A song fragment which is in my heart this morning:
Here I am, Lord
Seeking Your presence
Here I am, Lord
Seeking Your power in my life
Here I am, Lord
I just want more of You in me
I just want more of You in me
And a French version (not a direct translation):
Me voici, Seigneur
Je cherche Ta présence
Me voici, Seigneur
Je cherche Ta puissance en ma vie
Me voici, Seigneur
Je veux plus de Toi en moi
Je veux plus de Toi en moi
One of the devil’s not-so-subtle tricks to get Christians off course, which still seems to work surprisingly well, far too frequently, is discouragement. Often tied in with getting us to look at ourselves and our human situation, not at God. Which causes us to stop listening to God.
Yesterday I was getting back to the preparation of some training and teaching material which is destined to be reworked in French (when my French is good enough!). As I took the pile of notes off the shelf where they had been languishing (for too long) I was overwhelmed by a massive feeling of “This is a total waste of time.” It was like someone had plonked me in the middle of a huge, thick, stifling grey cloud. I immediately began remembering all the Christian things I’d ever done which didn’t go quite as well as I’d hoped.
“See,” said the voice inside “no-one will be interested and it won’t achieve anything. Just forget it.”
It’s easy to say now that there was absolutely no logic in what was happening, but logic and feelings don’t always play nice together!
Fast forward to this morning and a scheduled prayer time at Church. “What time? Are you stupid?” Needless to say it was a very encouraging time. As we were leaving a fragment from a French worship song came into my mind: “Voici le jour.” In English, “This is the day” is how it’d be usually translated, but voici really means “here is.”
So, here is the day that God has made, a brand new day. Here it is, God has made it and given it to me and you. What will I make of it, what will you make of it? Voici le jour.
If my feelings scream out “It’s a total waste of time!” what does God say? This is what was in my heart this morning: “Let Me worry about that, you just do what I tell you to.”
God calls us to be obedient. Not to worry about working it all out and feeling it’s all going to be OK, but just to be obedient, to do what He tells us to. He will work it all out, that’s His job; it’s not ours.
So, I’ll be picking up the pile of notes again later, telling the devil to get lost, because I’m just going to do what God tells me, to obey.
This is the song, sung here by Dan Luiten (though I’m more familiar with Paul Baloche’s voice singing it). It’s a bit rocky, hope that’s OK with you… 🙂
Breakthrough France 