Illumination (Penned 3/06)

Here it is the middle of March. Spring is fast on its way and with it so many exciting things to look forward to. This morning in prayer I got an earful. I’ll be blunt and brief because there’s little time each day to get it all down. A daily log can get somewhat personal, but I’ve been told that’s ok. I am to post it all anyway. So here goes.When looking over the recent past and seeking God’s face with prayer and fasting, it now comes so clear that some of the difficulties that I’ve run into are simply because it’s safe and warm right next to God, and I got out away from that safety and warmth. Period. God showed me where we’d been closer in the past and that I’d let that go. Distractions, ambitions, taking Him for granted - this all added up to dross accumulating in my spirit, dust in the house where I’ve asked Him to dwell. Well, it eventually gets swept out and burned off, if you’re really His. And it hurts. But it’s good, or we’d just keep getting further, and life would just keep getting darker. In His love, he does what He must.God has given me vague glimpses of an incredible life available to us where worship and intimacy with Him is the center, and we are warmed and refreshed to such a place that when we go out into that world, nothing can shake us, and peace and rest reign our lives. Like a lush, green garden that we take with us everywhere we go, spilling life out all over those around us. Healing there is complete, for whatever affliction, and no matter what happens to or around us, we are safe and confident in His love and protection. He bought that for us. He paid so much. I’ve seen it and I want it. I don’t care what sort of things we are faced with in this life; perfect rest is the only way to live. It’s right there. I can almost touch it. The glimpses are getting clearer. I see it in friends (just a very few, but there are those who know it) and I want it also. Beware the ides of March, my friends. In this time is both brutal illumination and difficult decision, but it’s worth it all.Now that I’m feeling so much better, it could be easy to become complacent. But God forbid. We must take these painful lessons and use them to jettison us into His presence and His inheritance, to a place where we’ve never ventured before.