HOT PASSION IN COOL TRIALS

4/30/23
 
Our bathroom is a long way from the water heater, so we usually have to run the hot water for a few minutes before we jump in the shower.  But for a little while a year ago, that changed.  Every time i turned on the tap the water it was instantly hot, and it didn’t matter what time of day it was or which faucet i was using.  Kitchen or bathroom, sink or shower, they all ran hot day and night.  There was no earthly explanation for it; we weren’t hosting guests as we often do, who might have run hot water through our pipes without us knowing it, nor was there some sort of leak that might have kept our hot water flowing.
 
Our water and gas bills didn’t change, just the availability of hot water.  And it never seemed to happen with my wife; it only happened with me.  So i asked God what was up, and He said it was a sign about our relationship.  His passion for me runs hot and deep, He said, and He had given me similar passion for Him.  Christ is my passion and He’s always with me; His heart always aflame in mine!
 
i’ve been reluctant to mention that to anyone, for fear they might treat me like Joseph when he got his technicolor dreamcoat.  But i was reminded of what had happened last year when i washed my hands this morning and the tapwater in my bathroom sink ran instantly hot.  Since our son was taking a shower in the bathroom above us at the time, it didn’t seem miraculous like a year ago.  But i’m certain it wasn’t an accident, because Jesus used it to remind me than my devotion to Him is rooted in His devotion to the Father, which overflows with devotion to us!
 
This morning i’m reminded that Jesus’s devotion and mine are rooted in faith.  Although the devotion we share has a lot of passion, it’s a fruit of our dependence and submission.  Jesus’s devotion arises in me as i fix my eyes on Him.
 
i experienced His devotion growing tangibly in me over the past few days.  At our Tuesday morning Bible study, i was convicted that i wasn’t fully abiding in the Father’s heart.  So after i prayed with a friend about that, i had a vivid dream in which Holy Spirit showed me that i was settling for less than Christ.  So i repented and soon thereafter, on Thursday morning, the sweet presence of Christ arose during our men’s prayer time.  Then throughout Friday and Saturday, His lingering presence inspired me to repeatedly ask Him to help me devote myself to Him as fully as He deserves.
 
Time and again His Spirit reminded me of something He first said to me two and a half years ago.  i mustn’t judge whether i’m walking like Jesus, He’d said;  i must entrust myself to Him Who judges justly.  The Father seeks my obedience, not my toil.  If i reduce Christ’s life in me to mere behavior, my walk will be fleshly and i’ll stir fleshliness in others.  But as i abide in the devotion of Christ, His Spirit in me nudges His Spirit to arise in others.
 
Through those reminders Christ’s Spirit inspired me to keep leaning into Him.  i had many opportunities to do that yesterday as i poured into those He’d arranged for me to encourage.
 
In the morning while driving to Reno, i spoke with a brother in the Lord about his his erratic courtship of his girlfriend.  Midday during a fundraising event, i spoke with a sister about her six-year-old grandson and his abusive dad.  In the afternoon over a meal and at a park, another brother told me many stories about his past trauma and present trials.  And last evening at the jail, a group of seventeen men had shared with me Who Jesus is to them and how they’re walking out their faith.  
 
Throughout it all, Holy Spirit had given me an attentive ear and encouraging words which had little to do with me.  The first brother was upbeat, despite his challenges in pursuing his girlfriend.  My sister loved the words God gave me for her, that her grandson is resilient and Christ’s meekness in her is routing strongholds in her family.  The second brother grew more humble and hopeful the more he shared his heart with me.  And at the jail, another strong believer spoke passionately about God’s kindness, righteousness and sovereignty over evil.  Though he only spoke Spanish, God provided translators and the rest of us, Anglos and Latinos alike, were deeply moved by the boldness of his faith.
 
Yet as soon as i got in my car i began wondering if my time in the jail could have been more effective, for God’s kingdom is not a matter of mere words, but of power.  1 Corinthians 4:20  So i surrendered the evening to God and thanked Him for everything that had happened, though i wasn’t really sure how He had moved. The rest of my way home i resisted a barrage of prideful and sexual thoughts as i fought the urge to think that my time at the jail was about me.
 
Later that night i awoke, pondering the last thing that Spanish-speaking brother had said.  He shared a story about a guy who’d lost his hands and had taught himself to play a keyboard with his feet.  When someone had called his worship miraculous, the man without hands had praised God for the other person’s hands.  “Every time you grab a steering wheel, it’s a miracle!” he beamed.  “Do you see it?”
 
It doesn’t take much faith to see how God is moving when He does something blatantly supernatural, in plain sight of many witnesses, like healing a blind man,.  But when God works, as He likes to do, in hidden ways that are less dramatic or straightforward, we often have to believe that He is at work before we’ll recognize how.  But faith is a gift, and God was inviting me to trust Him, that He was at work in and around me, even if i didn’t know how.  So in the middle of the night waves of awe and gratitude swept over me as God spoke to me without words through that story.
 
Suddenly i knew that it had been God Who’d led that Spanish-speaking brother to join us, and God Who had given him that inspiring message to share, because He didn’t want any of us to miss how faithfully He pours His blessings into us, beyond anything we deserve or imagine.  Before i had even asked Him for power, God had moved with power.  In two different meetings within forty-eight hours, He had brought together over a dozen godly men, led our prayers from start to finish, and worked through our dialogue to challenge, convict, teach, forgive and encourage us to pray and believe, with great sensitivity and depth of insight, for life-changing breakthrough in ourselves and those we love.
 
Throughout the week God had repeatedly strengthened me to cultivate my devotion to Christ, and Christ had risen victoriously in me.  Though i was severely tempted, i had turned away from self-indulgent thinking.  By God’s grace i had dodged a bullet that had recently wounded several of my brothers, by keeping my focus on Jesus.  Through it all, God was clearly fulfilling something He had spoken into me, six years earlier:  that as i learn to worship Christ on the cross, i will die to myself and live only for Him, leading every perception into the lovingly attentive harkening of Christ.