This morning as I read Genesis 12, I was drawn to the fact that God told Abram to go on a journey and that while he traveled, God would bless him. As Abram traveled, he “journeyed by stages” to the Negev. During certain significant events at each stage, Abram built an altar to worship God and to serve as a reminder of the significance of that place in his journey.
I know that this is what God wants me to do. As significant things happen in my journey with Him, he wants me to recognize them and somehow “set” a reminder. For me, He is saying to write it down. It may be something else for you. Whatever our altar of remembrance is, He wants us to record the significant stage – otherwise, in our humanness, we forget.
I try to do that, but sometimes passivity and apathy creep in and I think, “I will remember it” or, “I will write it down when I see what it relates to”. Then I wander off on some path out in the brambles and bushes where apathy and passivity can reign supreme!!
The times when I seem to be drawn away from God the most are those times when I think I can go on hiatus. For instance, I had the week off last week and started out really well in my worship times. Yet in my mind, I was thinking about things I could accomplish and how I could rest and take it easy – just enjoy life. So as the week progressed, I got lazy.
Why is it that when I think of kicking back and not pushing myself to do something, I think I can take a hiatus in my battle with the flesh? As I start drifting off on that path, I see things, insignificant things that take hold of my mind and suck me into a mindset of procrastination. I become off guard and seem to think the enemy will leave me alone, because I am ignoring the whole spiritual battle thing. But then, I get sick (like I did last week) or I start playing too long on the computer or spinning my wheels and I end up further away from God and with more things I need to get done at the end of my “hiatus” than when I started!!
The enemy would like nothing more than for me to forget to sit down and truly focus on God and seek Him for His goodness, strength and mercy every morning. That is because doing so will strengthen me for any battle and allow life to go much better for me in my walk with God. It also sets my mind on God so my focus more readily remains there throughout the day.
Even if I don’t have the strength or time on a particular day to record a facet of my journey, when I have left altars of remembrance (journal entries), I can go back and see each time I entered the land of milk and honey and the times that I had to wage serious battle. Only then can I truly see the victories and gain strength to fight passivity and other fleshly and worldly things that corrupt my walk onward and upward with my King!!
