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The Five Minute Friday prompt this week is … Embrace. You can click at the bottom of this post to get to Kate Motaung’s site and read all that has been shared on this word.

Last night at 11pm just before heading to bed, a quick scroll revealed the five minute prompt. Walking down the hall to the bedroom, the thought comes to pass this one up as not a single thought was coming.

In the early morning light, I google because I am pretty sure the word will not appear in Scripture, only discover – I am wrong.

It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God””“Jesus is my Master”””embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!” (Romans 10:10, The Message)

Salvation is such a curious thing to me. The memory of committing my life to Christ is firm in my mind. I know I am saved. But we truly do work out our salvation every day in the process of sanctification and our lives being transformed to be more like Christ.

And that is some hard stuff.

Over the last few days, I felt compelled to do something, to reach out to someone. To be honest, it was something that in my flesh, I did not want to do.

In the stillness one morning, I felt the Lord saying {not aloud but in my heart}, “Are you willing to obey? Freedom will be yours.”

Obedience came on the third day. It took a bit for me to get my courage up.

It did not turn out the way I had hoped. But then, we are not in control of the responses of other people. We are only in control of ourselves, at best.

Upon getting off the phone, several thoughts immediately came to mind:

  • “Lord, what was that?”
  • “Why nudge me when You knew how it would turn out?”
  • “Obedience stinks.”

All said openly and with sincerity to the Lord. And in the stillness of that moment, came the response … “Yes, I know. Obedience put me on the Cross.”

Processing comes slow to me, with a tendency to think a matter through long and hard. But the light began to dawn one morning shortly after.

When we do the hard thing, and obey – it is our own freedom which comes.

Yesterday was the first time I did not get off the phone, a mess of tears and with a raw heart. First time. And this morning I realized, this was the freedom the Lord brought.

We think obedience should be easy and joyful. But it is hard and it will cost us. BUT … we reap the benefits in His time.

Embrace … funny that it means to encircle, to wrap our arms around and clasp close.

An embrace is exactly what is needed in our lives. We cannot pick and choose when and how and which parts of the Gospel we will obey.  We must embrace full obedience or it is not obedience at all. It is in obedience we discover that God is setting everything right.

We must embrace all that God instructs us so that we can embrace all that He has for us.

 

Today I am joining … Five Minute Friday and Faith Filled Friday and Faith ”˜N Friends and #DanceWithJesus and Fresh Market Friday .