GROWING SEEDS: "Living Right Side Up"

"If you grasp and cling to life on YOUR terms, you'll lose it; 

but if you let that life go, you'll get life on 

GOD'S terms."

Luke 17: 33

 

 

In the not so distant past, I lived my life on MY terms.  Don't get me wrong, I believed in God....I believed He died for my sins, rose again and ascended into Heaven.  I believed all the things a good Christian is "suppose" to believe.  I tried to be a decent, good person; I tried not to harm or judge people; I attended church every week and I prayed when I needed something.  Yep, I considered myself a pretty fabulous Christian.

But what I didn't realize as I was busy patting myself on the back for being this crackerjack Christian was that I was living on LIZ terms.....not God's.  Looking back, I see where He was desperately trying to get my attention....frantically waving His arms yelling "HEY LIZ, I'M OVER HERE" or "HEY SOFTIE (my Dad's nickname for me), CAN'T YOU HEAR ME??".....and rolling His eyes as I trucked-on living Liz's life....blind and deaf.   Funny how things come into focus when we look back on them, isn't it?

I was living my life, in many ways, as the people of Noah's time were.  I was chowing down on food (without thankfulness); I was buying houses (without asking for guidance); I was marrying (without His blessing) and I was working (without taking Him with me).  And although I may not have been doing many of the seriously wicked and creepy things the people in Noah's time were engaging in, I was living my life ALONE and WITHOUT Him.  And we are reminded by Noah's story that if we are living a life without God leading, it might be a good idea to learn how to swim.

Now that my eyes have been opened, my hearing has been restored and the Holy Spirit is now zooming in as a 1-million-candlepower-light shining in my soul where it once was a dim, almost burnt out candle, I seriously think the devil is a bit TICKED OFF because he was dumped.  

Dumped for an often more difficult.......but eternity-bound life.  

"It ought to be the business of every day to prepare for our last day." 

Matthew Henry