Lessons learned from the Feline persuasion

This may seem silly, but I have a cat that has taught me a thing or two that has helped in my spiritual life, and I pray that these insights help readers.

The first observation  I noticed was this:  my cat love being near me, sometimes on my lap, sometimes on the couch next to me, and other times just in the same room.  The lesson I learned is that this is the way we should view our relationship with God.  We should desire to be in His presence and close to Him as much as possible.  This is what we were made for.  How many times in the Bible do we read that God is jealous for us, that He longs for His children to be close to Him?  Sometimes we read it in story form and sometimes we read it in plain language that God desires for us to be near Him and wish for us to be obedient to His voice and Word above all other things.

Another observation I have made is this:  my daughter had a string that she using to play with the cat.  It was actually quite hilarious.  An 8 year old cat playing like an 8 wk old kitten.  After a while, she placed on my bedside table when she was finished.  After a couple days, the cat found it and dragged it out and dropped it and looked at it like she wanted to play, so we did.  Then I put it in a drawer so she would not see it, thinking that maybe out of sight might mean out of mind.  But no, she saw where we put it and would, and actually still does, will go that drawer and either look it and meow or paw it and meow.  She will do this until I take it out and play with her.  If  I don't, she will look at me and give me a pathetic meow as if to say "Can't we play?"   The lesson I learned is that she asked and kept on asking, she sought and kept on seeking, she knocked and kept on knocking (Mathew 7:7-8).  She is like the persistent widow in her asking.  She doesn't give up until she gets an answer to her plea.  Many times we are not like that.  We ask God once and if our plea does not get answered, we sulk away and never ask.  I am not saying we are like that, but I know many who are.  I have even done it.  Let's try and be more like my cat, and be persistent when we enter Gods throne room until we get an answer.  Sometimes God delays in answering because it's not the right time or because he wants to see if we will keep asking.  Sometimes He does answer but our ears are clogged with our life circumstances.  Ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking.

The final observation I will make here is the fact that my cat is so sure that I will meet her needs (i.e. feed her, clean the litter box, keep her safe, etc.).  She never worries about food or water or even attention and love from us human folk.  If a cat, who is a creature, does not worry about those things because we take care of them, how much more will our God take care of our needs?  Many times we worry needlessly about things.  Jesus even taught us about this in these words:

         "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?   Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life?  And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?   Therefore do not be anxious, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `What shall we wear?'   For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.   But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.   Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day." (Matthew 6:25-34) 

God is our provider, not our efforts.  At any time God can allow circumstances to allow you to discover that it is not your efforts, your intelligence, your hard work that provides for you.  That may be needed, but God is the ultimate provider.  So if  we know how to take care of our pets and those under our care, how much more can God, the creator and sustainer of all things, take care of all of us.

I pray that as you have read this, you take some comfort in what God can do and does when we seek Him.  I also pray that if you struggle with any of these areas, that you learn how to fully depend on God our Savior, friend, provider, and Lord.  The most important of these lessons is found in Matthew 6:33 which states: "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well."

Two Wave Vision

The other day I had a vision while worshipping God.  In the vision I was standing on what appeared to be a sand bar, but only drier.  Behind me and in front of me was a wave, both coming towards me.  In the vision I was holding out my hand and yelling at one of the waves to stop coming after me, my attention 100% on it.  The other wave was bigger and coming just as fast.  I knew immediately what they represented.  The one I was yelling at represented the past;  the good, the bad, and the ugly.  It represented where I had come from, spiritually, my heritage, where I have worked, where i have went to school, etc.  It also represented past sins or habits that I had dealt with and gotten rid of.  The other represented the future and what God has for me there.  This included spiritually, financially, occupation, family, everything about the future. 

What surprised me was that I was focused on the past, and not on the future.  The past threatened to crash back over me, especially those areas that I would never choose to revisit, and my attention was on the parts of the past that I liked as well, wishing for them again.  I realized that I was in the in between no mans land that was no fun for anyone.  I know this was an accurate picture of me since currently I am unemployed and have been looking for work for some time with no success and the old habits from the past due to stress wanted to overwhelm me.

 As I looked at the picture, I was reminded of the Israelites in the wilderness.  Where was there attention focused?   It was focused on Egypt, where they had come from and the bondage and hard life it represented.  They rarely focused on the Promised Land, or the future where God was leading them.

Lots of people are like this.  They find themselves in a hard place and discover it isn't where they want to be, they say they want the future where God is taking them but their thoughts and emotions are looking back to what they had, the comfortable life (although it may not have been easy, it was something familiar).  They know that a better future could be in store, but they long for the past.  They are tired of the hard place and think it best to go back. So they yell at the wave tell it to stop and are even tempted to go back all at the same time.  Sounds confusing, but it is true.  I have been there.  If you find yourself in this place, you might feel that you have done something wrong or that God has abandoned you or is [playing games.  You listen to your emotions more than the words of God in your heart and in His word.  You may even feel that you are the only person to have ever gone through this.  I have good news for you.  You are not the first nor will you be the last.  God took you out of your past into no man's land so that He could both prepare you for the future coming and prepare the future for you.  In faith we must believe and trust in God that what He is doing is the right thing and that He is not playing games.  We must look to the future and not focus on where we have been.  Paul puts it this way:

" But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.  I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 3:7-14).

So what does this all mean?  Look toward Jesus and what he has ahead for you.  Do what you can to know Him more and more and become more conformed to His image.  This will not be easy because everything within you will want to turn back and return to the comfortable past life of things you know.  So be strong and courageous and allow God to do the work in you that He desires.  When the future promises come, you will be glad that you endured the sandbar of difficulties.

God's Promises

I have a question to ask you as I start. Do you believe that when God promises something that it will be kept?  I can hear many of you saying "Well, of course He does."  But many times we do not live as if we believe it.  As with anything, the believing comes in the action not the word.  For example:  You can say all day long that you believe a chair will hold you up when you sit on it, but until you actually sit on it, you are not acting on that belief and proving to yourself and others that you believe it.

I ran into a situation recently and found myself in a rough spot.  Suddenly a verse came to mind: "When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him." (Isa. 59:19, NKJV).  I remember praying and reminding God that His word says that when the enemy comes against us, You will come against him.  I also said that I needed God to do this for me right now.  I was desperate.  As soon as I did, I felt the presence of God sweep by me and the onslaught of the enemy was gone.  My thoughts cleared up and returned to normal.  I was amazed to say the least.  I remembered thinking that "God's promises really work."  I didn't do anything special, all I did was prayed that scripture and believed and the situation was gone. 

To digress just a little, this verse in the Hebrew has no punctuation in the original writings.  All punctuation has been added later.  So, that verse can also be read this way: "When the enemy comes in, like a flood The Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him."  As I meditated on it, it seems the 'like a flood' phrase can refer to either side of the equation.  It could also be rendered: "When the enemy comes in like a flood,  like a flood The Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him."  This seems very accurate in my opinion.  And why not?  God is always able to come against the enemy with a bigger flood than the one the enemy produces.  And this thought also ran through my mind as well, if God is all powerful, just a lift of His pinkie will be enough to come against any flood the enemy can produce.

So what did I learn?  I learned that just because I can quote a scripture and tell others about it, does not mean I truly believe it until I put it into action.  That is why James says that faith without works is dead (James 2:26).  You must put action to your faith in order for it to be alive.  If you don't, it can be argued that you don't really believe it anyway.  So, all this to say, put feet to your actions so that you can be counted a person of faith.  Don't just say you believe something, action follow through with action.  Try it; you might just be surprised how willing God is to keep His promises.