DRY EYES...OLD FAITH...HARD HEART...COLD PRAYERS

Hello friends...how are your eyes, faith, heart and prayers doing? Is your fairytale world not panning out like you expected? Did you start out in your faith blazing...and now you are smoldering? Have you lost the joy of your salvation and replaced it with the despair of your fears? Well... welcome to my world.

Our first collage is from the classic movie...IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. It is a wonderful tale of how circumstances, choices, obstacles, people can...if we let them...dictate our joy level. Our lives can either be a Bedford Falls existence...or a Pottersville Hell. Does your life reflect the emptiness of Mr. Gower...George Bailey...and the citizens of Potterville? NOTE: Do get the full effect of this Ramblings...go rent you It's A Wonderful Life...pop some corn...and enjoy the movie.

I can remember moment that I accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour...it was like a release from prison...like a long,slow rain after a long, hard drought ...like a rough, hard piece of leather soften by oil. The problem was...after a period of time...a few years later...I began to feel the prison walls close in again...I felt the the drought returning...I felt the leather stiffening up again. It was not something that happen immediately...but it was a slow process...and then suddenly... I could not figure out what was wrong with me. Actually...I was wondering...what was wrong with everyone else...except me. After all...ya gotta blame someone for the way you feel. All I know is this...I was dry, empty, and my prayers seemed to leave my lips...hit the ceiling...and drop back on top of me...unanswered.

What could I possibly do to restore the joy of my salvation... to be refreshed...to do what the Beatles sang about...to Get Back...to where I once belonged.

I chose...and it is a choice...to RUN....run away...as far as I could from the people who loved me, to the people who would speak truth to me, to a place that was more empty, more dry, more cold than where I was in the first place. I surrounded myself with people who would pander to my pity rather than speak the truth in love...with the cause and effect was a journey deeper in to despair.

NOTE: This is a water tank from Kenya Africa....for fresh water in a dry, polluted land. In the first collage you see the woman at the well...where Jesus told her that she would never thirst again...because the well...is within when you have Jesus in your heart. Jesus spoke later about rivers of living water flowing out of your innermost being/belly...with those flowing waters being the Holy Spirit. There may be something in our lives damming the flow of waters...but when we repent...times of refreshing will start to flow again.

When things are dry, old, hard, and cold...what can be done? I can't speak for anyone else...but only speak from my personal experience...I have to apply the Acts 3:19 Principle.

"Repent (change of mind, attitude, direction) and return (to my first love) that your sins may be wiped away (the thing that breaks our connection)...in order (cause and effect) that TIMES OF REFRESHING MAY COME (aaaaaaaaaaaaaah) may come from THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD."
(Acts 3:19)

Keith Green had a great song from back in 1978...that is still fresh and alive in 2009...called MY EYES ARE DRY. If you are at a place where you are dry and crusty, where what once was vibrant faith, where you heart is hard and stiff to the people you love and your prayers are cold as last night fire...think about what Keith was singing (even better if you can find a copy of the song).

MY EYES ARE DRY

My eyes are DRY...my faith is OLD...my heart is HARD...my prayers are COLD
And I know how I ought to be...alive to You...and dead to me
But what can be done...for an old heart like mine...soften it up with oil and wine
The oil is You and Your Spirit of Love...please wash me anew
In the Wine of Your Blood

"If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; BUT if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from ALL sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins; He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (I John 1:6-9)

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY

I have found that I can choose to walk away from God...and I also can choose to return. I can choose life and blessing...I can choose curse and death.

My eyes are now wet with tears of repentance and joy...my faith is fresh and alive...my heart is softened and pliable and usable for the Father...and my prayers pierce the heavens and are now effectual and fervent.

Love and Refreshed Kisses
Rodney "The Ball Is In Your Court" Boyd