Reaching Out – Looking In
Preamble:
Reaching Out – Looking In is a new diary journal which speaks my inner thoughts as I walk my walk in a society that is rapidly imploding. Will the church: the body of believers — will it implode or move through to where Jesus prescribes we are to be as part of His Church?
Some years ago (@2012 link), I began and wrote a weekly journal An Examined Life based on Socrates’ adage, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I continued for a few years, and a few years after I’d stopped, I had the idea to revive it, but failed.
Now in a new frame, I’m beginning again, this time not to copy the original idea but to take it and suit it to today in my walk with Jesus.
Reaching Out weekly
I’ll aim to have an insert every week, which I also plan to share in my weekly newsletter, Preparing the Bride for what better preparation than to walk together, with Jesus, through these times until this walk on earth is finished…
Hallelujah! Maranatha: Come Lord Jesus! And in the meanwhile, come one and all to the place of the heart, where Jesus abides with us and we abide with Him (John 15).
What’s on my mind this week: Surrender!
COMMENTARY:
My personal thoughts about this war at this time
There are two sides (at least) to every story, so whilst it looks like Putin has caused this war out of his own fancy, he did warn the West for years of his discomfort with NATO in his backyard. I don’t know what got him riled specifically in 2022 but here we are and the Ukrainians are not to blame, nor are the Russians. Politics and godlessness are two of the main culprits here, though Putin didn’t have to do this!
I’m not scared. But I am aware that we are on the brink… well, past the brink of war but now on the brink of WWIII. What to do? Not to panic but to pray. What to pray? GOD’s will and intervention, that truth will be exposed, that goodness will overcome evil.
And yet, being entirely honest, if we want Maranatha, how much of this must come to pass to make way for Jesus’ return? Surely, the bride must be ready, more lives must come to him, and I suppose this adversity prompts both. So, do I want this war? No. But do we need this war? Maybe.
Well, I guess I pray, I wait, I abide, I am still, I watch and I pray lots more.
Hallelujah! Ultimately, GOD wins. In the meantime, I’m holding fast to the winning side.
Surrender thoughts
Perhaps it is because the world is at war, which has recently manifested physically in the country of the Ukraine, that I’m contemplating the concept of ‘Surrender’… Or perhaps it is that I grapple daily with surrendering myself to the LORD’s will because I love His will to be done in my life, yet sometimes I push Him out! In either case, the concept of surrender is on my mind a lot this week.
What if Putin just gave up his mission to protect his motherland (his perspective) or what if Zalenskyy gave up his country to the Russian military who have invaded his (literally)? White flags — that quintessential symbol of surrender — aren’t appearing and don’t look to be coming any time soon.
How similar is each man, woman and child in the natural. We are born wanting and strive to satisfy our wants and needs. Our wants in large measure, are unfulfilled. Death may bring ultimate surrender, but that’s a bit bleak. Faith may bring with it a surrender into life, which is a far brighter prospect. But while death is inevitable, faith is not. Faith comes from GOD, though we are free to ask for it. Isn’t it odd that we ask for something that will ultimately bring is to our knees and to give up all that we thought we wanted? But that is surrender, isn’t it?
When I was a little girl, I believed in the reality of Jesus and never doubted his word or his goodness. Although it wasn’t until my mid-twenties that I began that process of I surrender which is brought on by one’s sincere search for and discovery of the Creator, our heavenly Father. What brought me to this surrender to Him was my revelation of how dire my own life was and of His revelation to me that He was real, He did love me, and He was looking out for me. I simply prayed, “If you’re really there, show me and I’ll follow you.”
He showed me, and some three and a half decades on, I’m still following Him, and still working toward full and consistent surrender.
So here comes the bullet point (pun intended): If with the help of the Holy Spirit and me actively keen on surrendering to GOD, it’s taken me over thirty years to manage to achieve it somewhat, how can we possibly expect Putin or Zalenskyy to surrender their national security?
We cannot. But GOD… there! through prayer, is the power of surrender.
Prayer for Surrender
So I pray for both leaders, I pray for the people in both nations, I pray those who know GOD surrender their lives to Him fully so that they can be His hands and feet at this time (there has been a lot of evidence of this already….. such as Ukraines feeding Russian convoys when the latter have literally run out of petrol). I pray, I encourage others to pray, and I meet with others to pray. And I get very excited about marvellous and miraculous testimonies which do seem to be coming out, from reliable sources.
And then I praise GOD and pray some more.