Opening my eyes, I crawled out of bed and stumbled downstairs. It was another busy day with many tasks on the agenda- homeschool, afternoon kids’ activities, chores, dinner… I brewed the coffee and headed back upstairs to dress and spend time with my Lord. It was one of those mornings that I sat and pondered rather than “accomplishing” something with Jesus. The pondering of the day could be wrapped up in one simple word: availability. As I sat, I asked myself:
“How available do I make myself to Jesus? What keeps me from being completely available to Him? How do I even make myself available?”
He spoke to me, and what He said applies to all of us.
In theory, child of God, we often think we make ourselves available to God. We “have devotions,” go to church, and do a lot of things pertaining to God. Oftentimes, it comes from a sincere place of wanting to be with God and wanting to do the right thing. The problem, then, is not one of ill motives but rather misguided understanding. We tend to understand and experience life in boxes. We have work boxes, family boxes, activity boxes, friend boxes, and ultimately, we end up creating a God box. We place Him in this box and take Him out at the appropriate times- doing a devotion, going to church, when it is time to pray. When we are finished, we place Him back in His box, close the lid, and move on to the next box in the line-up.
We want to be available to God and we want Him to work through us. But how can He when He has been placed in a box?
Oftentimes, our need for things to go as planned, our need for things to be nice and tidy, our need for control, keeps us from being available to God. Being available to God means we must be willing to have our schedules interrupted. We must be willing to have life look a little messy and sometimes get a bit out of its prescribed order. How often were Jesus’ plans altered or interrupted? The gospels are full of examples! It was the very interruptions Jesus experienced that became the power of God in peoples’ lives. Healings, deliverances, and revelations all occurred because Jesus was interrupted. Jesus’ ability to abide with His Father, rather than keep Him in a box, enabled the Power of God to move through Him.
Rather than becoming irritated when our plans get hijacked, feeding our insatiable desire for control, why don’t we live in a way that makes ourselves fully available to the Lord?
Living a life fully available begins with abiding. It is listening for God’s Voice every moment of the day. It is training your spiritual ears to hear Him and training your spiritual eyes to see what He sees. What if we began seeing interruptions as opportunities instead of irritations? How detrimental and empty the gospels would be if Jesus had not been willing to be interrupted! I wonder how many fewer miracles we would have? How many fewer revelations, deliverances, and testimonies? Perhaps we aren’t seeing His Power as often (in our culture) because we are failing to make ourselves fully available to Him, outside of a box, through an interruption. May our prayer become “Lord, shatter my boxes. Teach me to abide with You. Please, Heavenly Father, interrupt me today.”