Obedience and it's relationship to Abiding ~ Notice the overlap? I recently did........

I read this great excerpt from a book last week about how Satan is far too sneaky to just present us with a temptation to blatant sin.......we would be looking out for those kind of attacks.
He knows that we will be much more warmed up to the possibility of wandering if he brings up the heat little by little. First by making sure we're too sleepy to pray and/or distracting us by everything and anything he can. Then by letting the little white lies go unchecked or excused away, then by clinging to our 'rights' in this and that situation.........and THEN just when our hearts have become deaf to the nudging of the Holy Spirit and our hearts are calloused to the point where we find it hard to love and live for Christ.........BAM - Anxiety, Fear, Discontent, Disillusionment, Despair - all essentially are UNBELIEF.......and then the temptation only gets worse........to forsake the fountain of living water and to try to find satisfaction in things of the world - we are so susceptible to such things......hence the warnings "beware, lest you likewise fall"

I have had the experience of being like a frog in a pot with the heat being turned up so gradually that I haven't even noticed it - in that my heart became less able to pick up the Holy Spirit's leading. Yeah sure, still doing ministry, still praying, still reading.......but not abiding.
Stupid thing is, I knew something was "off", but could not put my finger on it.....till now.

I was at my little brother's house on Friday night and as usual, I was poking around in his library looking for a new something to read.
I found this book called "I Dared to Call Him Father"
I read a few pages, unfortunately getting so wrapped up in the book that I wasn't too helpful to my brother in planning his proposal of marriage that he was hankerin' to do on New Years Eve.
(went EXTEREMLY WELL - Praise the Lord)

But the book was a page turner! I did eventually put it down that night......but the next morning I could not eat breakfast fast enough to get out of my house to go sit in my favorite seat by the fire at Caribou Coffee and crack open the extremely captivating book about an upper class muslim woman who was converted to Christ Jesus in a most unusual way.
And although the way that she came to the faith was different than mine, reading the words she wrote, reading right into her heart made me fly back to the time when my faith was new and fresh and nothing meant more to me than listening to my Father.
She wrote in the book about how she could sense "The Presence" and the hand of the Almighty, personally known to her now as her Father.....and whenever she was harsh or otherwise disobedient, she could actually sense his presence fading. With the strong desire to not displease her Father and to remain in fellowship with him, immediately when she obeyed, whether it was to apologize or to move out of her comfort zone as the Lord was leading her to.......she could sense his presence return full force.
Her only desire was to keep His blessed presence with her always.

"I remember that !" I thought.
OH ! I had forgotten what it was like to move at the drop of a hat in obedience - I had forgotten the joy of reconciliation - I had forgotten the peace that comes with walking before Him in love and trusting His hand.

All of these precious moments that He's brought me to have come from a blessed trial going on in my life right now.
What a Father ~
Twas REALLY ironic that the sermon on Sunday was all about the Fatherhood of God....and how we relate to Him and He to us. I love it when God's timing works out that way~

Ha ! Then I was watching the Chronicles of Narnia, and for the first time it hit me..........Christians are all as Edmund......we're not so much like the 3 others that never were led astray and deceived.

I'll quit rambling.........

Tis all I got ~
In Christ Jesus still,
Jen2