Enoch walked with God

I haven't posted anything in a while. I was reading my devotion today in "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers and the devotional sums up everything that has been going on for the last couple of months. Here it is: Enoch walked with God . . . —Genesis 5:24 The true test of a person’s spiritual life and character is not what he does in the extraordinary moments of life, but what he does during the ordinary times when there is nothing tremendous or exciting happening. A person’s worth is revealed in his attitude toward the ordinary things of life when he is not under the spotlight (see John 1:35-37 and John 3:30). It is painful work to get in step with God and to keep pace with Him— it means getting your second wind spiritually. In learning to walk with God, there is always the difficulty of getting into His stride, but once we have done so, the only characteristic that exhibits itself is the very life of God Himself. The individual person is merged into a personal oneness with God, and God’s stride and His power alone are exhibited. It is difficult to get into stride with God, because as soon as we start walking with Him we find that His pace has surpassed us before we have even taken three steps. He has different ways of doing things, and we have to be trained and disciplined in His ways. It was said of Jesus— “He will not fail nor be discouraged . . .” (Isaiah 42:4) because He never worked from His own individual standpoint, but always worked from the standpoint of His Father. And we must learn to do the same. Spiritual truth is learned through the atmosphere that surrounds us, not through intellectual reasoning. It is God’s Spirit that changes the atmosphere of our way of looking at things, and then things begin to be possible which before were impossible. Getting into God’s stride means nothing less than oneness with Him. It takes a long time to get there, but keep at it. Don’t give up because the pain is intense right now— get on with it, and before long you will find that you have a new vision and a new purpose.

Love is a Sacrifice

A couple weeks ago, the Lord laid a brother in Christ on my heart. I felt like God wanted me to love him with his love. During the prayer time, God had me feel his heart and I began to cry out for him. A couple of days later, I began to complain and murmur, " Why does God always lay people on my heart that are hard to love or people who don"t return God's love". God dealt with me afterwards by dropping questions in my spirit... " What would be the point to love a person with my love if the person loves you back? It would't be the love of God. You would't be able to see me working in the situation because you would be relying on your own love. When you love someone with God's love, you are sacrificing your emotions, your heart, and everything else. The scripture says, " For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them that which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same". Luke 6:32-33. The love of God goes beyond human capability. God's love takes patience, long-suffering, humbleness, meekness and strength. Let that be our prayer that God would help us to love everyone with his love. That as a people of God we wouldn't be so quick to judge and find flaws. Just as Jesus looked beyond our faults and saw our need for him that we can do the same.