The Lenten Journey

Day 12:         Acceptance of What God Has Provided

This Lenten Adventure is amazing me.  I began by asking the question:  “What can I give up for Lent?”  I then moved to: “What Does God Want Me to give Him or do for Lent?”  This is definitely not going in the direction I “presumed.”  Oh my, I am starting to taste “new wine.”  When I thought of giving up chocolate or wine, I wasn’t prepared for such  positive requests.  Would/Could/Should God say to me:  “My sweet girl, your little mindset is so negative.  You think I’m going to take something away, make you sacrifice, make you. . . blah blah blah!” – yes that is what it sounds like in my brain.  However, what He is showing me is that I don’t even begin to understand what He wants me to receive, how He wants me to receive it and what He wants me to do with it – if I choose to receive it.  I can put the Gift up on the shelf and tell everyone – “Look what God has given me!”  I can make it “religious” and not touch it, smell it, handle it OR I can unwrap the things He is showing me, touch them, taste them, smell them, listen for His real thoughts – Oh man, just Enjoy the gracious, wonderful, magnificent, phenomenal God that loved me first, chose me and sent His Son so that I could be loved to wholeness.  I choose to take this gift and grapple with II Peter 1:3 – Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God.  The best invitation we ever received!  We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you – your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned you back on a world corrupted by lust.  He has shown me what Lust is:  Living   Under  Self  Trust.  (The Message Translation)
 I am going to do more than gaze at this Gift.  I am going to allow God to expand my little brain as to the enormity of what is included in this Gift.