I think that I get away for the "red print" a little too often and if I really want to be a disciple of my Rabbi then I need to mainly study Him and live like He did. This is a great thing to undertake and it is not just for a month or two, it is meant to be a challenge for the rest of your life. I do have trouble keeping up with it and always completing everything by the end of the month, especially since I highlight, underline, and dwell on verses every minute or so, but that just means that I need to read longer and more.
As I read through Mark the other day I noticed something. I only read chapters 1-5, yet I kept seeing the word "immediately" over and over again. Whenever something happened or the Spirit moved Jesus would act immediately. I did not see many times where he stood and waited or figured he could take his time.
"And the Spirit called Jesus to fast in the Wilderness, so he waited a while and when he was ready he left."
Does that sound like Christ? Not at all! Does that sound like Christians...? Sadly, I think that most of the time it does. The word "immediately" is defined as,
"At once; instantly.Without any intervening time or space."
This really got me thinking...
How often is it that God tells me to do something and instead of jumping up and doing something immediately I will wait until the time that I want to do it. Another thing is that whenever I wait to do something I slowly lose my nerve and then I will eventually talk myself out of doing it. This is a terrible habit that I have and it also can make me be disobedient to God! Can I call this out for what it is? Laziness and complacency. In the culture we are raised in we have our set things we are doing and whenever somethings comes up we say we will do it "later" because we are busy with something at the moment. Often the things that we are asked to do is more important yet we put it off because we prioritize what we are doing over anything someone else wants us to do. I do this so often with people and God that my Spirit hates it but my Flesh just does not care. "The Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak" concept. (Mark 14:38)
I am a Christian, a Christ follower, a disciple of my Rabbi that should be striving to be just like Him. Whenever someone needed Jesus or the Spirit told him to do something he would put their priority as his highest. He was walking somewhere and a woman touched his for healing, immediately he stopped and looked for who it was, he knew that she needed to hear from him. She was healed and he was walking, why stop? Because something in him said that he needed to stop, so he did. The Holy Spirit called him to fast in the Wilderness, so he immediately left what he was doing and went there.
If we are called to reflect Christ I think we are also called to be immediate people. I also think that doing this on our own strength is useless, like everything else "Apart from Him we can do nothing." (John 15:5) It is only by His grace that we can over come things. I want to strive to be like Him and make my life be one that I put other before myself in priorities and I listen to the Spirit and work within His time frame, not my own. I pray for the grace of God and the empowering of the Holy Spirit to help me do this! I hope that anyone who reads this hopes to do the same thing. It is hard, and sometimes painful, to die to our Flesh but we are no longer who we once were, we are born again, and we do not need to be slaves to our own desires anymore!
Hallelujah! Amen!
Keeping the Faith,
C.A.M.
p.s. Like the new layout?? :)
Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rohdesign/152626650/
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