Move to be Moved

"Sometimes we need to start moving in order to be moved to keep moving.”

Loren Thornburg

I love those moments when passion overwhelms you and you can’t help but put things into action; when you feel so called towards something that nothing can stop you from making it happen.  The problem is it doesn’t always work like that.  Often we don’t feel like doing something until we start doing it.  I remember training for a half marathon.  I rarely felt like going for a run, but if I could just get my shoes on, get out the door, and start running I would start to get into it and remember why I wanted to run a half marathon.  Yet, if I were left up to what I felt like doing in that moment I would not have gone for very many runs.  Many things in life are the same way.  We have to start moving before we feel moved towards what we are wanting to do.  If you are waiting to feel moved you may have to wait awhile.  Start moving and you just might find the passion you were waiting to find.  

“No unbelief or distrust made him waver (doubtingly question) concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God.”

Romans 4: 20 Amplified

Abraham had great faith that didn’t waver which I long to have.  Instead of wavering in unbelief or distrust he grew strong.  Each day we are faced with similar opportunities where we can doubt or we can walk in faith.  Abraham grew strong in his faith not because he was filled with feelings of faith but because he praised God.  He grew strong and was empowered by faith AS he gave praise.  It wasn’t that he felt like praising but that he knew that it was in praising that the faith he needed to walk through the next obstacle would come.  I have had many moments where I don’t feel like worshiping until I start singing and remembering how great my God is and how He is at work.  Often it’s not until I kneel before the Lord that I feel free before Him.  My posture leads to my praise.  It’s then, after I have started praising, AS I give praise and glory to God that I find  I am moved to keep praising.  It’s through this praise that I too am strengthened to keep moving in that which God has called me.  So let’s praise that we would find the strength and faith we need to keep moving and walking in faith.  

Off Your Back

There is a saying that refers to a constant burden as the ‘monkey on your back.’  Some say it began as ‘monkey off your roof’ in reference to the burden of a mortgage payment.  We all have different things that have been a burden at one time or another.  In sports often times we carry the errors of the plays before us.  What happens is like we are going up to bat with a physical monkey on our back in the ways that we carry those previous mistakes and burdens with us.  Life is the same way.  Whether it be the mistakes of our past, resentment, unforgiveness, bitterness, woundings; we carry those with us until we let them go.  It may be hard to admit those things are there and begin to deal with them in their pain and the ways they have affected us, but so is carrying all of them everyday, everywhere we go.  So why not get that monkey off your back and start to walk  lighter and more free?  You’ll wonder why you didn’t do it earlier.  It’s time to let go.    

“Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk.  Be gentle with one another, sensitive.  Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.”

Ephesians 4:31-32 Message

Forgiveness means letting someone off of your hook and onto God’s.  Somehow in our pain and suffering from the actions of others we believe that if we carry the burden of it that will somehow even the score.  The problem is they often don’t know we are carrying them, and so it costs them nothing, but costs us everything.  So much is lost at the hands of unforgiveness: joy, freedom, hope, and life.  Not to mention the ways that our unforgiveness affects others.  The giftings God has given us are at stake and our freedom to relate with one another as God intended.  That is why we must forgive as quickly and as thoroughly as Christ did.  Quickly means not letting it linger or waiting for it to build.  Thoroughly means forgiving not only for what’s been done to you but also all the ways it has affected you.  He did it first that we could go back to His forgiveness and forgive out of that.  So make a clean break, stop carrying the weight of it.  It’s about more than you. Be quick.  Be thorough. Be free.  

Shine In

“Let the light shine in on all the places of your heart; even the dark, heard to reach ones.”
Loren Thornburg

There is something about sunrise and seeing the first ray of light that I love.  As I was enjoying a sunrise, looking into a small valley I noticed how as the sun got higher it lit up more places in the valley.  Now this is not rocket science to know that as the sun gets higher more light will make it’s way into the valley and eventually the whole valley will have light shining in on it.  Yet, this is not always true with our hearts and lives.  For we can still have places that we keep hidden in the shadows that may never see the light.  If they never see the light we will never see them for what they really are...and for some of those things we want to keep them that way.  If that’s the case I have bad news for you: Those things will surface one way or another.  They may be disguised as bitterness or anger or other emotions, but they will surely surface.  So why not let the light in now before you get held captive by it?  

“Through the heartfelt mercies of our God, God’s Sunrise will break in upon us, Shining on those in the darkness, those sitting in the shadow of death, Then showing us the way, one foot a time, down the path of peace.”

Luke 1:79 Message

God’s light, His sunrise light, His light when all is dark, will break in upon us.  He comes to shine on our dark places. Not to break us but to heal us.  Even in the places that look and feel like death, even in the places that are hard, even in the places that we would rather not go, He comes.  He comes not to shame us but to show us the way. Knowing how much you can handle, one step at a time.  For it is “through the heartfelt mercies of our God” that His light breaks in on us, ushering us down the path of peace.  He invites us to let Him bring light to the dark places.  To the lie you’ve been believing, to the situation that is corrupt, to the secret you are ashamed of, to the hate you feel, to the bitterness you battle, to the anger that creeps in, to all of it He invites us to let Him shine in on it.  He can shine His light that reveals truth, freedom, and peace.  Let His light rise on you until He shines on all of the shadows of your heart!