Reading: Romans 12:1-2
“It couldn't have been better!!” This was the comment I kept hearing Saturday as we closed out another successful retreat for the Lord. How blessed the Ladies for Jesus Leadership Team was to minister with such wonderful ladies as the ones at Wakulla United Methodist Church and their cluster churches. The Lord continued to show His presence throughout the day and, occasionally, I would look around and say a momentary prayer of thank you to Him. After the retreat, as I reflected upon the lessons of the theme, Radical Obedience, the word “availability” kept coming to mind. I thought about how the sacrifice of time pulled all of it together. Time from Ladies for Jesus Leadership Team; time from the ladies who were hosting the retreat; and time from the ones who were attending. That sacrifice of time was what delighted the Lord so much that He graced us with the overwhelming recognition of His presence throughout the day.Availability was certainly one of the focuses for the retreat as we discussed the importance of making ourselves available to God in regards to sitting at Jesus' feet. Being available is a hard thing for most of us Christians. And making time for one-on-one with God is at the top of the list of hard things. However, it is at the feet of Jesus that the obedience begins. We must let our way of thinking be altered, to begin thinking God's thoughts and hear His commands. Making ourselves available for personal commune with the Lord gives Him the opportunity to mold us and instruct us for the work of His Kingdom.
Personally, the lesson of availability has been one that the Lord has taken me through baby steps to accomplish. It started with 15 minutes each morning communing with Him and then increased little by little until now where I spend one hour at His feet in the morning and 2 to 3 hours in the afternoon in study and development for the work He has planned for me to do through Ladies for Jesus. It was amazing to me as I took each baby step that He was molding my life around me so I could be available to Him. The question just became, “Was I willing to use the time He had freed for that purpose?” As I sat at the feet of Jesus in the mornings, my answer to that question could only be, “Yes!” Why? Because with every moment I spent communing with my Lord, my thoughts were being altered to think like Him and my desires were becoming His desires.
Are you making yourself available to God? God wants our lives to show others that in God's will we've found an exciting and abundant lifestyle. We don't know how to live in a way to accomplish this lifestyle. Therefore, we must make ourselves available to God by being a living sacrifice. Begin being that living sacrifice with 15 minutes of commune time with Him. If you give yourself to understanding the mercies of God, you'll find yourself motivated to be available and to have a transformed mind. Through this motivation He will reveal other time you can spend with Him and each moment spent will be worth it!!
Prayer: Heavenly Father, I want to be available to You. Right now I don't see the way. I know You do. I want to have Your thoughts so I can bring glory to You. Take me through the baby steps to accomplish this in my life. Amen.
Looking Ahead: In our afternoon session at the retreat, we spoke about faith being our motivator for radical obedience. I shared ten different ways faith could be expressed. Next week we will begin a series to discuss these different ways. By taking one a week, we will look at each in more detail.
