How in touch are you with God’s gracious desires for you? Others?
A burdened conscience produces a pressurized perspective. Tracy and I were here late one night in the lobby. She noticed the elevator kept opening and closing. Finally, she walked over to see what was going on. I followed her. As she got to the elevator door she realized there was a young boy in the elevator who had been riding it up and down over and over again. She asked, “What are you doing?” Fully knowing he wasn’t supposed to be doing what he was doing his burdened conscience gave way to a pressurized perspective once exposed. I looked around Tracy’s shoulder to see who was in there and the boy, recognizing me said very loudly, “HI PASTOR LAWRENCE!!!”
After calming the boy down, we asked him not to do this anymore. Doing what he knew he shouldn’t actually created a weight in his conscience that caused him to react to authority from a highly pressurized perspective. Until he was exposed that weight was just resting within him not having it’s work to burden his conscience. We have to work at throwing off burdensome weight that Hebrews 12:1 says so easily entangles our lives. God’s desire is for us to live at rest and in touch with the very desires of God!
Psalms 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. ESV
Talking with Jesus regularly leads to walking with Jesus consistently and his walk becomes your witness.
Galatians 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. ESV
Your talk talks and your walk talks but your walk talks louder than your talk talks.The core practices connected to this core value of CONSISTENTLY SUBMITTING are SOLITUDE and COMMUNITY.
This idea of pairing the practices of solitude and community is a little like breathing in and breathing out. Solitude is about being alone with God free from distraction of all other sources of input. Taking time to take him in will change you!
There is a strong relationship in the life of Jesus between his devotion to solitude and his connection to power.
If I’m in the constant presence of people, I’ll always be overstimulated and underdeveloped. Solitude is a place of being activated to be more deeply in touch with the Father!
Luke 5:16-17 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. 17 One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. NIV
Luke 5:16-17 Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed…And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. NIV
Jesus spent time with the Father receiving what was needed for what was next:
If Jesus, the Son of God, prioritized solitude to stay connected to the Father, how much more do we need to do the same?
We must pause to catch the fire before we try to burn. And we burn better together than we do alone!
A man who had been very devoted to his church family gradually declined into isolation. After missing him for several weeks at church the pastor stopped by his house and knocked on his door. The man was surprised to see his pastor standing at the door but stepped back and motioned for him to come inside. They both walked to chairs in front of the roaring fireplace. The man feeling embarrassed by his absence from church never said a word. The pastor just sat silently for a moment before standing up and poking the fire. Grabbing the fireplace tongs he removed one of the logs from the middle of the fire and laid it to the said in the fireplace away from the flames. He sat back down and they both stared at the log as it slowly dwindled as the log finally stopped burning. The pastor stood back up and placed the log back with the other logs and the fire burned brightly. After a brief reflection with both men still in silence the man stood up and shook the pastor’s hand saying, “That was possibly the best sermon you’ve ever preached. I’ll see you Sunday!”
Community is a deep connection with God and others awakening something supernatural within you that you cannot experience alone.
These two practices look different in every stage and season of your life but do whatever it takes to discover a healthy rhythm of these breath-like life-sustaining behaviors no matter what season of life you’re in!
GP2RL: Explore purposeful solitude this week and engage in authentic community in your context.
