Automatic

So you know how things come second nature to us, like saying "bless you" or please and thank you. Or actions that are automatic, like when you are coming up to a red light you automatically put your foot on the brake. We have been trained to do these things. In everyday life training isn't too hard. It just deals with repetition. Athletic training is slightly harder because of the forces that are exerted on and by your body. A person can only take so much wear and tear. Spiritual training is probably the hardest of all and also the most important. I Corinthians 9:25 says. "Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever." The crown that Paul talks about is our treasure stored in Heaven. All our training is leading up to what God has in store for us. The spiritual training that we have to do is more than repetition. Like athletes, the training has to be continual and has to increase as the Spirit in you grows stronger. Overtime, the things we used to struggle with become second nature- automatic. However, we can't let the automatic become stagnate and unchanging. Even our automatic has to grow and include the new things that God puts in our lives and in our hearts.

My heart is stagnate. I stumble daily. I say these things here because I need to be reminded myself of what I must do to break the automatic setting I am on. My setting- nothing. No prayer, no devotion, little worship and little interaction with people who can be accountable to me. I am ashamed of myself and what I know to be true about me. I know I should be automatic to turn to God and I want to be and there should be not "buts" but there are. And the sad part is, God loves me just the way I am, despite the fact that I have failed Him more times than I even know and how little I speak with Him. He is ever surrounding me, reminding me that He is God and that I can't control everything. He has everything handled.

Tuesday of this week, I was really struggling. I was doing some work for my mom. I was picking up some of those free magazine boxes (the ones that hold all the home owners papers) and there were a lot of them. My mom has a Yukon XL. If it weren't for that I would have had to make about 100 trips to get all these boxes for her. In actuality there were only about 17 so it wasn't a crazy amount, but these boxes are heavy and not easily moved because of their shape and weigh. I was lifting these heavy boxes into my moms car. I was getting bruised and banged up, plus I had walked a 5k on Saturday and I was very sore from that. Needless to say I was not in a good mood, and I was close to tears all day. Here is the real deal right here: in my mom's car, she has XM radio. I listen to the top 40 stations mostly, but that day they were playing songs that I was just sick of, so I left it on my mom;s station, the message. God works in interesting ways and let me tell you, He has gotten me with music more times than one. So all the songs that came on talked about God loving you for who you are and not what you do and no matter what you do God is still God and he is going to take care of everything. It was about 4 or 5 songs right in a row and after the 3rdish one I was crying for sure. The problem is that I know better and these random moments of God should not be happening. I am not automatic for God and I know I should be. And the fact that I am writing this shows that I know what to do and how to do it, but I just don't. Why? I know why. I still don't feel like I am worthy of His love and because I don't feel worthy, I am ashamed, therefore what should have been automatic has become a chore. Wow. That really sucks, putting that into words.  >.< 

I am an athlete and I know what goes into training. It's hard work and as an athlete, I have been burned by training (people mostly, but it's part of the training). I know I won't get burned by God but it doesn't stop the reminders from cropping up. I need constant reminding of James 1 where the words of James are wise and important for all the hear and understand and follow. Let God become automatic. Let Love become automatic and let everything else fall away. In every situation, if God is your automatic nothing can be against you.

Sunshine fall on your face. Let joy be in your heart. Let love move with and through you. For God's love is living and active. He is the light of the world and He brings joy to our hearts. Nothing can stop the powerful name of Christ.


<Love3
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