"Your thoughts are not just wrong- they're unbiblical"

So after processing through on the last post, I was processing even more with an extremely dear (and intelligent) friend of mine. I was coming to the realization that I was struggling with the fact that I didn't want to take advantage of the power of God and I felt like I needed to "work" to build my desire to constantly rely on the Lord, something that I really don't like doing and struggle with daily. I really thought that I didn't want to just ask the Lord to just give me that desire because I thought that that would almost be like cheating. This dear friend, who knows that she has to talk straight with me to really get it looks straight at me and says just that I'm wrong and that's completely unbiblical. (Sounds harsh, but that's what I needed :) )

Seriously- what was I thinking? What part of true christianity is work related and where does it ever even imply that we shouldn't take advantage of the Lord's power? I WAS BELIEVING LIES STRAIGHT FROM THE MOUTH OF THE DEVIL!!! Seriously, that's nuts. I have the power of the Holy Spirit living in me and why wouldn't I want to tap into that and use the same power that raised Christ from the dead in my life to fall deeper in love with my savior and follow him daily? I know that that sounds kinda preachy but I don't apologize because it is the truth.

So often if we read the bible we think that that's really cool awesome stories about the amazing awesome disciples and the insanely powerful people that God chose to be with. I often put them up on a huge pedestal and wish I could have been in their shoes... well guess what- sometimes they sucked. Sometimes they didn't trust Jesus when he was standing right in front of them telling them that He was the SON OF GOD! After Jesus was crucified- they didn't even expect to see him again and they were hiding and the women went to go finish preparing his body in the tomb. Don't even get me started with the miracles after Jesus ascended into heaven and the Holy Spirit came on them. The miracles and things that were done was freaking amazing... oh wait...

THAT IS WHO WE ARE.... Even in this present time, it is after Jesus has ascended into Heaven and the Holy Spirit has come upon US... and I'm afraid of asking him to give me a desire to fall head over heals in love with the Lord. I feel like I'm just only BEGINNING to grasp the concept of how completely off our thinking is.

Then I ran across a sermon jam (Click HERE to see it) that someone posted on facebook of a sermon that Matt Chandler did. (Don't you love how God uses facebook to talk to us sometimes... I strongly believe that God uses people's facebooks- it just depends on who will let hit borrow it!) Anyways, so I came across these two verses:

Isaiah 62:6-7:On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent, You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves; And give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

James 4:2: You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.

So lets digest shall we... Isaiah 62:6-7 the Lord is speaking and he says that those that are praying to the Lord that they should never keep silent and should be constantly praying to the Lord and not allowing the Lord to rest untill he hears their cries. He WANTS us to ask him for the things that we earnestly desire so much that it bothers him. Matt Chandler put that in a whole new context for me... he WANTS that from us... that blows my mind in such a way that I can't even put it into words. And James 4 suggests to us that if we do ask, that we will get it. I am completely blown away by these.

Man, if only we could realize the power that is inside of us and that we would whole heartedly pursue the Lord and constantly bring our requests to him... I can't even fathom.

And just think I didn't want to "take advantage" of the Lord's power... what a joke.