3 AM Urgency

It’s 3 am.  I woke up with a little toothache, and being alone with my thoughts has left me feeling a deep sadness and burden for people all around the world.  First, I think about ISIS and all of the people in their wake who are being terrorized and murdered as whole cities fall into their hands.  I wonder where this will lead for America.  I wonder what is in store for our nation as this evil spreads.  I think about Ebola, and the people fighting this disease.  I imagine a world where there is a constant threat of coming in contact with someone who has it.  I think about the desire to protect Ridley and all of the people I love.  I think about Dustin’s mom and dad who are faithfully and courageously facing my father-in-law’s cancer.  I think about the innocent children who go to my school who have been born with disabilities leaving them in wheelchairs or with constant anxiety.  And those all around the world who are growing up without enough to eat, without adequate shelter, without protections from loving parents.  

I think about those who do not know Christ as their Savior.  Those who do not have him to turn to in times like these.  Those who do not have the hope of a perfect future in heaven, finally free of all of the suffering and ugliness of this world.  Of all the sorrow I feel tonight, I feel saddest for these, because Jesus is the only answer to all of the other insurmountable problems I’ve pondered.  

Lately I feel urgency in my heart to do something for Jesus.  I don’t even know what it is he wants me to do.  But I feel an urgency to spread the word that he is there for us, wanting so much to be our refuge in times of trouble.  Wanting to be our moral compass in a world that is telling us the opposite.  Wanting a personal relationship with each of us.  He wants us to talk to him...to be REAL with him...not reciting empty words, but laying it all out.  Telling him everything...our fears, our hopes and dreams, our joys...he wants to be a part of our lives.  He wants to be the first thing we think of when we wake up and the last person we talk to be fore we go to bed.  He wants to be the one we seek when we are so filled with joy that our hearts could burst, and when we are so filled with fear we want to cry.  He wants a real relationship....

If you are waiting for some magical feeling to take over before you become passionate about Jesus... please don’t.  

If you have been led to believe you will “hear his voice”, and you just keep waiting for that to happen, thinking maybe he didn’t choose you as one of his children...do not believe that lie! 

If you feel inadequate or incapable of living a life that will be pleasing to him...stop!

If you fear that letting God into your life means you will have to give up something you are holding onto...please don’t let that stop you.

I cannot stress this enough...ALL OF THIS WILL FALL INTO PLACE IF YOU JUST START LETTING JESUS INTO YOU LIFE IN A REAL WAY.  Go alone in your car or in your bedroom.  Close the door and get real with God.  Just talk to him.  Talk out loud as if he was sitting right next to you (he actually is by the way).  Tell him what’s been keeping you from letting him be a regular part of your life, be it fear, sins, business of life...whatever it is you think you have to let go of before you can let him in.  He totally understands.  He know the number of hairs on your head (Luke 12:7), he certainly knows the lies you have bought into.  Lay it out there, and let him begin a work in you that will change your life.  He promises, “you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” (Jeremiah 29:12-14).  What a promise!!!  God is telling us that if we make the choice to have the God of the Universe be a part of our life, he WILL be!  It is totally in our hands!  If we seek him, he promises to hear us.  And he promises to begin orchestrating all things together for our good (Romans 8:28).  He will guide and direct us (Psalm 32:8).  He will bring us though trials, stronger than before (1 Peter 1:6-7), and will shower immeasurable blessings over us (Ezekiel 34:26).  He will give us victory over those things that hold us in bondage (1 Corinthians 15:56-58).  He will rescue us and be our protector (Psalm 18:2).  All of these gifts are ours, if we just let him in, in a real way.

When I woke up tonight feeling overwhelmed with the troubling circumstances all around, my first thought was, “Pray about it Tenille”.  Then the thought, ever so subtly, entered my mind, “What will your little prayer do to solve such gigantic problems?”  And I almost believed that lie.  Then James 5:16 popped into my head (I didn’t know the book and verse at the time, I had to look it up), “the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective”.  That changed my mind...I am righteous, not through my own works, but because God sees me through the righteous blood of Christ, and I have assurance my prayers are heard and are effective.  

My point is that we are constantly being bombarded by lies in our mind.  Be aware of them and combat them with Scripture.  Let God be the one to set the record straight.  Do not let the lies you tell yourself and the lies Satan sends your way stop you from a relationship with God. 

I know this isn’t the most eloquent piece of writing I’ve done, but it is from my heart.  It is what I feel God laid on my heart tonight.  I pray it will be read by someone who needs it.   

Love and blessings, friends.