Intimidation in the Rear View Mirror

It's been a while since I've had a devotional free to talk about pretty much whatever I want to, as opposed to recent ones that have covered specific subjects raised in my "60 Seconds of Faith" broadcast.

I'm writing this with Planetshakers' #Let's Go blaring from my laptop speakers having been utterly blown away by them last night at church as they rounded off the final leg of their European tour by coming to !Audacious Church before jetting off back to Australia.

What an event, what an evening and what an encouragement they all were...!

Resting My Voice

Today, I admit it, I'm trying to rest my voice, though it ain't easy that's for sure given that I'm still feeling the burn of my crush that I recently admitted that I was going to stop talking so much about on here.

Have I made the right decision? I don't know yet but it's the right one for now. The right one because I'm undergoing a lot of emotional turmoil over my feelings for a certain person, but that's for me to deal with off these pages.

Instead, this week, I want to take a look at what it means to me to leave intimidation in the rear view mirror of life.

I know I've shared recently how intimidation can sometimes be the dream killer if you let it, just like fear can and even though I feel intimidated at times by the sheer strength in depth of my feelings, I know God is right here by my side in this!

A song like this is what I cling to right now because in lifting the Name of Jesus higher than my very circumstances, I cannot fail to gain some perspective on the issues that I am facing.

Now, if I can just mention one final time this posting, whatever I may feel towards a certain person right now, it pales to insignificance compared with knowing Christ Jesus as my Saviour and Lord!

It doesn't mean that I don't feel so strongly what I do for this person though!

Right, I'm done now, I swear! :-D

Lift the Name of Jesus Higher!

I will tell you now what it means the moment that you start to lift the Name of Jesus higher; it means that you are not willing to accept your current levels of suffering as satisfactory and are instead willing to commit them over to Him to raise the level of your game to a whole new set of heights.

Let me share another song with you that my church have just recently started performing on Sunday; Elevation Church's very own "Here As In Heaven": -

I cannot get enough of this song right now because, as we started to sing it a couple of weeks ago, I started to realise that there is nothing on this earth that matters to me more than following the calling of my Saviour... no crush has any right to get the better of me!

Yes, I gave into the despair of my feelings fused with my shyness too much resulting in many crying fits... I admit that, should I admit that? :-D

But hearing a song like this again tonight, that's when it really sunk in with me that I am even willing to give up this, yes even this to make sure that I do not jeopardise where I am heading with God!

In other words, only God's calling is what I'm aiming for.

I instantly keep taking succour from Jesus' very own words in the Garden of Gethsemane: -

And He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, where He knelt down and prayed, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.” Luke 22:42 (Berean Study Bible)

There's something I want to draw out from this before I close today; Jesus asked for His Father to take the cup away... if He was willing!

Here, Jesus was accepting the reality of what He was faced with; death on a cross. Yet He was determined, in the next sentence, that it would be His Father's will that He wanted to see done, and not His own.

Was that a moment of weakness? Maybe it was in a sense, I mean, who wouldn't after knowing where you're heading; to death on a cross!

But don't for one minute think Jesus was not willing to go through with it because in one fell swoop He admitted that He didn't want to go down this path and that if anything, His Father could change the course of history and we all know how that would have turned out: -

No death = no resurrection!!!

Jesus was willing to accept His weakness as temporary knowing that God, His Father, had a greater glory in mind; a glorious third day resurrection to reunite mankind back with Himself!

Final Thought

So even as I type this, it gives me much greater and healthier perspective over my whole crush scenario as something that is going to serve a far greater purpose. Sure, it's nowhere even remotely near to what Jesus' ultimate sacrifice was for, but it certainly is helpful to know that everything that gathers around can be left to work for my good if I let God take the pieces and mould them together into a greater good!

I met up with my most amazing friend Peter today, I've told you about him before but this guy, forget the term "legend in the making", he is legendary!

Thanks to my whole church family, too, for all the support that they have given me and it is with no greater pleasure than this that I can say that not only am I in the right Family, I am heading in the right direction too; the other side of this!

For though situations try to hold me back, I will continue to fall upon the altar until such a time as God calls me home!

Watch the skies, as ever peeps!