Times of Calm and Storm

He never ceases to shower me with blessings, whether in quiet moments a sense of comfort, amidst a full schedule surprising gifts through another from Him, or in chaos a calm warming peace. He gives
His time, presence, healing, passion, hope, strength, compassion, kindness, consideration, mercy, generosity, discipline, correction, glimpses of His beauty, His Spirit, attention, care, tenderness, grace, patience, joy, gentleness, His Son's life, but most of all His love. He cares about the details of our lives, how we live, speak, think, act, but more so than that He wants us to see and know and hold Him to all that He has to offer us. He wants us to come to Him, to depend on Him. To draw life from Him as if He was our very source of oxygen. To live and love and learn Christ is my heart's desire. These things consume me, I am joyful for Him and all He is and does, but I will not doubt there are such blind moments of desperate temptation. This will always be so. But now whenever I forget Him, being filled with momentary things, business etc I find His Spirit nudging me, reminding me of Him. These are the times when we must "fly to Him" (Stepping Heavenward, by Mrs.E.Prentiss).To be humbled before Him, to repent of neglecting Him. For He is God, the Almighty, Creator, Father, Master, Friend, and Lover. He bought us for a price, we do not belong to ourselves but Him. Our old nature will forever fight being controlled, but because we belong to our Savior we should stop trying to overcome on our own. There comes a time in life where we all eventually learn that we are fighting ourselves. The repeated phrase, "We are our own worst enemies.", comes to mind. Soon enough the battle between our old nature and Christ's nature comes head to head. When we wobble between the two, seeming extremely lukewarm, we find our strength depleting over time. For myself I was drained in a matter of a few months of violent battle, for others it can take many years, others a lifetime. Sometimes we have to let go, to let God. We can't survive on own. No matter how unique and strong we believe ourselves to be. We have to move out of the way to let Him in, then we have to die to live in Him, and from Him. The eternal life He offers is so much greater than the lives we have here on earth. This lifetime will be gone sooner than it began and way off when sometime in eternity we will not even think back on our earthly lives.

My point is with all this to learn to live and do why are we not taking any actions in pursuing Him as He has always, us? For this reason I hope to depend and treat Him as dearly as possible. I long to
 be devoted to Him as much as my human earthly heart, mind, and soul can be; even if I stumble and fail along the way. I know He will carry me wherever He wills. He is so faithful, so good in times of calm and storm. Because of earnest affection, I want to be shaped and used by Him. This makes me ask, when we love someone and care for them, don't we want to serve them, to love them and show our affections on a daily basis? Don't we want our dearest Friend to better us, to encourage and grow us? If so, then we should apply this thinking to our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Something that helps me remember these things and also my humble place before Him, is the understanding that right at this moment we are within the Heavenlies with our Creator. For the Kingdom is here in the "now" and also in the "not yet" (Carl Palmer). All we do, say, think, and feel takes place before Him. Let us not forget to treat Him dearly, to love Him as He's loved us (1 John 4:19).