November 28

“I have found that sometimes he asks me to do nothing but belong to Him.  If I am not willing to do this, demanding no results, I am overburdening both the carriages and the cattle.  My ‘idols’ are too heavy.”  Eugenia Price, S.P.S., 11/6

Eugenia is referencing Isaiah 46 where the animals were struggling to carry the idols placed upon them.   I think it is in our willingness to do nothing but belong to God that we are freed from all our burdens.  Once we have that issue settled--our need to do rather than be--we will be able to do according to God’s will.  By making the only requirement that we belong to God, we will have removed all possibility of our ego-selves deceiving us.  By allowing God to place our work upon us we can be assured that our work will not become a burden.  But we must be careful to remain in Him.  Often times in our eagerness to serve God we will snatch the assignment out of His Hand and run off to accomplish it!   When things don’t go well we wonder where God went!   Because we have not remained in Him our ego begins to direct us.  It is then we always get off the path and the idols we pick up along the way will begin to weigh us down.  This is what happened when I took on the assignment to care for my invalid mother.  The idol I picked up on the path I took was my desire to gain my mother’s approval.  It was only near the end that I let go of all my idols and returned to God’s plan.  He gave me the privilege of being with her when she entered His presence, and I felt peace.

“What agreement has the temple of God with idols?  For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will live in them and move among them...”  2 Corinthians 6:16a