Before you read the remainder of this post, I ask that you watch the video below.
For the past five weeks I have been blogging (and living) through a series in which each week I focus on an area of my life in order to redirect my gaze upon Christ, in regards to material possessions, my appearance, social media, my thought life, and this past week in terms of food. Before this week began I wasn't sure what it would like for me to clean up this category, because the truth is, food isn't an area in which I regularly struggle. What I mean is, I regularly give attention to this area and have always felt as if I have godly pursuits in regards to all things food: I've always been passionate about nutritious health to treat the body such as a temple, I've learned much about fasting in my past and practice the spiritual discipline, and my mindset has always been one of overwhelming gratitude that has helped me to see every crumb as a blessing and gift, largely due to being in third-world countries, but even knowing that people in the United States go hungry every day has been a convicting truth in my life for years.
It's not that these areas of my life will never need improvement again, it's just that God wasn't trying to teach me any lesson pertaining to them. Rather than reminders of how to live in regards to physical food, I was reminded of a different lesson that pertains to nourishment in a different sense: spiritually.
It's easy to live your way through life and forget that you need God. I don't mean that you need Him when life takes away a loved one and your gut feels as if someone is twisting a knife right into it. I don't mean you need Him when a pain has come or the cancer is spreading and science has done all it can do and a miracle-prayer is offered up.
I often praise God in the lovely moments, when I'm standing tall and encouraged at the mountain's summit, when sun is shining all around me, the valleys far beneath me and out of sight. My mindset is often ironic: I know I need God in those times, because without Him I would not experience them at all. It's in all the other times that I easily forget my desperation for Him.
It's in the ordinary times that I forget I need Him, and I think this is common within Christianity. We pick one extreme or the other to abide in God's dwelling place. Some of us only acknowledge Him when we know He is present and all is well, while others of us go through life without a whisper of His name until we stumble and fall on the rock of life that we didn't see coming our way, and then all of a sudden we can't breathe without the Father.
I've been on a book-of-James-high for the past few months, and one of my favorite ideas that I've taken away from it comes from the very last verses:
'Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops. My dear brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back, you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins'.In this passage, James encourages believers to be prayerful in any and all circumstances, rather than merely in the extreme times when life forces us to remember that we need God. The Lord is meant to be our daily, moment-by-moment relational oxygen that keeps our dry bones alive.
Practically, for me this means intentionally acknowledging God: responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, making intentional time to pray and ask the kingdom of God to come, listening for what the Spirit may be revealing, opening my eyes a bit wider so that I can see the world from the perspective of Jesus, dwelling on His characteristics so that they impact me and wreck my life from the inside out so that I may live love, studying the Bible intently so that I may learn more about this Great Faith that I claim as truth.
Believers are meant to live a prayer of faith, and this week I was reminded of that.
One last note: believers are not receivers of a dull gift. Our gift, salvation by grace through faith, is one that is beyond words. All other gifts pale in comparison to the one that believers have received, a freeing invitation to be called sons and daughters of God, to be called children of light. His glorious offering has set us free, and for this we should rejoice! We should be different because of the truth that we know.
We should have full confidence in Him who has set us free.
Reflect on the girl in the video. In it, she marches, or taps, rather, to the beat of her own drum. Nothing is going to steal her joy, and nothing is going to break down her confidence. She is fearless. Bold. Unashamed.
What if we, the Church, lived like this, all because of the love of God?
What if each of us dwelt on what God has done? The one who knows they are loved is then able to love.
The one who receives grace can then extend it to others.
The one who accepts the name God has given them does not look for identity in any other place.
The one who places their trust in the Lord is not controlled by fear, for His perfect love casts it out.
When we realize that 'man cannot live on bread alone', then we find ourselves never hungering or wanting again.
