Walking it out
As one looks about this world of birds, fish, and animals of various and sundry varieties one will soon notice that all of those beings are content to be what they are. Animals are happy being animals, they don't bemoan their condition and they don't complain about their plight. A squirrel is quite happy being a squirrel, and most squirrels try to be the best squirrels they can be. The same holds true for beavers, elk, and lions. All animals are content to be what they are created to be. But, there is one type of being in creation that is not content, there is one type of being that is almost always dissatisfied with everything, and that being is a human. People are born being uneasy with their surroundings, they live dissatisfied with their lives. They crave something different, something new. People are hardwired to wish for a certain detail that always seems to escape their grasp. Unlike the very contented animals, people have a constant dissatisfaction in their lives that they try to calm with any means at their disposal. They spend their days pining away for a state of being they do not have... they seek to be everything God intended mankind to be, but they cannot be that person without the tangible presence of God in their lives. So, they crave, they hunger, they reach about in a desperate heartache to see what would satisfy their longings. And, in all of their searching, in all of their efforts to change their fate, they find nothing. Until they find God, until they choose to accept, not something they were previously lacking, but something they had already been given -The love of God manifest in Yeshua. However, having done so and having genuinely given their hearts to God, many believers still find themselves with a gnawing empty feeling that keeps them dissatisfied and unfulfilled. The initial joy they walked in, the oneness and love that they once had with God seems to slowly drift into their past. They then begin a quest for head knowledge, either about the world or, about the One who once lived large in their hearts. And, they let the cares of this world drown out the voice of the Spirit, the Lord of Glory begins to feel distant from them once again. The believer is then faced with a challenge, to allow the head knowledge of the fallen world a place of importance in our lives or to set off in a heart pursuit of God. Our minds will begin to tell us that we must humble ourselves to what the world says about us. And, we will begin to believe lies about our God, and that will lead to bitterness, and lead us farther from God. But, our hearts, they will tell us that we must go deeper in the faith, deeper in the longing for the revelation of Yeshua, deeper in our trust of Torah. We must learn what God says about us so that we can be the people He intended us to be, and then we must begin to walk that out in emunah (faith). It is a walk that says, "Whatever the cost appears to be I will be faithful to my God and I will align my life with His." It is later that we find the only real cost was leaving our bondages behind. Our walk with God is, or rather needs to be, that constant movement forward; as was Abraham's, as was Israel's in the desert, as was King David's. Indeed, as was Yeshua's. The hurt of longing we feel can be seen as spiritual growing pains, a longing for more of God and on a greater level than what we presently have. Not all hurts are bad, not all dissatisfactions are bad, often they are calling us to move forward, to move closer to the Land of Promise. And, one day, if we grow not weary, we will find that fullness of joy in our surrender to Yeshua. The fifth chapter of Matthew, verses 1 through 11, addresses much of the believers walk and pursuit of the realities of God. But, the sixth verse encapsulates it, as God is the righteousness we seek. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." Matthew 5:6 For the believer the only thing that can matter is the glorification of God in the present moment in which we live. That is what gives us peace, what gives us purpose, what makes us satisfied. We have been given standing orders by our Lord to be witnesses of Him, and the Ruach is given unto us to enable us to do so. If dross, condemnation, or bitterness rise up in our lives to block us from doing what Yeshua instructed then the sense of separation from Him grows ever deeper, and we will grow ever emptier as the Ruach will be silenced and the sadness in our hearts grows until we return to our walk with Him. So, the constant choice remains... It is the choice to believe God and to love Him, or to believe the world and love it; for in the end the only thing we truly have in this life is the love we give away... Who will you give your love to? To Yeshua? Or, to the vain promises of the exile? Joshua put it the following way: "...choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." Joshua 24:15 Choose wisely, and walk it out ...one step at a time.