More Insight

Insight

(Dragonfly Ministries President, Mary Hamrick)

Sometimes being obedient to God simply means listening to His voice, His convictions, and allowing Him to teach.  It also means a willingness to learn lessons that you didn’t necessarily seek, and to humble yourself to ask forgiveness for things that He reveals to you.  As Christians, we must be obedient in accepting correction and teaching from God (or through others as God leads), and we must be obedient to the conviction of the Holy Spirit in confessing things in our lives that He reveals to us as wrong.  

In May, I went to the state of New York to visit my friend Patty.  Patty has recently moved back to New York and to the Catholic Church where her family attends and where she was raised.  Since returning to her home church, she has been involved in birthing two Bible studies for two separate groups of women in her church.    

I have always been a member of the southern Baptist congregation, and have been taught many wonderful truths through the Baptist church, truths that I stand on, that I firmly believe in, and that I share with anyone that will listen, and even sometimes with those who don’t want to hear.  A few years ago, I sensed God telling me that in my limited knowledge of Him, I had placed Him in a box of my own belief.  I began to see that some things I held to were man-made rules.  I began seeking the heart of God to find out how to live according to His words and to learn why I believe certain things.  He opened my eyes and my heart to see so many ways of worship that I had missed out on because these ways of worship were outside of my box of comfort.  I allowed God out of the box I had built around Him, and a new world of worshipping freedom and spiritual growth has been opened  to me.  

During my trip to the state of New York, I had an opportunity to sit and visit with Father Brian, priest of a local parish.  Because of my limited knowledge and the hearsay I’d  heard from others, I had formed opinions and questions of the Catholic church that I hungered to have addressed and/or answered.  God gave me a wonderful gift on this particular trip in that Father Brian answered – very patiently – my questions and concerns about the Catholic faith.  As he talked, I knew that the box was opening a little more and that God was teaching me new aspects of worship.  He showed me that my unfounded opinions had been another way keeping Him in a box.

On Sunday, I attended Mass with Patty.  My heart was overflowing with excitement about having the opportunity to worship with Patty in a traditional Catholic service – my first experience inside a catholic church.  I experienced in Mass the same thing I experience in a Southern Baptist Church – true worship – worship of our Father in Heaven and worship of my Lord, Jesus Christ.  I knelt and prayed and worshipped God with all that was in my heart, and God reminded me that we are all His children and we all must come to Him with a heart of worship.  It doesn’t matter what order our services are orchestrated, how long the sermon is, what kind of reading or music there is – if we do not approach Him with a worshipful heart, no matter what church we attend, we will not have a worship experience.

As I sat in the pew of the Catholic church, my heart was overwhelmed at the love for God that Father Brian demonstrated, of the spirit of God moving in the church, and for the first time in my life, I experienced the conviction to confess and seek forgiveness for my prejudice and preconceived ideas of a community that I knew nothing about.  God calls for unity of the church – the church that was formed to worship and serve the one true LIVING God.  Our God, our Lord and Savior.  Unity.   Of all of His children.  Our practices and traditions may be a little different, but we come together to worship Him.  And when we walk away from the church, our heart of worship goes with us.  

I was reminded that it is not the sole responsibility of the church to birth spiritual growth in us.  We can go to any church and receive communion, fellowship of believers, a sermon, and the presence of God, but if we are not seeking God in our quiet time through prayer, Bible study and meditation,  then we’re going to have a second-hand relationship with God, not a personal and intimate knowledge of who God is, why He moves the way He does, the sound of His voice, the peace that comes during heartache and suffering – that’s true of the Baptists, Catholics, Methodists, etc.  We have to take the initiative to know who God is – to seek Him – and I am convinced that every church consists of believers who are not growing spiritually because they lack the drive,  the knowledge or the discipline to spend time alone with God, getting to know His word, His ways, HIM.

“Oh Lord, we are all your children – we all need to attend services with other believers to corporately worship you.  But sweet Lord, teach us that in order to walk intimately with you, we MUST go a step further and seek you daily, in our quiet time, through prayer and bible study, so that we can grow closer to you than ever before.  Though our churches are wonderful and provide a beautiful place of worship, Lord, teach us that we can worship you at anytime, in any place, with our hearts.  Create in us, Lord, a desire to know you more.  Teach us, Lord who you are through study and prayer.  Draw us to open our Bibles, our hearts, to read and meditate on your words and your ways so that we may grow in you.  Bring people into our lives that will help us walk closely with you.  And Lord, teach us to let you out of the box of our childhood beliefs and teachings, to open our hearts wide so that you can teach us how to truly worship you – in spirit and in truth, in mind and body and soul.”
Amen. 

Mary