Bone Dry Faith

If you are anything like me, you have had times where your faith has felt dry. Times when you wished you were more passionate in your spiritual walk, times when you wished your heart broke for the things that break His heart. You see passionate people around you and you just don't feel the same way. Maybe you even sit in your room wishing you could trust God with your WHOLE heart, wishing His joy would pour out of you.You wish you could magically grow into a more passionate believer who recognizes the power of God and trusts in that. If any of those scenarios sound familiar, you are probably a lot like me. I have had many times in my faith where things have felt dry, even though I wanted to be passionately in love with Christ and joyful in every circumstance. 

One thing I absolutely love about God is that He never fails to remind us of truth and remind us of who He is through creation, people, or seemingly insignificant things around us. 

Yesterday, while I was nannying, one of the girls was showing me these things called Orbeez. They are these little bitty balls that you put in water overnight and they absorb a ton of water. She brought some downstairs that she had already made and they were pretty big, a lot bigger than I expected them to be. I began to read the directions, and here are some things it said: "Orbeez will grow to about 100-300 times their original volume. The purer the water the larger they grow." Then it goes on to say, "Try growing Orbeez in different solutions (you can try tap water with salt, filtered or distilled water, milk, soda, juice). Measure how large they grow in these liquids. Hint: The purer the solution the larger they grow."

I thought they were kind of fun and cool and we were playing with them. Then, the Lord opened my eyes to the beautiful example of a passionate faith right in front of me. Sure, it seems silly that a little polymer ball soaked in water would remind me of that, but stay with me for a minute. =)

First of all, the Orbeez balls have to soak in water overnight, which takes time. Soaking is a process, and the transformation needs that process or nothing would happen and they would still be dry and unusable. So many times I wish I could magically be a passionate Christian, but it takes time. Following Christ is more about the journey with Him. We live in a culture that wants things immediately and would rather skip right to the results and bypass the process. I think Christ is less worried about the results and more enthralled by our journey with Him. It is through the journey that we learn to love Him more and learn to dance with Him and enjoy where He takes us and not worry about where our feet are. 

We can't expect to grow if we aren't willing to absorb the water. In the Bible, the Word of God is often compared to living water. To grow in our faith, we have to go to Jesus who is the source of living water. We have to put effort into growing. We have to be willing to dig into the Word and mediate on it and simply spend time with Jesus. How is a relationship going to grow if you never put effort into it? When Orbeez are taken out of a sealed container with a little water in it, they dry out. When you take them out for a little bit, nobody would know, but it is a slow fade. Once out of the life-giving water, they slowly begin to dry out and shrink into a nasty little wrinkled piece of grossness (great mental picture, huh?). What a beautiful example of the importance of soaking up the living water every day. 

Psalm 1:1-3 

"Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither- whatever they do prospers."

I loved how the instructions challenged you to put them in different liquids to experiment how much they grow. It said that the purer the solution, the more they grow. Think about that...the PURER the solution, the MORE they grow. What a cool picture of what it looks like to grow in our faith. the PURER the source, the more you will grow. The Purest source of Spiritual food is the Bible. Those are the words of God himself. Sure, we can grow through friends, church, Christian living books, community groups, podcasts, etc but unless we have the purest source of food, we will not grow nearly as much. There is a lot of great truth in books and church, but where where does that truth come from? The Bible.

John 7:37-38

"On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them."

When I think back to the times in my life when my faith has felt more dry, I realize it was because I was not soaking up the Word. I may have read it during those times, but I was not truly soaking it up. I was not letting the truth penetrate into my life and change my heart. It became merely a habit. I have found that I grow the most when I change up my routine and study different things. Some people grow more when they keep the same routine and read through the Bible as a whole. Some grow the most when they pick a chapter and dig down deep. Some grow by studying a specific story. Some grow the most when they read a verse a day but spend time meditating on it. The Lord has created us all differently. I tend to grow the most when I take one chapter at a time and really spend time studying it and trying to live it out, one verse at a time. I also tend to grow the most when I change up my routine such as going to a coffee shop or going outside or going hiking and mediating on Scripture. Right now I am studying Psalm 119. Let me tell ya, this one is probably going to take a long time Ha! It's just a tad chunky. If there was a chapter that ate too many cookies, it would be this one. Holy cow. I am taking it one bite at a time, or should I say 2 verses at a time? For me, two verses per day has allowed me to spend more time reading and thinking about those two verses throughout the day. Like I said, we are all different and each person is going to grow in a different way. But one thing I know for sure, when I am feeling dry in my faith, I know there's something that needs to change in the way that I am reading Scripture. When I allow the truth to penetrate my life, He is always faithful to give me life through His living water. 
By the way, if you all know of any good studies on Psalm 119 I would love for you to leave a comment with a link! 

His All-Consuming Jealousy:Jealousy Defined

Jealousy Defined

Lately I have been studying the Lord's jealousy and what it looks like. Our whole lives we are told that jealousy is wrong and that it is a sin, so how can the Lord's jealousy be pure and beautiful? What is righteous jealousy and how should we respond to that jealousy? This series will be covered through several blog posts, so feel free to follow the blog so you can read all the parts. This was a study that was honestly pretty difficult. It was hard to put what I found into words and it was hard to truly understand His jealousy. If you have anything to add, please leave a comment. I would love to learn from you all!

Here's how Webster's Dictionary defines jealousy.

1. apprehensive of loss of exclusive devotion
2. intolerance of rivalry or unfaithfulness
3. hostile toward one believed to enjoy an advantage
4. vigilant to guard a possession

Interesting how some of the definitions describe sinful jealousy as well as Godly jealousy. 

The difference between sinful jealousy and Godly jealousy is that sinful jealousy seeks after that which is not ours. It begins through selfishness and is out of pride, rather than love. It seeks what is best for us, rather than the other person. 

SJ Hill describes righteous jealousy as this: "holy jealousy is at the very core of who God is. Within the depths of His being burns an inextinguishable fire of love called jealousy. It’s a blazing passion to protect a love relationship that is eternally precious to Him and to defend it when it’s broken. Divine jealousy is that unbridled energy in God which stirs Him to take aggressive action against whomever or whatever stands in the way of His enjoyment of those He loves and desires. This has always been the real motivation behind His judgments.”

Which word sticks out to you? When I read it, it was the word love. Love is the motivation behind the Lord's jealousy. Without love, there's no way it can be righteous. Think about it. When there's something you want that someone else has, that thought is prideful because you want it for yourself rather than for others. However, God created us and does not need anything we have. He is jealous for us because we are already His and He loves us so deeply and so passionately that He will take "aggressive action" to protect those He loves. He often allows closed doors and hard trials because He loves us. He loves us too much to let us fall away from Him without a fight. He loves us too much to not chase after us. He loves us too much to let us get too distracted with the things of this world. He loves us too much to not be jealous FOR us. 

“Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” 

(Exodus 34:14).

Next blog we will look more closely at some scripture and study the Lord's jealousy and what it looks like. Stay tuned! =)