Stay

I have a tendency to run when I feel overwhelmed, or upset. I think I inherited it from my mom. Bless her heart, when she was married to my step-dad when they fought which was often we would pack our stuff and run to my grandma's house. So, now when I am feeling overwhelmed the best way for me to clear my head is to get in my car and drive to run away.

This sometimes happens in my walk with Jesus as well, I will get upset because my prayers feel like they are hitting the ceiling. I will be frustrated because things are not going my way (you know we all have a two-year-old inside of us! we want what we want and we usually want it now!) When I feel like God is not answering as fast, or how I want, I tend to take matters into my own hands and run. It is a reflex for us, humans, to run or hide or deny when we are in a tight spot. Look at Peter, one of Jesus's own disciples when it came right down to the nitty gritty he denied he even knew Jesus, not just once but three times. Even though Peter ran away, Jesus redeemed the runaway, Peter,  and brought him back. Jesus will do the same for all of us, no matter how far we have run away. The bible says, in Matthew 18:12-13 "What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray." 

Sometimes when things are going good, I find myself not leaning on God but instead going my own way. You see the enemy uses these times to get us off track just a little bit at a time. Maybe it's we stop having our daily time in prayer, or maybe we only read our bible on Sundays instead of daily. Or perhaps it's the language we use, or the movies we watch, or the lies (little white lies), the way we talk to our spouse or our children. Satan will use anything thing he can to get us off track. In Jeremiah 50:6 it says,  "My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place." After running away, or wandering, chasing something we really knew we had no business chasing, we look up and we are far out in left field. Wondering why God left us, well friend God never leaves us, it is always us that make the move. Jesus always comes after us, to redeem us back to a right relationship with him to bring us back to our own resting place in Him.

Sometime back, my favorite Christian artist Big Daddy Weave, wrote a song called "Stay" this song asks God to help us Stay, to not be a runaway but to help us stay close to Him. The song says, "You know what it means to sacrifice, but you tell me that it's better to obey, You've given me a thousand brand new starts. Jesus, give me what it takes to stay." To stay close to Jesus, to not be taken off track by the enemy, to not run away when things get tough, this is my prayer. Psalm 119:10 says, "With my whole heart I have sought you; oh, let me not wander from Your commandments." What a beautiful verse, searching for Jesus with our whole hearts and not wandering away.

Beloved, I do not know where you are today, if you are walking close, or if you have run away and feel like you have gone so far that Jesus cannot reach you. I can assure you, Jesus can and will reach you wherever you are, all you have to do is call out to Him. He will come and find His runaway. Big Daddy Weaves song says, "I've felt Your hand of mercy through my darkest failures, And on the other side You've covered me with grace. And like a child lost and afraid, You come and find this runaway. And in Your loving arms, You bring me home again. What's it gonna take to make me stay." Beloved, this is my prayer for you today, to be found by Jesus and to know what it is to stay.

Jesus, thank you for coming and finding us when we run way, stray and try to do things on our own. Jesus, help us to stay, help us to cling to you and not run away. Jesus, please pull all of us back even if we feel we have gone too far, or have done too much to be redeemed, pull us back and wrap us in your love.

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