Oh How Much We Need You, Lord!

I spent a while praying this morning for the leaders and members of my church - including myself and my husband. This week I have a real burden, an urgency, a gut-level realization of how very much we need the Holy Spirit to work in our lives; to deeply convict us of our worldliness and selfishness so that we are broken, repentant, and most able to experience the mighty presence of God when we come together on Sundays to worship.

In the Bible I read of a God whose power is unlimited and who invites us, through Jesus, to participate in that power. That's what I want! That's what I want for my church! And, I'm pretty sure that in order to experience God in this way we will have to become far more broken, far more hungry, far more submitted to His ways, and far more determined to seek Him above all other pursuits of our lives.

After I prayed I was reading in Isaiah about God's people, the rebellious nation of Israel. They forsook the Lord, turned their backs on Him, and went their own way time and time again despite hundreds of years of His divine care and provision for them. Their's is such a sad story. And as I read, I was saddened by how much we, the church, may be mirroring their sad example:

The Lord has spoken:

"I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox (notoriously dumb animal) knows his master, the donkey (notoriously dumb animal) his owner's manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand." Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt... They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.... Their land is full of silver and gold; their is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses; their is no end to their chariots. Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made. 

Isaiah 1:2-4, 2:7-9 (parentheses mine)

Holy Spirit have your way in us - that we will experience this life as God has intended, not as we wish. 

Come Lord Jesus and teach us how to let you truly be Lord.