Risking Wiht God

What God did by becoming human and giving His life on the cross for us is very risky. I have been thinking a lot lately about risk. God loves me enough to risk for me. Do I love God enough to risk for Him?

Several things come to my mind when I thinking about risking for God. One is that I don't really risk for God, I risk with God. God doesn't need me to do for Him or risk for Him. I work with God because it is not me coming up with what I want to do for God. It is me seeking God, seeing where He is working and joining Him in doing it. It is the same thing with taking a risk. I don't come up with what I want to risk for God and then risk it. I seek God, see what he is telling me to do and do it, many times what God is leading me to do will be risky. It's like Elijah when he confronted the prophets of Baal and Asherah on Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18. Did Elijah wake up one morning and say, "Oh, I think I'll go and challenge 850 false prophets to a contest to detemine whose God is the real God." No, that is not what happen. Whose idea was it that this contest on Mount Carmel come about? It was God's idea. Did Elijah risk something? Oh, yeah! But he did it in resonse to what God told him to do. He didn't risk for God, he risk with God.

Another thing I have learned about risking with God is that it leads to an intimacy with Him. When I trust God I will risk with Him. When I risk with God and He comes through, which He always does. I open myself up more and more to Him and His will. When I really open myself up nd obey the Spirit of God and God comes through it leads me to do it not once but over and over. Obeying God over and over is faithfulness. When I am faithful to God He reveals Himself to me more and more and I experience a closeness, an intiimacy with God.

Finally, I have learned that risking with God is scary, but it is also exciting and fun. I have found great joy in letting God take me out of my comfort zone. The first few steps are hard, but once I take them and see that God is there and He is not going to let me crash and burn, I experience great joy.

God is daily in the process of helping me to risk with Him and by doing that God is more and more each day Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls from my life.

Joe