It seems like the battle that we are up against is the ever increasing pressure to conform to standards, definitions and values that are contrary to God, His Word and His Spirit.  The struggle robs our peace, our confidence, our focus and leaves us entangled in battles that is not ours to fight. We either get into the battle that is none-of-our-business like King Josiah did, or we fight the legitimate battles in the flesh, in the way that is not our business to be.

Return to Your First Love

We can never do God's work in our own strength and our own way. Moses missed going into the promised land because of doing this. We cannot get our heads, hearts and hands into that which we were not given by God to get into. It is so easy to get wrapped up in what is surrounding us, but it is not impossible to rise above it. Daniel did, Esther did.

How do we keep from getting baited into the net of mediocre pursuits that steal our time and energy and resources? We spend time with God. We pursue His presence. We return to our first love. We lay aside all ideas, teachings, affronts, offenses and high mindedness and share time and space with God.

I heard a preacher say that it takes TIME and TRUTH in God's presence to build an intimate relationship with Him. This is true. You cannot say that you love God and desire His will in and for your life if you never give of what we all have to give to Him. Where is God's time? When do you set aside a few minutes, an hour or two, a day, just to be with Him?

And then when you are finding those minutes, hours or day to be with Him, are you still your conceded self? Do you even know how to be honest with God? It always amaze me when I find myself trying to whitewash my thoughts and actions before God. He knows the truth. The question is whether or not we are brave enough to admit to it. It is only when I can in truth go to God about an issue that He intervenes. When I am self-deceived and hide behind the fig-leave of my own understanding, I may as well go fishing. The Psalmist write that God desires truth in the inward parts. 

O that all the pressure, all the filth, all the danger, hate, war and junk around us will squeeze us back to our first love. Maybe when we find in Him a friend so dear, maybe when we re-discover what a sweet, sweet presence He really is, maybe then will we rise above the murky, cesspool of circumstances, politics and evil that surrounds us.