While in prayer and devotion time the other day, the Lord dropped a small nugget of truth into my heart.  Sometimes we are so concerned with our comfort that we often neglect our necessity.  We like things the way we like them.  Take for instance, the obese, if you are overweight, in most cases, your situation can be remedied with diet and exercise, and a made up mind.   Too often, those of us in this situation are more comfortable eating the tasty foods we enjoy and sitting around relaxing.  Its easy to sit still…. but too much sitting makes one ill.  Heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, these are just a few things that could creep up on you, take hold of you, and possibly kill you while you are happy in your comfort zone of tasty fattening treats and comfy sofas.    You may not feel like exercising and eating right, but if you don’t your family may not have you in their lives for very long….. Another example is the anorexic.  For whatever reason, the anorexic makes a choice to slowly commit suicide.  At first, they like the way they look, and then it becomes a need… even though they are dying, there is something that drives them to continue this path because the don’t like the way gaining weight makes them feel.  So, they don’t feel like eating, even though, eating is what sustains their life.

 

Many members of the Church are in one of these places spiritually… we have the spiritually obese content with sitting on the side lines, filling themselves up with the Word of God but never putting to action what they have received.  They don’t reach out, they don’t want to change. They like their comfy position, and if anyone dare challenge them to move….. well, let’s hope they don’t. We hear the excuses, “I don’t have time for……..”, “I don’t worship the way you think I should”,   “I don’t know what to say to people”, and many more.   Look, if you Holy Spirit hasn’t been calling you to go deeper, to spread His word farther, or to love more…. you are most likely not positioned close enough to hear Him.  And this “righteousness” you possess is merely a form of Godliness denying the power thereof.  The second type of church goer… the spiritually anorexic.  The spiritual anorexic likes to be fed at church, but their idea of feeding is just smelling the feast that has been spread out, they don’t digest and they don’t understand.  They think just being in church is what is going to secure their home in Heaven.  Sorry…. WRONG ANSWER!  If you do not eat from the Bread of Life, Read, understand and digest the Word of God, spend time in His presence, Worship and Praise the Lord — God chooses to live in the praises His people give Him — and if you do not drink of the new wine, be filled with the Holy Spirit of God, you’re gonna die spiritually.   We need to read our Bibles.   We need to commune with our AWESOME, ALL POWERFUL, LOVING, FORGIVING and FAITHFUL GOD!  We need to continually be being filled with the Sweet and All Consuming Fire of the Holy Spirit!  

 

In order to be close to God, we need to get up and make a conscious decision to change.  You know, God can’t do it all for you. He gave you a will.  He gave you a choice.  It doesn’t matter if you know you need God, or if you know you need to get closer to Him.  You have to get up from your complacent state, and play in the game.   Get off the side lines.  Stop expecting to be spoon fed, and stop hoarding the blessing of God for yourself. We have been blessed to be a blessing. If you stop up the well, your water will be stagnant.  If you don’t spend time with God your fire will soon become strange. If you don’t lay your flesh on the altar, sacrificing your desires, your infatuations, your hopes and dreams, your lusts, You can never be emptied of you and filled with God.   So, who needs to move? Not God, He’s right where you left Him.  He’s pouring out His oil of gladness, He’s stirred the waters, and He’s waiting for you to step into what He is doing!  Who needs to move?  You.  

 

Common Church!  Let’s seek the face of God, rid ourselves of all that holds us back from Him and be changed and empowered!  God has great things in store for us! I, for one, do not want to miss it!  He is coming quickly!