Give Me One Pure And Holy Passion

August 25, 2015

Give Me One Pure And Holy Passion

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

Philippians 2:3-4 (NRSV)

When I retired three years ago, my idea of the perfect home site was forty acres with my house right smack dab in the middle! I knew in such a place, with Cheryl and my two Springers, Buster Brown and Hershey, I would be satisfied and at peace. And God chuckled.

God and my wife had other ideas. Cheryl wanted neighbors, so here we are in a planned development with a clubhouse, socials, supper club and lunch bunch, and countless gatherings for golf, tennis, hiking and all manner of hobbies and interests. I moved here because of the mountain view! But the neighbors and social interactions have grown on me. Thank God!

God created us to be in community. Sometimes community can get messy and become intrusive. However, it is almost always within community that God shows us where we need to grow. Do you remember the last line from Teresa of Avila’s prayer from yesterday? “Grant me the grace I need to change those areas that do not please you.” It has been my experience that my awareness of the areas that God wants to change in my life comes through my interaction with others. Seldom, very seldom, does such awareness come living in isolation from other people. Perhaps people seek isolation so they can hide from their faults.

God has been calling me to learn more about contemplative spirituality. I know the foundations of contemplative prayer are solitude, silence and stillness. Even so, it is within my solitude, silence and stillness, after I have been in community with others, that I can clearly hear the Lord share with me areas of life that do not please Him. For me, quite often those areas involve me doing things from selfish ambition or conceit. They reveal my lack of humility to regard others as better than me. Those revelations from God reveal that I am looking to my own interests, not to the interests of others.

I don’t want to scare you away from contemplative prayer. Most often, in my experience, my time alone with my Abba is a love fest with Him affirming that indeed I am His beloved child, with whom He is delighted and upon whom His favor rests. Those precious moments prepare my heart to be willing and able to receive His correction and to sing,

Give me one pure and holy passion

Give me one magnificent obsession

Give me one glorious ambition for my life

To know and follow hard after You

One Pure And Holy Passion

Candi Pearson

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.