A Holy Vigilance

^{Isaiah 5:8:11-12}

¹¹ Woe to those who rise early in the morning

   to run after their drinks,

who stay up late at night

   till they are inflamed with wine.

¹² They have harps and lyres at their banquets,

   pipes and timbrels and wine,

but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD,

   no respect for the work of his hands.

Luke 21:34-36

 ³⁴ “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. ³⁵ For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. ³⁶ Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

Holy-
: devoted entirely to the deity or the work of the deity <a holy temple> <holy prophets>
(Merriam Webster)

Vigilance-

watchfulness: the process of paying close and continuous attention; "wakefulness, watchfulness, and bellicosity make a good hunter"; "vigilance is especially susceptible to fatigue"

Scripture indicates the necessity for the children of God to display a holy vigilance towards Him. This can be seen in the above verses. A holy vigilance in the way that we live out our lives in every area.  If we can slowly remove the clutter in our lives that separate us from experiencing, knowing and serving God more, it will truly be a blessing to our own lives, a blessing to others and give God glory.

I used to think of the word "holy" as just being an attribute associated with God. When I think of holy I think of  something set apart because of its purity. That definitely would be one way to describe God. Because of His amazing capabilities, because of His infinite wisdom and eternal existence, for sure He is set apart from the rest of us. But are we, as followers, set apart from the rest of the world in our perspective towards the way we live and go about things? Or do we jump into activities with others that we might know do not glorify God, but do it anyways? Figuring perhaps that it's not important, or God won't mind, or perhaps reminding ourselves of the fact that we go to church, maybe participate in a prayer group...heck we try our best..if we do "this little thing" for sure God won't mind.

Is that true though?

God calls us to be holy. We can see that in 1 Peter 1:16 : ¹⁶ for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” 

If Jesus were to return to this world this very second, what does your heart tell you about the matter in which you would be received? We all fall short of the glory of God but it is through earnest effort, deliberate prayer, meditation and time in the scriptures that we become less and less cleaved to this world and more and more cleaved to our Creator. It is surely through the workings of the Spirit that we progress down the path of sanctification.

 Would Jesus catch us joining in the world's revelry, separating ourselves from the reality of God and the place that we have in Him to partake in feasting upon the fleeting fruits of the world that only turn into ashes in our mouth and whose taste never linger but fade quickly? Or would He find us to be a vigilant people, continually striving towards holiness, continually preparing our hearts for Him and continually seeking to walk on this earth more like Jesus, bringing glimpses of His Kingdom here on earth?

Important questions to ask ourselves, especially during this season of Advent, when we are preparing our hearts to celebrate the time when our savior came to earth in the form of a baby, to live tempted as we are tempted, yet in his purity living unhindered by the temptations of this world. May we find the strength, through the Spirit, to become less and less hindered and susceptible to the ways of this world and become more and more vigilant in preparing our hearts for God and entering into more acts of service, as they bear fruit for His Kingdom and bring glory to His name.

Heavenly Father,

We thank you for your unending mercy and grace. We thank you for being a God of compassion and love. May we never take for granted the blessings you heap on us-the physical blessings of warm homes, food on our tables and clothes to wear. The spiritual blessings of peace and joy and of your presence. May we stay focused on striving to bring you glory and manifesting your Kingdom here on earth. May we rejoice in knowing you and continually seek your face and be satisfied spiritually in our pursuit of you, looking to no other ways of feeling fulfilled and at peace. May you and you alone be our source of strength and may your love be the means and ends in our lives. To experience your love, to seek your love and to spread your love. May you purify us on our walks and may the Spirit spur us onwards towards a holy vigilance.

In Jesus' name,
Amen 

The Key To Prosperity

<sup>Jeremiah 29:11-13

11</sup> For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

God wants us to prosper, to soar, to reach the heights of our dreams and ambitions, if they are parallel with His will for our lives. For when our life bears fruit it gives glory to God. God wants our lives to be living testimonies of the power of the Spirit that works through His children, so naturally He wants the best for us! He didn't make us to be stagnant, he made us to be active agents of His kingdom, spreading love and light and hope to the world.

He also didn't intend for us to have downcast souls, wounded by the world. If we lift the eyes of our hearts to Him, seeking Him with all that is inside of us, He will lift our weary, wounded souls up into heights unimaginable.

Sometimes we all reach our plateaus in life where it seems like we've been stuck in the same place and hope for change and growth seems like a remote possibility because we've been resting in the same reality for so long. In fact, it's easy to get comfortable in such a place. We know what to expect and what is expected of us. It's also an intimidating thing sometimes, rising above our comfort zones and trying new things, growing in new ways. We have to overcome our internal inertia to do so. But God doesn't want us to fear those things, he wants us to embrace them!

The way to get out of the rut we find ourselves in sometimes? The way to overcome our fears and insecurities? As the verses in Jeremiah tell us...pray and seek God with all of our hearts!...The Holy Spirit is, I've found, the best catalyst of change and the best source of hope and nourishment a weary, tired, or stagnant soul needs in being revived. God gives us the strength and encouragement to move forward. And when we move forward, trusting in Him only and seeking Him with all our hearts we start to see great changes in our lives. I'm not talking about money falling from the sky (though that would be nice!)..but perhaps prosperity also refers to the strengthening and growth and fruitfulness of relationships. When it comes to financial prosperity, that does seem a natural byproduct of an active, fruitful life.

The key I've found to grow with God is to have a regular devotional life of prayer and reading Scripture and meditating. If we do these things mindfully, giving to them while we engage in them our full attention, then we get to know our God better so that our prayers our conformed more closely to His Will. In Scripture it says that if you ask then you will receive. I've heard that misinterpreted though in the sense that people read it as if God is magically transformed into some type of divine genie. You rub your Bible a certain way while praying and...poof! You get what you desire. That just isn't so though. The New Testament over and over again tells us that we are to conform ourselves not to this world but to Christ. When we move through the process of sanctification and the truths and reality of God blossom before us like flowers in a garden, providing beauty and light to our souls, we start to want the things God wants. And when we pray for those things, God is overjoyed in providing them to us!

It is my prayer that all who read this find joy and hope and nourishment in our great God today. It might be a good thing too if we all pray for God to reveal the areas of our lives that need change (I know I have some!) and for God's Will for us to be revealed so that we can experience the greatest amount of joy and peace and prosperity God offers those who are seekers and humble and have open hearts hungrily thirsting for His Spirit. May we manifest His will in our lives so that our God may be glorified for all of man to witness, to draw those who haven't experienced Him closer by witnessing His power working through our lives, bearing much fruit.

~Blessings in Christ

Enter the Gates

"The present moment is a wide-open gate leading to the depths of God."
 James Finley, Christian Meditation, p. 230

There are most likely as many ways to come before God and enter into His presence as there are people. Everyone is so unique, their souls and person stitched together in a unique and differing pattern. I would suggest ,though ,that we are all stitched together with the same thread, for we were all made in the likeness of God.  Those of us that have claimed our inheritance have God within us and if we learn to still our minds we can learn to open up to experience the presence of God and experience a peace that surpasses all understanding.

There is an immense amount of freedom I've found in experiencing the present moment. And I've found that using the tool of mindfulness in worship and prayer and in every moment is a powerful way of experiencing God's presence. I am going to write more on this, but perhaps this is sort of an introduction to this subject on my blog. Oh, and I just want to mention, these are just my own thoughts and reflections on this subject...I'm no way an expert (as this blog's intro states!). This is just an area that fascinates me, that I've experienced personally though am still a novice in fully comprehending and practicing.

I was reflecting the other day that our consciousness is like an onion with different layers. As we peel back the layers less of the onion remains but what does become even more real are the intangible qualities-it's scent and sometimes our physiological responses to it (like involuntary tears!). The more we enter into different levels of consciousness, peeling back the more superficial layers, peeling away our attachments, the ramblings of our mind, the more we start to get to the core of things. I would suggest, God is at our core.

When we let go of ourselves, or who we think are ourselves, and still our mind so that we are an observor to our illusions, to our mind's wanderings, we start to see things more clearly and we start to open our hearts up to God's reality more and more as we become less and less cluttered and hindered by the insufficient things we sometimes cling to for security in our ever-shifting worlds. The fact is, life is impermanent and sometimes it can be downright full of despair and suffering, filled with uncertainty, etc. That is why it is much to our benefit as well as salvation that we cling to the only sure rock there is in which to steady our uneven gait through this life...and that is God. And I believe there is much benefit in centering ourselves and our mind on God and in His presence. It provides us with peace, with direction and with a sense of compassion that we most undoubtedly will extend to others.

On this topic John of the cross wrote:

A soul makes room for God by wiping away all the smudges and smears of attachment. By uniting its will perfectly to God's; for to love is to labor to divest and deprive oneself for God of all that is not God. When this is done the soul will be illumined by and transformed in God.

There are many great writers who speak a lot more eloquently and with more experience than I on this subject. I will be sure to quote passages from them over time on this blog so that maybe we can learn together some of the wisdom and insight God has revealed to them. We all have much to learn from one another, but ultimately God is our infallible source of truth and all His truth is in His Word, so we will explore what His Word has to say about all of this as well.

What are your thoughts? Your experiences, if any on contemplative prayer and Christian meditation?

~many blessings