

I might be moving my mouth with all of the right words, I might be busily serving at church with all of the right methods, but the scary thing is,

I can look the part of the follower and miss the heart of God

 amidst all of my action.

 

Jobs friends lack of fresh and loving revelation

only enhanced Job's suffering.

 

Maybe you've been on the receiving end

 of someone else's autopilot, disengaged response.  

Do you remember what that felt like?  

Perhaps that person received a fresh truth from God about a similar situation years ago but have since stopped seeking Him for fresh revelations and insight for the now and present moments.  

All they had to offer you was a stale piece of bread.

 

If you've been on the receiving end of religious response that lacked fresh revelation,

you understand the importance of cultivating a living, breathing relationship with God

so you can rightly represent Him to a world in need.  

He counts on us to reflect His very much alive heart to the world.

-Susie Larson