That’s when I noticed the voice over on the station was still out of sync. Have you ever seen any of those old Japanese martial arts movies? It was just like that! It was a bit comical at first. Then quickly became annoying seeing the wordless mouths move then hearing the sound. I flipped through the guide on the television to see if there was anything else better on… nope. I’d seen the movie so many times I decided to just lie back, close my eyes, and listen until I dropped off to sleep.
Sometimes our lives can seem like a movie that has gotten out of sync. For whatever reason we are not happy, not productive, and everything seems to go wrong. We begin to nit-pick others to pieces then get grouchy or snappy with our friends and family. We complain about the others we attend church with or we complain the Sunday school lesson doesn’t apply and seems a waste of time. The worship service, the sermon… the preacher… the preacher’s wife… is just not cutting it. We start thinking we don’t want to be involved in this ministry or that ministry because that other person is in charge… or involved… and we don’t like them. Maybe, we simply feel unwelcome.
When we find ourselves in this situation we better not just lie back and close our eyes or our hearts are sure to follow! We must examine what is REALLY going on here… and it should always begin with introspection.
Could it be that laziness has crept into our Bible study routine or prayer time? Maybe we have gotten so busy with life that we simply put it off until tomorrow. This is particularly easy to do when it comes to reading God’s word especially for those who have read the Bible over and over again… I mean, we know what it says, right?
It could be as simple as we are just going through the motions of church, worship, study, praying… even serving. Doing it because that’s what we good Christian’s do… not because we are eager to worship Him, not because we are hungry for His word, not because we yearn to be with Him…
Psalm 42:1 “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for God, for the living God.”It almost sounds like work doesn’t it? It’s not!
Ephesians 2:8-10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”However, we need to be careful not to take God for granted… careful not to take advantage of the freedom Christianity brings…careful not to depend upon our memory of the Word or our past experiences with God to keep us going.
I opened my eyes just in time to see Mia’s brakes go out and her car crash into the trolley and everyone was making wild gestures then all of the sudden I heard the sound of the wreck. That is exactly what happens to us when we get out of sync with the Holy Spirit! We crash around… because of circumstances we find ourselves in… maybe no one gets hurt… maybe they do…maybe we hear the sound of our foolishness… maybe not. But God, just as Queen Clarisse in the movie, comes round and guides us in the right direction… right back to HIM… we merely have to call His name.
How do we know we are out of sync with God? Examining our fruits is an excellent place to start.
Galatians 5:22-24 “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”With just a little adjustment on the computer the television station could have had that movie synced up in no time… if someone had just been paying attention! Are you paying attention? Do you need to get back in sync with God? Ask yourself… ask God; “Is this what I want? Is it what SOMEONE ELSE wants? Is it what GOD wants?”
Galatians 5:25 "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."
Excellent!!! No matter how many times we've read the Bible, or "think" we know it, God is continually talking to us and opening up more of His Word to us as we read it over, and over, and OVER again. Never ceases to amaze me how I verse I even know by heart will one money jump alive with even a deeper meaning or another insight. What an awesome God we serve!!!! My pray is I will always be in sync with HIM.
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