Monday, January 12, 2009

No More Couch Potato Belief

After the holidays, I asked God to direct me in setting goals for the New Year. I felt Him lead me to set several goals for work, for home, for the family and for finances. Of course spiritually, I wanted to deepen my relationship with Jesus, to spend more time in prayer, to read the Bible more and become a better servant. However, the phrase I felt like God kept giving me was "ACTIVE BELIEF". The word "action" kept coming up in my thoughts and prayer time again and again. When I began imagining a Rambo-esque, spiritual action hero, crawling through the muck with a fish sign dangling from his bandanna, a dog tag embossed with a cross and a bedazzled spiritual bowie knife, I knew it was time to rein in the imagination and get on my knees to ask God what He meant.

I must admit though, I asked for some help from my mentor in searching out some scriptural references for active belief before going to God on this. I had done a few google searches here & there and kept coming up empty based on what I was typing in. My mentor is an incredible Bible scholar & very quickly had returned tons of information to me via email (she was being a great example of the word). Tomorrow we'll really dive into some of the things she sent me. Anyway, on the way home tonight, I asked God to just spell it out for me. This is what I sensed... now it not the time for couch potato belief; now is the time to believe for the things that I have put in your heart and ACT on them.

Okay, that seems fairly clear. Hear what God is saying & do it...pretty simple huh? Not quite so simple. I believe we're in a time where we cannot just be satisfied with praying the same old prayers, half-heartedly expecting God may or may not show up. I believe He longs to move and He is awaiting His people to position themselves for Him to do so. For me that means digging deeper into His word, committing to a time everyday where I listen to Him instead of talking - even if I don't hear anything specific. It means acting immediately when the Holy Spirit prompts me; it means getting outside of my spiritual comfort zone and allowing God to reveal Himself to me any way He would like. It means applying my time & talents in a very focused direction toward expanding the kingdom as Holy Spirit directs. It means even when it's not convenient, even when I don't feel like it, I hear Him, Believe Him and ACT!

So, here's the drill...

Step 1: Get off the couch.

Step 2: Get on your knees.

Step 3: Get up & do it!!!

ACTIVE BELIEF - Couch potatoes arise and put on your spiritual NIKE's - just do it.

3 comments:

Kay Martin said...

I resemble that tater!

Love this action bent of this post. I also am seeking walk more than talk aspirations. One challenge I'm finding is that I risk failure that folks quickly see when I move into action more than just talking about "someday" I'll do such and such.

But along with the goofs I'm loving the great feeling of accomplishing things and also learning from the mistakes.

I'll be back for the next post, 'cause I need it.

Anonymous said...

Kay Martin sent us an email with the link to your blog on it and I have been reading it ever since- your words are apples of gold in silver boxes. Thank you! ~LeslieAnn
PS. Your words are also a kick in the fanny when we need it, LOL!

David Rupert said...

kay is so funny.." I resemble that tater".

I often confuse inaction with "rest" and use my laziness as an excuse