Glorious Beautiful Mystery

...written late one night, thinking about the power "Riches" has over us ...you'll understand as you read.

      Lord, I’m so tired of us saying we believe in Christianity and yet seem to have no idea what that even means. We call ourselves Christians, believers of your word, and yet go around speaking of your truths with no real experience of them in our own lives. We say we believe in your power, and yet don’t trust that you can do the impossible on a regular basis. We say we believe in your provision, and yet don’t trust that you won’t let us starve or go without shelter. We say we believe in your goodness, and yet don’t trust that listening to your voice would be of benefit to our lives. We say we believe in your forgiveness, and yet don’t trust that it’s ok to make mistakes or live without feeling guilty about every mishap.
     Whatever happened to a people who Believe in You because of the power of your word because we’ve actually experienced it in our lives. A people who have not just bought into Christianity because of the initial “new start” we received, but who have actually continued walking in Your truth, taking hold of the love of which it speaks and letting it transform our lives. A people who choose into faith daily, that You will provide food even when the cupboards are looking bear, that You will speak only good things into our lives even when things are looking fairly grim (or rather wretched), and that You really don’t see us for only what we’ve done, but instead choose to look at who You've made us to be.

     I’m not saying we should all be able to just simply trust, to get over our fears and questions, and simply do what all of this broken world contradicts, trust in the love of the You, our Father. But what I am saying, is why are we so damn prideful about these truths that we’ve discovered, when in fact they’re just words on a page until integrated into our souls and from there into our lives.
     How can we preach about truth we haven’t lived out for ourselves? How can we sing about grace that hasn’t already humbled and provoked love in us? How can we argue against selfish behavior that we haven’t learned to hate first in our own lives?

     We are becoming so arrogant that we’ve literally blinded ourselves. Our religiousness kills our faith, and our apathy allows our selfishness to prosper.

     What we need is surrender. What we need is to admit our weakness. What we need is to see our dependence on You. We’ve allowed our material wealth and lawful freedoms to secure our independence and therefore, cripple us from need of You, a God who loves us. Is it not true that it is nearly impossible for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God? What are we? Poor? Is that really what we think? Do we believe that growing up in the United States makes us poor? I’m not saying there’s not exceptions for people who live in the inner cities of our country, but for those of us who have had a relational wealth, material wealth, or a wealth of freedom should know that those things aren’t excluded from what Jesus was referring to when he mentioned it being easier for a camel to step through the eye of a needle than for a RICH man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
     We can celebrate our prosperity yes, but to allow it to make us ignorant of our dependence on the Lord is worse than any poverty. It’s a disaster that such a thing as ease in finances, or ease in relationships, or freedom from oppression, would cripple us of the knowledge of our creator, the gifter of everything good.

    Lord, bless us, that we would allow our ways of living to be stripped of us if it's your truth that we want. Don't allow any amount of hardship scare us away from partaking of real friendship, faithfulness, forgiveness, gentleness, grace, joy, peace, and the list goes on. Show us that the love we read about in the Bible is ours for the taking if we would just lay down our pride and selfishness.
   
     Lord, I've only ever experienced over and over again that any sacrifice required of me pales in comparison to the richness of the love that You have for me. If we would only trust that the relationship You offer us really is the most valuable prize, we would forever be rewarded for it.