Walking to leadership prayer last Thursday morning I asked God if he wanted to say anything. Immediately the words "I want my people to give a damn" came into my mind. I think I interpret that as Jesus wants his disciples to care very much about the things of God. To "hunger and thirst after righteousness" in the same way Jesus did. I then found myself asking the prophets continual question is that word just for me (as it might be) or is it for the body of Christ?
When I got there. And we started praying I was prompted to read Psalm 135. God put the actual Psalm reference into my mind. I read it aloud not knowing what it was going to say. It seemed to resonate with what we had been talking about. And then Jonathan said that it reminded him of a passage that had been in his prayer times a lot recently.
This being 2 Chronicles 20. Which led to a fruitful discussion for the two of us.
It seems that when we do obey God things happen. The work of the Holy Spirit gets carried along that bit further. The fact that the Psalm meant something to Jonathan also had the side effect of bolstering my faith too. We so often cry "show us the work of your hands" or variants thereon but forget we are already the work of his hands. With the same Holy Spirit dwelling in us. I have a sneaky feeling that the more we obey the promptings of the Spirit. The more we are blessed.
Yes, yes. God really is in the small things. But an accumulation of small things becomes a big thing. God is in our "yes" when we dare (or perhaps bother) to say it to him.
And yes God you are right. You want your disciples to "give a damn". If that translates as "to care" - you want us to care a huge amount about the poor. Both the spiritually poor and the materially poor. You want us to harbour your kingdom in our hearts. To share your kingdom and to build it. And to care about it at an extreme level. To love with passion and without reserve. To allow our own heart conversion to spill out to others, through loving action and listening and talking.
An example of God building on small acts of obedience is our Missional Community which we call Impact. That started because Cherie acted out of obedience and knocked on the door of the hostel that first time. I remember her saying she didn't know what she was going to say until the door opened.
Who are you God to work in such a mysterious fashion in our lives? Oh yes, you are yourself the origin of love. The place where love flows out from. Bless us O Lord. Bless us this day. So we may respond. AMEN
