Why?
Good Morning Girls! I have a Girlfriend who is going through the same "faith transformation" that I am. Actually I know a lot of Girls who are experiencing similar transformations- it's just that there is one who's story seems almost identical to mine. She came up to me yesterday and shared a bit of her story with me in more detail. At one point she said there was a part of her that was angry with her spiritual mentor for not pulling her in while she was heading down this religious road. Her mentor responded "would you have listened to me?" My friend knew she wouldn't have. Then she said she was upset with God for awhile for not smacking her upside the head sooner with this revelation. Now don't get me wrong- she is not blaming anyone. She is not blaming God. It is just that she is looking back realizing that those around her knew full well her faith had turned in to a to do list. She has definitely always loved God, but like me, as her knowledge of Him increased, her relationship with Him decreased.
Though there is a deep joy that comes when you get "set straight" and return to your first Love, there is also a bit of a mourning that occurs. You mourn the time you feel you have wasted. The time you missed out on intimacy and fellowship with the Lord. This feeling of mourning alone has the potential to derail you and rob you of this love reunited (the devil doesn't like it when we return to Jesus and ditch our religious attitudes). So what my friend was expressing when she wanted to know why no one else intervened was the feeling of mourning. In a sense you feel like the last few years were wasted....wasted on things that did not matter.
In case any of you are feeling the same way as my Girl was, I want to share with you my take on the matter. My answer to the question "Why didn't God smack me upside the head and set me straight?" First of all, I believe He did intervene many times along the way. Looking back we can see the different people, scriptures, and events that took place that could have been turning points. We have those reflections so we can look back and see that God did not ditch us. He was with us during every minute of our journey. He did however know that we would not respond to any of these warning signs. He did not send them to change us. He sent them so we could look back and see He was with us along the way. Second, I believe He had to let us get to the end of our spiritual rope. We had to return to that place of brokenness in order to seek Him in much the same way we sought Him when we were first born again. For me I had to turn away from God, try my "own thing" in order to be reminded that life apart from Him is no life at all. I believe when I had my back turned to Him, He was still pursuing me.....keeping watch over me to catch me if I slipped too far.
The third reason I believe this is allowed to happen is because it is such a common occurrence. John warns the church in Ephesus about it in Revelation 2:4 he says "You don't love me{speaking about God} or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen. Turn back to me. It happened in the early church, and it is still happening today. For those of us who go through it, I believe it is because it is one of the best tricks of the enemy........."Let's burden them and keep them so busy they forget about Jesus, and are too tired and frustrated to experience any joy". God didn't want us to experience it....but we did.....so now he is going to use us to reach out to others! We are going to be the warning signs along the way. The people that when others have their "revelation moment", they look back at an interaction they had with us and see that God was in fact along side them the whole time.....whether they felt it or not.
Lastly, lets not dismiss the things we did accomplish while we were busy doing doing doing. We did gain a lot of valuable knowledge and experience. We did the best we knew to do at the time. It's kind of like we were in school, and now we have to apply the knowledge we learned in school to real life. It was not wasted time. There is no reason to mourn. In fact, we should rejoice and Praise God........for there are many who will never experience this freedom. There are many who will hang on to the end of their spiritual rope until their last breath. My prayer is that it will not be any of my Girls who are reading this.....
Revelation 2:4 "but I have this complaint against you. You don't love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me........(we'll address the end of this verse tomorrow)
Love you all-
Jen
Though there is a deep joy that comes when you get "set straight" and return to your first Love, there is also a bit of a mourning that occurs. You mourn the time you feel you have wasted. The time you missed out on intimacy and fellowship with the Lord. This feeling of mourning alone has the potential to derail you and rob you of this love reunited (the devil doesn't like it when we return to Jesus and ditch our religious attitudes). So what my friend was expressing when she wanted to know why no one else intervened was the feeling of mourning. In a sense you feel like the last few years were wasted....wasted on things that did not matter.
In case any of you are feeling the same way as my Girl was, I want to share with you my take on the matter. My answer to the question "Why didn't God smack me upside the head and set me straight?" First of all, I believe He did intervene many times along the way. Looking back we can see the different people, scriptures, and events that took place that could have been turning points. We have those reflections so we can look back and see that God did not ditch us. He was with us during every minute of our journey. He did however know that we would not respond to any of these warning signs. He did not send them to change us. He sent them so we could look back and see He was with us along the way. Second, I believe He had to let us get to the end of our spiritual rope. We had to return to that place of brokenness in order to seek Him in much the same way we sought Him when we were first born again. For me I had to turn away from God, try my "own thing" in order to be reminded that life apart from Him is no life at all. I believe when I had my back turned to Him, He was still pursuing me.....keeping watch over me to catch me if I slipped too far.
The third reason I believe this is allowed to happen is because it is such a common occurrence. John warns the church in Ephesus about it in Revelation 2:4 he says "You don't love me{speaking about God} or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen. Turn back to me. It happened in the early church, and it is still happening today. For those of us who go through it, I believe it is because it is one of the best tricks of the enemy........."Let's burden them and keep them so busy they forget about Jesus, and are too tired and frustrated to experience any joy". God didn't want us to experience it....but we did.....so now he is going to use us to reach out to others! We are going to be the warning signs along the way. The people that when others have their "revelation moment", they look back at an interaction they had with us and see that God was in fact along side them the whole time.....whether they felt it or not.
Lastly, lets not dismiss the things we did accomplish while we were busy doing doing doing. We did gain a lot of valuable knowledge and experience. We did the best we knew to do at the time. It's kind of like we were in school, and now we have to apply the knowledge we learned in school to real life. It was not wasted time. There is no reason to mourn. In fact, we should rejoice and Praise God........for there are many who will never experience this freedom. There are many who will hang on to the end of their spiritual rope until their last breath. My prayer is that it will not be any of my Girls who are reading this.....
Revelation 2:4 "but I have this complaint against you. You don't love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me........(we'll address the end of this verse tomorrow)
Love you all-
Jen
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