Ruth’s Reflections

I’ll tell you what. The Bible has been kicking my spiritual butt this past week or so. I’ve been able to spend quality one-on-one time with God with no interruptions this week 5 days in a row for around an hour at a time while BOTH KIDS napped at the SAME TIME! Yeah. That’s amazing.

See, a couple weeks ago we were challenged to ask God what time he wants to meet with us and I felt I saw the time “3:44pm”. I had recently started exercising at that time so I hesitated to give up that time, but I knew I needed to, and boy has it been worth it.

Another thing that happened was when in our small groups at LOGOS, our Wednesday night Bible study at Real Church, I was led to give up pop (or soda, for you southerners. Or just plain old “coke” to those who live in North Carolina) for 40 days. If you know me, you know that is no easy task. When I was pregnant with Sam I developed quite an addiction to pop, caffeinated or not, and it has stuck around. Today when I was at prayer for Week of War I was thanking God for speaking to me so much lately & I was thinking HOW MUCH God has shown me & changed me in just this past week and then it hit me. It’s been since I’ve been fasting pop! I then said, “God, if giving up pop for a week helps me hear from you, then I’ll give up pop for the rest of my life!” Which is not what God has asked me to do (not yet at least).

It reminded me of John 13:1-17, where Jesus is washing the disciples feet. When Jesus got to Simon Peter, Peter told him not to do it. When Jesus said he will have no part of him if he doesn’t, Peter replied, “Then Lord, not just my feet but my hands & my head as well!” And Jesus said, “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean.”

I’m not a theologian but what I get from this is if I’m listening to God, obeying, trusting & following him, I just need to, well… obey. I will already know God’s heart & will know what he wants me to do (thanks, Mo, for that insight!). I don’t need to try to take an extra step “for good measure” or to try to “one up” others – even Jesus himself.

Then I kept reading & saw this verse: “I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.” This really hit hard. Basically, whenever I am not serving like I should, when I’m being selfish or foolish, or just plain disobedient, I am essentially saying I think I am better than Jesus Christ himself. Extreme, you say? I don’t think so. He came to the stinkin’ EARTH to show US how to SERVE and if I don’t DO it, I consider myself above HIM. Yeah… chew on that. I still am.

I was going to apologize for how long this post is, but it could be SO much longer than this because He’s really been speaking a LOT to me through the daily YouVersion readings. It’s crazy. He’s amazing and he loves me enough that he wants to change me! Just had to share. If you want to know more about what God is doing in me, I’ll be happy to share. Just be prepared to hear me speak for awhile. Yeah. He’s doing a lot.

Thank you, Jesus!!!