What would happen if God RSVP’d?
By James Washington
Special to the Outlook from NNPA
This may sound familiar to some of you as I am commenting on an earlier article. There is a passage in scripture that tells us to be careful about how we entertain strangers because they in fact might be angels in disguise. Now I don’t know if you believe in angels, but have you ever wondered what you would do if you had the opportunity to entertain God. I mean what would you do if God was coming over for dinner? What would you do if you knew God was responding favorably to your invitation to come and visit?
I’ve thought about that often as it relates to prayer. After all, isn’t prayer an official invitation for God to enter into and become a permanent part of our living breathing eternal existence? The question is what would you do if His answer was yes? Guess who’s coming to dinner!
Serious contemplation of that convinces me that I’m not ready, but I will be forever extending the invitation to the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. As with Enoch, the very thought of being able to walk with God is pretty much mind boggling. The very thought that the invitation to be lead by the Holy Spirit has been accepted would humble any man, or, at least it should. As I pray and beseech the Lord to let me empty myself of those things that stand in the way of the Holy Spirit taking hold of my life, I know deep down inside that if it actually happened, I’d be changed forever.
Try to imagine a lifestyle predicated upon living for Christ. You can certainly understand the angst one might feel when you connect the dots of prayer to the words of faith to the actions of living. Our actions are a direct link to whether or not we understand and accept what we’re actually praying for. Each day I ask the Lord to allow me to do one thing, only one, and that would be viewed by others as behaving and acting in the role of a man of God; not necessarily a preacher but a practitioner of Christian belief.
That may sound somewhat pretentious to some of you, but I merely believe that during the course of any day, someone whom I come in contact with should respond to that contact with a reality that I’m a practicing believer. See Jesus in me, PLEASE!…somebody, anybody, stranger or angel. Many a night time prayer, after morning a conviction to do better, has me searching for that kind of thought or gesture, that thing I did on that day simply because I love Jesus. Most times I come up wanting. It did not happen on that day; not one thing did I do or say that wasn’t motivated by self aggrandizement.
Now there are other days where I and others have tangible evidence of my at least trying to witness, give testimony, offer a listening ear or sharing an able hand. God was there in thought word and deed. That then becomes and ends as an awesome day. The key I think is wanting to and not having to. If you believe you have to do something, you might be tempted to keep score.
In this case if you do that, you lose every time. We know we cannot earn God’s respect or His attention. Jesus took care of that for us. But you can ‘become’ enough. You can evolve enough so that God just might come and walk with you as He did Enoch. The reward is God’s to give, not ours to expect. So the next time you stop and pray, think about what you’re really praying for or, why you’re praying at all. Then consider your actions in relation to that particular moment.
Hopefully, it all adds up to the realization that God is ready to take you up on your invitation. I can’t imagine what that conversation would be for you, but for me I pray for it every single day. May God bless and keep you always.
May God bless and keep you always.
James,
jaws@dallasweekly.com
