Complacent No More

Aren't we sick of complacency?  Sick of the stress, the drama, the lies, the bondage/chains?  Sick of broken families and relationships?  Aren't we sick of the fleshly desires?  Don't we want MORE?  Need MORE?

THERE IS MORE.  There is Jesus.

He came for all the reasons listed above and more.  He came to restore, heal, set free, to seek and save the lost, to bring truth and life.

You CAN change your life, your thoughts, actions, words and you can change the condition of your heart.
If you are drawing in, pressing close to Him and pursuant of His heart.  Reading your bible, which gives life and truth.  Spending time with people who will encourage and comfort you.  Praying, worshipping and praising daily(all day long is even better) Becoming constant in your relationship with abba.  I tell you friends, you change.  Your life transforms.  You begin to look more like Him.  Your actions, thoughts and words begin to look more like Him.  You begin to see yourself through your Heavenly Fathers eyes.  You start to look for ways to press in, all day long.  You start to smell the burning of your flesh.  Cuz let me tell you, you can't get in realCLOSE(yes, I did that on purpose) to abba and not expect your old self to fall away.  To get sick of all the lies, to have such distaste for the things of this world, for the drama, for the stress, for the bondage and chains.  It starts to fall away and you even ask God to continue to show you where your old self is still hanging on.  Oh, let me tell you friends, your old self WILL try to hold on.  He'll twist and draw back and beg you to just leave a little, cuz what is a little?  But God wants all of you.  He wants to chisel away everything of the old man(woman). He wants to mold you and shape you.  He has a great plan and purpose for your life.  But you have to let go of the flesh life you are trying so desperately to hold onto.

I can say I am a "christian", but it is not enough to label myself and continue to walk in this old self. NO, it is not enough.  I want to be more than a label.  I want the world to see His light and His beauty shining through me.  I want to carry His peace, His truth and His strength wherever I go.  I want my life to point back to Christ.  I will not sit in complacency.  I WILL get sick and tired of all the lies, stress, drama, bondage/chains, broken relationships and selfish desires.

I believe that when you get sick and tired of it all.  Others will take notice of how much change has taken place in your life. They too will seek change, they'll ask questions, they'll wanna know more.  You become a beacon of light pointing towards hope, towards life and truth, towards Jesus.

I don't want people to see me, I want them to see Christ through me.  I want to reflect Jesus when people look at my life.

I will not be complacent.  I will be constant.  I will go deeper, closer and press in to my Father's heart.

Will you join me?

Galatians 2:20 - I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Luke 9:23 - And he said to [them] all, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.


Christy Creative Dreamer Dawn

A Life Laid Down

I thought this journey began only a few months ago, but a conversation earlier showed me that this was something that began some time ago.  It started with a book called The God Chasers by Tommy Tenney.   It spoke of being ruined for The Lord, about laying down your life...dying to the flesh.  A portion that spoke loudly to me from the book was:  The more death that God smells, the closer He can come.  As well as: When more of our flesh dies, more of our spirit lives. 

I remember sitting on a plane flying from Melbourne to Sydney, Australia with my sister.  And as she slept beside me I read about how I needed to die.  I didn't get it, it sounded scary.  In fact, I remember thinking, this sounds waaaaaaaaaaaay to difficult and way to out of my comfort zone and I am not going to do this. Just as I declined this invitation to journey deeper and become more raw than I'd ever been in my life, horrible turbulence began.  Gods way of shaking things up and letting me know something?  Maybe, at least, I remember thinking it seemed like God trying to tell me something.  Little did I know this was just the beginning of an adventure I was going to be taken on.  

Sometime after I read that book I asked God a very weird(to some maybe) question.   God, I want you to gut me.  Now, I know that word seems a little over the top, but it's the word that came to mind.  I pictured myself laying on a surgeons table as he carefully took out the parts of me that were not needed and no good.  I told God I wanted to be opened up and everything that wasn't of Him, anything that was of me, of this world, well...I wanted it taken out of me.  I wanted to be completely emptied so I could be fully and wholly filled with Him. 

It came at a cost.  That cost was my life. 

Matthew 16:24-26 says:  Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for my sake will find it.  For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

and

John 3:30 says: He must increase, but I must decrease

I had to be willing to lay it all down at His feet.  Be willing to open old wounds, call out inner vows and ask forgiveness from iniquities I had buried deep.

It was and has been uncomfortable.  I'm not going to lie.  It's not a process that was or has been fun and it definitely brought more tears than I'd have liked to shed. 

You see.  When you ask God to show you those dark, hidden, shackled up, broken, wretched places of yourself...He will.  He is faithful like that ;)

I wanted more times than not to just stop this cleansing, this gutting of myself.  This emptying of all I had boxed up and shoved away for no one to see, not even myself.  I didn't want to remember the scars and I definitely didn't want to re-open them.  But God gave me people to encourage me along the way, or I'd read His Word, or hear a song and I'd remind myself that all that I was truly losing was doubt, fear, anxiety, hurt, bitterness, jealousy, anger, resentment, un-fruitful thoughts and really was that worth being upset about?  NOPE!!!

I've had to confront people, I've had to re-live moments I'd had rather not.  In fact there were times after I asked God to show me more areas of my life that I needed to rid myself(internally and externally) of, I wish I hadn't opened my big mouth.  But it's been a process that has been refining me.  It's made me see more clearly who my Father is.  What He wants for me, what His promises are and that no matter what, He loves me and won't ever give up on me.  

I'm still being "gutted" and it is getting easier.  I'm learning so much about myself, about my Father.  I've become more aware of the areas in my life that I need to take out and move on from.  I've realized that though the laying down of life can be difficult, the reward is so very much worth it.   I'm beginning to hear my Fathers heart.  I see the woman I can be through His eyes.  I see only the life laid before me that is full of dreams, hope, love, peace, joy freedom and a steady stream of faithfulness to carry me through the storms that may lay ahead. 

Laying down your life, allowing God to gut you, empty you out, is not always going to be an easy thing to do. But the end result is a life that is built upon a firm foundation.  It is a life that is filled with thanksgiving and peace, a life that in the midst of the emptying, you hear your Father's voice whisper...you can do it...I am here, I will never leave you or forsake you. 

My prayer for you all, whatever stage you are at in life.  Is that you will allow God to heal and remove any pieces of yourself that you may be clinging to that are not of Him.   That you'd allow Him to refine, mold and transform your life.  It is a story(of your life) that has a most beautiful ending.   

Love always,

Christy Creative Dreamer Dawn

 I love this song: