Verses: Ezekiel 47:1-12, John 3:16-17, Romans 6:11, Matthew 9:35-10:1
The note on the handout said "take note of the various verses in (in the Ezekiel passage) that highlight the movement of the River. The emphasis is on the fact that God is already moving. It's His mission, His plan - not ours. He takes the initiative and invites us to move with Him."
I had barely finished reading that when my mind was consumed with the question "then why in the world are we so quick to take matters into our own hands? why do we gravitate towards our own way? why do we rely on ourselves??"
As I was asking that, God gave me a picture in mind - it was a picture of a couple dancing...but the woman was demanding to take the lead (i'll go ahead and preface this by saying, this has nothing to do with a woman's place or role or submission or anything...don't go there :)). In the picture, the woman was trying so hard to take the lead from the man -- but she really just needed to let the man lead the dance...He's capable of leading! The dance would be so much more beautiful if the One leads and the other lets Him lead. It was an awkward picture to watch...an awkward battle of the wills as both were trying to lead.
(the picture didn't "continue" but i'm curious what the Man (weird to reference God as 'the man') would have done had the woman absolutely refused to let him lead...would He find another partner to dance with? would He just sit down and let the woman dance on her own? I have no doubt that, if this is indeed a decent analogy, God as the Dancer is never going to stop loving us or give up on us...but if we are refusing to follow His lead, wouldn't He move to someone who is willing to let Him lead?)
I ended up spending most of my time reading from Matthew 9 and 10...the time went far too quickly! here are the ideas that God had me thinking about:
--from v 38 -- Jesus says to pray for harvest hands (harvest is plenty, workers are few) -- the very next verse (10:1) says "the prayer was no sooner prayed than it was answered." talk about quick!!! it was neat to read it like that.
--skipping on down to matthew 10:38-39ish "if your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you can forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and Me." i can forget about myself because He is thinking of me. i have the freedom NOT to continually be thinking of myself...His thoughts for me and about me and in regards to me are ENOUGH.
One of the questions on the handout said "What is God saying to us as a church in terms of moving with Him in the world?" His response to me: "Let Me lead. Do nothing in your own strength." That seems simultaneously far too simple and far too complicated.
