When the doctor is checking your reflex he is not concerned with how hard you can kick if you try. He wants to know how your body responds on it's own.
If you were anything like me when you were little you can probably remember a time when you tried kick at the exact moment that the hammer touched your knee without the doctor noticing. It didn't work out. He noticed every time. Or maybe you were the kid tensed up at the fact that a man in white coat was about to hit you (even if that hammer was rubber and harmless).
Reflex [n. ree-fleks]: any automatic, unthinking, or habitual behavior or response.
God isn't concerned about how hard we can kick if we try. He doesn't care how much we can do when we strive in our own strength.
"Cease striving and KNOW that I am God. I WILL be exalted among the nations. I WILL be exalted in the Earth." Psalm 46:10
He just wants us to know Him. When we stop tensing up and stressing out and just look into His eyes and know Him we are no longer scared about the tests and trials. The little rubber hammer hitting our knee is no longer intimidating. Talking to a stranger about the gospel is no longer scary. It's not about how good we can be, but how GREAT He who lives in us already is.
"...It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." Galatians 2:20
The God of the universe lives in and through our little human hands, feet, and mouths.This demands a response, but not one we can muster up the motivation and strength for.
"We love, because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19
We all know that God is love, but until recently I hadn't realized that the only reason I CAN love is because He loved me first. If we truly grasp the fact that Christ loves us and we let Christ live through us being compelled by that love EVERYTHING chances.
"For Christ's love COMPELS us, because we are convinced that one died for all, therefore all died." 2 Corinthians 5:14
It simply looks like welcoming Jesus into every situation and encounter that we face. "WWJD?" doesn't even have to be a question because it's not about anything we can do LIKE Jesus anyway. The fact is that Jesus Christ lives in us and through us. When we finally relax and rest in knowing Him we become empty vessels letting Him react and respond through our reflex of loving, praying, and preaching.
As Christians we will no longer go on "outreach" but invite Him to REACH OUT through us everyday. Wal-Mart runs become mission trips because our perspective is that His Kingdom would REALLY come on earth as it is in heaven.
"We are often more convinced of our unworthiness than we are of His worth. Our inability takes on greater focus than His ability." Bill Johnson
Now, this is a journey for me that I am still in the middle of. It's not comfortable to ask a woman on the plane if you can pray for her. It's not normal to walk up to a overweight teenage girl you've never met and tell her that she is beautiful. It's not easy to start up conversations in the check out isle. It's hard to pray for a man in a wheel chair to be healed when there are doubts spiraling through the back of your head... BUT IT'S WORTH IT.
Lord, I pray that LOVE becomes our REFLEX. That it will be an automatic, unthinking, or habitual behavior and response to knowing that there are dead hearts that You want to make alive. There are hopeless children that need You to be their Hope. There are addicts that only You can set free. Your Kingdom come. You will be done on earth as it is in heaven. For Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever. In Your name, amen.
"If God is for us, who can be against us" Romans 8:31
I cannot wait to hear the stories of what we can do as we invite Jesus to live in and through our everyday lives.
I promise I'll post a Brazil update soon! Also, I am serving at the Honor Academy and Global Expeditions for another year which I'll also tell you all about next time. God is faithful! I'm expectant and excited for what He has planned and how you can be apart of it! :)
For His Glory,
Kayla Marie
"FEAR NOT, for I am with you. Be not desmayed for I am your God. I will STRENGTHEN you, yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10
