The image of being an abandoned wolf pup rescued by a loving farmer still sticks with me. I know the analogy isn't perfect but something about it resonates in me. I love the master but the old wolf nature haunts me some days calling me to do my wolf thing. Self-preservation is the ultimate curse of trying to live life apart from God.
Anyway, I've been trying to be the domesticated best-friend to the master - focusing on loving Him and serving Him. I've decided that it is more difficult to love God than I ever thought. It's so easy to love my wife, kids, and close friends - I think about them all the time. The people we love are always on our minds but the Lord is not always in my thoughts. So, Ive been really trying to focus on Him and think about Him.
Things have been going pretty good but the other day I lapsed into thinking more about other things I love. As I lay down to sleep the image of the wolf pup came again. I didn't do anything terrible, sinful, or evil - any wolf thing - but I wasn't close to the Lord that day. It was like I left the porch and circled the fence line all day long. Maybe I was looking for an opening in the fence, hoping for an opening... None was there and I didn't leave the yard. If there had been an opening, would I have gone off on a wolf hunt?
Anyway, I found myself feeling like I needed to confess and repent - not of a sin or possibility of sin -but of just wandering the yard and not loving God or being ready to serve Him. Does that make any sense?
As I confessed I realized that even my confession is sometimes inadequate and selfish. I wish I could say that I confessed because like Isaiah I saw God sitting on the throne and I fell down in awe and woefulness. Instead, I was confessing because I wanted to be right with God, be in His good graces, and receive a blessing.
Kind of selfish, huh? But you know what? God is always ready to hear us and enjoys spending time with us even if the motivation to come to Him isn't perfect. As we converse with Him, He has a way of clearing up our motives.
So, join me today in coming to God. Walk away from the fence line - that well-worn path we had created - and love God for a while.
"'In that day'" declares the Lord, 'I will assemble the lame and gather the outcasts (wolf pups too), even those whom I have afflicted. I will make the lame a remnant, and the outcasts a strong nation, and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from now on and forever.'" Micah 4:6-7
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3 comments:
Well...
This isn't related to the wolf pup, just one of those special moments I treasure.
Yesterday while driving home from my morning exercise session, I began to pray. I ended my prayer as I normally do..."in your name Jesus". At that moment I just wanted to praise Him and connect a little deeper so I continued, "my Lord, my Saviour, my friend". I then began to question that last one...firend. Are we friends? Am I really your friend? I don't feel worthy of being your friend! Forgive me if I mis-spoke of this relationship!
A few minutes later I opened my bible to read the following..."You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends,for everything I have learned from my Father I have made known to you".
Granted, he was talking to His Desciples. I felt however, that He had been riding in the car with me. Listening to me ask, are we really friends?
To me...a special moment between friends!
Please forgive my typos above!
Father God be near to David's heart and soul as he works out what it means to really love You. Remind the wolf pup that he is "adopted" in a way that lasts forever!
"...when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because you Gentiles have become his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father. Now you are no longer a slave but God's own child. And since you are his child, everything he has belongs to you". (From Galatians 4)
Praise God for His faithfulness! in Jesus' name - Amen
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