Defying Human Nature

Oswald Chambers writes in his devotional My Utmost for His Highest, for May 14 (The Habit of Enjoying Adversity):

"Never live on your memories of past experiences, but let the Word of God always be living and active in you."

I am sure I was somewhat unaware of the human tendency to do this, simply because basing each new day on past experiences is such an ingrained aspect of my life. I base how I treat people on past interactions with them. I base my motivations and decisions for school on past experiences and motivations. I base my attitude each day on the events of the previous day...

How wrong this seems!

If I am truly being made new and transformed by the Word of God... if I am truly submitting to Him daily and desiring Him to work in me... then these things drastically subside in importance.

My interaction with people should be based not on my past with them (especially those with whom the past is shaky and riddled with hurt), but rather our interaction should be based on the love of Christ! I should love others as Christ loves them and me and learn to let go of my hurts, give them into the powerful hands of God (who already paid for them anyway), and not let those hurts poison my relationships with people. I must also allow the love of God to permeate me such that my fear of interacting with new people does not keep me from genuinely loving them or even meeting them to begin with.

My motivation in school and work should be an attitude of "whatever you do, do it as working for God and not men." I sometimes realize "in the moment" when the Lord is changing this attitude within my heart - yet taking the executing step is difficult. I am more prone to laziness than I would prefer to admit. Overcoming this laziness and weakness is by God's grace alone but requires effort. An ironic situation--I must be motivated enough to let God motivate me. :) I long to be motivated to be "productive" in my school work, house work, and especially in my relationship with the Lord. I find it surprising how difficult it can be at times to be motivated to study God's word or converse with Him! How backwards that seems.

Often when I have a bad day... even a seemingly endless span of bad days, such as I experiencd recently... I wake up the next day and quickly feel a heaviness in my heart which is a more than sufficient reminder of the pain I have recently experienced. I find most often that to pull myself from whatever pit I have dug myself into requires some positive event to happen... either a very significant event or just anything positive with whoever I have experienced pain with. How wrong this is! Regardless of whatever the days past have been like, I must learn to let the Lord mold my attitude each morning... it should be an attitude of thankfulness, of grace, of joy at the very breath of life He provides though I am so undeserving.

No matter how overwhelmed I am feeling with school, a relationship, with the seemingly endless convictions the Lord is putting on my heart calling for a heart change... It should be His Word alone which shapes me and my experiences. Only the purest truth, the one that supercedes by far whatever "truth" I am experiencing in this world. I am amazed that God provides, in His great mercy, the strength by His spirit to experience His joy despite what may be happening in my life--not that He makes it easy, but He makes it possible when without Him it would be utterly impossible.