Are You Going To Leave Me Too? Where Would You Go?

(Read John 6 if you are unfamiliar with the title statement)

2 Corinthians 6:1-18 (NAS) And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain for He says “At the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you:” behold, now is the acceptable time, behold now is “The Day of Salvation” giving no cause for offense in anything, in order that the ministry be not discredited, but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth in the power of God’ by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true; as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things. Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is open wide. You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. Now in a like exchange – I speak to you as children- open wide to us also. Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord. And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” says the Almighty

Sometimes, through my process of growing into the maturity of Christ, God’s understanding and liberating the Spirit of God whom I grieve when I control, I would miss the larger lesson before me.

I, in my lack of understanding, would focus on how others actions affected me. ,I in my arrogance, would align myself with the suffering of Christ and hold a private pity party - just Him and me. The pitiful thing is, He would always attend and sit there with me.  He would call me out either; simply comfort me.

I would talk to Him about how others would just leave, seeing something else that they wanted to obtain - maybe they would get bored. I would pray for their success but somewhere inside I would hold back a bit. I would serve with a little less joy and a little more weight. I would talk to Him about how I understood in a small way what He meant when He implored others to stay alert and pray for Him so that He would not have to endure alone. I did not ever think that it was only He and I though, nor did I compare myself in any way to what he must have endured – I think you get the picture.

But through Christ’s kindness, His gentleness and the holy spirit I finally was able to see that the times when I would think “God do you want me to quit and go back to what I was doing? Is that what you are trying to tell me?”, He was actually increasing my perspective, my understanding, my compassion and my discernment by taking me to and through another level of intimacy.

There comes a point in a relationship when once separate minds are now in perfect harmony (not that I am there yet); when you are saying the same thing at the same time, with the same inflection. When I was saying “Are you going to leave me too”, He was saying to me “Are you going to leave me too?

Leaving is not an option. We are forever His. We are His bride. He will never leave us nor forsake us and it is eternal because there is no death. He left His father beginning the process of being forever join with His bride. For a time we could not cleave to Him; but now we can.

So next time I feel like inviting Him to a “Pitiful Party” I think I will just sit and pray for Him, for His bride to be everything He anticipates, and for His bride to run with arms wide open to embrace Him.

In Christ with Love,

Candace