Hopes in Ropes

I recently had a dream about ropes in the sky. I think God popped this analogy in my head because it symbolizes what i've been doing lately. Imagine this huge rope with a huge balloon lifting you up higher and higher into the sky. You can see the entire world from this view. You go straight through the clouds and find yourself surrounded by a peaceful silence. Then all of a sudden dozens of other ropes start to float up next to you. Some ropes are colorful and look very appealing. So you jump off the strong rope you were on and grab onto a new rope. This rope seems to hold your weight for awhile, but eventually it beings to sink.. So you jump back onto the big strong rope which sustains you easily. But soon you see a sparkling dazzling rope, so you jump off and cling to the new one. This one suddenly beings to fall through the sky, but in the nick of time you leap back to the strong faithful rope. And again it catches your deadly drop. But when you look up you've seen how far down you fell. It would have been better to have just held onto the big strong rope.

If you didn't get my analogy, let me explain. The big strong rope is obviously God's hand. You have the choice to trust in His power, strength and care.. or you can choose to abandon His guidance and support by jumping onto other ropes. The problem is that these other ropes that seem authentic are actually traps. In this world we have become surrounded with distractions. These different ropes could symbolize putting our source of happiness in other people, money, material, appearances, reputations, popularity, hobbies, relationships, our friends, families, and the biggest temptation is to just live entirely for yourself, trusting in only your own capabilities. Are we investing in our relationship with God or just in ourselves? I've gone through many phases. I've gone through many hobbies. I've gone through a variety of entertainment. But in the end, God is the only one who stays the same. God never changes and is our only hope of salvation. Sometimes God just wants us to put our trust in Him and hang on tight. Other times He says start climbing while I carry you up.

In this analogy i am not saying it's wrong to hang out with friends, have hobbies, accumulate money, have possessions or have other desires. But I am saying that these other things should not be our focus of where we put our trust. Faith is relying on God. Faith is belief manifested in trust. Faith is knowing that God is better. He remains sovereign, holy and just in His ways. The only thing He calls His people to do is to just trust in His grace, trust in His righteousness, and trust in His power over sin. It'll be weird to say that Christ is my deepest source of pleasure if I spent the entire day tweaking on a video game and 2 minutes of my day starring at my unopened Bible. It'd be ridiculous to say i'm addicted to Jesus if my prayer life consisted of just praying before a meal. It'd be hypocritical to say i'm only concerned with Jesus and sought only the approval of others. If we claim to love God, should our lives not reflect that?

I've been putting my priorities on hanging out with friends, going to the gym, going to new restaurants, playing tons of video games, watching a load of tv, sleeping whenever, and all these earthly pleasures before God. Of coarse I would say God is first in my life, but if you played back the dvd of my last few weeks, you probably couldn't tell. I've made up enough excuses for missing church. I've made enough excuses for putting off devotions. I've spent time with God only on my time, and decided to just look to these other ropes for security, happiness, and comfort.

Christians, have you ever noticed how much easier it is to change a behavior when God becomes your strength and motivation? Have you noticed how much more joyful life is living by the Holy Spirit? Why do we continue to jump to other ropes when God says "I'm all you need." He's the only one who can truly satisfy your heart and sustain your every need. No matter how many times we've back stabbed and betrayed Him, He never abandons and always accepts us as we are.

Ask yourself, "Why does God love me so much?" It's like lightning striking your soul when you come to realize how much God loves you. Why does He love you so much? Simply because you're His. I love how the best imagery Christ gives us about God is that we should see Him as a Father. Even when we're completely undeserving, Abba Father loves us unconditionally.

What or who do you turn to with your problems? What's your therapy? What's your main source of enjoyment? Where do we run to when we're stressed out? Who do we turn to for help, guidance and support? Where have we placed our trust? What are we most concerned with? What are our minds set upon as we go to sleep at night? What do we like to talk about most? Who are we seeking to please? How have we invested our time? I ask myself these questions and talk about conviction.

Yes, we'll jump ships and seek other things to depend on at times, but how long will we last on these sinking ships? Why not stay on board and close to the captain of the redeeming craft carrier. The Bible gives so many other illustrations of staying close to Him. Even when sheep run astray after pretty butterflies, the Shepherd always finds His lost sheep. When the prodigal son spends all the inheritance his father welcomes Him back. Solomon called it chasing the wind. He knew that all the wealth, riches, power, authority, women and kingdoms could still not truly satisfy him. When we're thirsty we foolishly run to broken cisterns that can't even hold water, instead of planting ourselves near Christ who calls Himself the eternal spring of living water. Plant your feet on the rock, who is the chief cornerstone. He always endures. Basically the overarching lesson is to abide in Him, because He is more than enough.

The man who has everything in this world except Jesus, has absolutely nothing. The man who has nothing but Jesus, has absolutely everything.


The Nails in Your Hands

The nails in your hands
The nails in your feet,
They tell me how much you love me.
The thorns on your brow,
They tell me how, you bore so much shame to love me.

And when the heavens pass away,
All your scars will still remain,
And forever they will say,
Just how much you love me.
So I want to say,

Forever my love, Forever my heart
Forever my life, is yours.
Forever my love, Forever my heart
Forever my life, is yours, it's yours.