“And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, [then] He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you.”
Romans 8:11 Amplified Bible
Last night at His Place we came together for the Lord’s Table.
Before that though, we were cautioned that we need to
always be aware of the danger of the ‘routine’ in our walk with God.
Not a routine borne out of developing a good foundation and good habits in our lives but rather the ‘sameness’ that can too easily creep in to replace the life we should live by walking in relationship and being led by the Spirit of God.
We can walk each day in faithful anticipation and excitement at His leading; or we can slip into a ‘normal routine’ that is more about getting done what we need to get done. God already knows about “…all these other things…” and He said they would be ‘added’ when we seek first His kingdom.
It is only in that daily seeking and daily trusting that we walk away
from the routine and learn to fully rely on Him.
As I was listening I could not help but think of a term we probably all are familiar with.
If you have ever seen a patient who is in a hospital bed and hooked up to every kind of imaginable monitor you know what the term ‘flat-line’ means. It is when all the vital signs appear as a “flat line” on the monitors.
This, if there is not intervention, results in death.
That is not a very nice ‘picture’. If you permit me the liberty of an illustration: Routine-ness carries the risk of bringing us dangerously close to ‘spiritual flat-line’. Only through the process of honest examination can we avoid the trap. I think sometimes it is a misnomer to call it self-examination because we are to examine ourselves through the eyes and with the searchlight of the Holy Spirit; dealing with issues before they take us to the ‘land of routine-ness’ and ‘flat-lining’ our relationship with God.
Cultivate the process of, together with the Holy Spirit, examining and repenting from those areas where routine has replaced relationship.
Romans 8:11 Amplified Bible
Last night at His Place we came together for the Lord’s Table.
Before that though, we were cautioned that we need to
always be aware of the danger of the ‘routine’ in our walk with God.
Not a routine borne out of developing a good foundation and good habits in our lives but rather the ‘sameness’ that can too easily creep in to replace the life we should live by walking in relationship and being led by the Spirit of God.
We can walk each day in faithful anticipation and excitement at His leading; or we can slip into a ‘normal routine’ that is more about getting done what we need to get done. God already knows about “…all these other things…” and He said they would be ‘added’ when we seek first His kingdom.
It is only in that daily seeking and daily trusting that we walk away
from the routine and learn to fully rely on Him.
As I was listening I could not help but think of a term we probably all are familiar with.
If you have ever seen a patient who is in a hospital bed and hooked up to every kind of imaginable monitor you know what the term ‘flat-line’ means. It is when all the vital signs appear as a “flat line” on the monitors.
This, if there is not intervention, results in death.
That is not a very nice ‘picture’. If you permit me the liberty of an illustration: Routine-ness carries the risk of bringing us dangerously close to ‘spiritual flat-line’. Only through the process of honest examination can we avoid the trap. I think sometimes it is a misnomer to call it self-examination because we are to examine ourselves through the eyes and with the searchlight of the Holy Spirit; dealing with issues before they take us to the ‘land of routine-ness’ and ‘flat-lining’ our relationship with God.
Cultivate the process of, together with the Holy Spirit, examining and repenting from those areas where routine has replaced relationship.
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