God’s Alignment

10/14/2004

Do you ever feel like you need to get re-aligned? Sort of like your heart is out of alignment and it needs to be taken into the shop and worked on a bit before the day gets started? How does that happen? Is that the way we are made as human beings? I mean, our cars can go many months on an alignment job, maybe even years. I’m not really sure how it works with cars, but I think our hearts are very different. I think God designed our hearts to need His daily adjustment.

When I was pregnant, many years ago, I experienced “alignment” problems with my hip joints. I don’t know how many women deal with that, but I sure did. With each pregnancy it seemed to get worse, until with the last one I literally had to get out of bed in the morning, lean with my two hands against the wall and get my hips back into alignment. It was a bit strange, and it kept me from being very active towards the end of my pregnancy, but as soon as our baby was born, it was no longer a problem--my hips stayed in place as I slept through the night.

Now it seems that my heart will not “stay in place” through the night. The more time I spend with God each day, the more sensitive it seems I am to how the night plays havoc with my heart. When I get up in the morning it seems that my heart needs some adjustments, that my thoughts are wandering again, that worries have crept in or there’s simply an unease that is trying to invade what should be a peaceful morning. I’m not sure if this was always the way of my heart, or if this is something new. I would venture to say it’s always been this way but I did my best to ignore it and just get on with my day. Come what may, I would just bulldoze my way through it, thinking it was just “life.”

Now I’m not so sure. I think it’s more God calling to us first thing in the morning. I think it’s more the way God has designed us so that as each day begins, we will search for Him and find Him. I believe that He knows if we will start each day getting realigned with Him, the rest of the day will run more smoothly. We won’t have to fight so much against a pull to the right, or to the left. It won’t feel like the road of life is quite so rough.

How do we get aligned with God first thing each morning and what does that mean exactly? I believe there is only one way to get aligned and that is through prayer. Prayer which includes time in the Word. I believe these are the tools that we have been given to get our hearts aligned with God’s before each day begins. This does not mean that we can’t have a good day without doing this, it just means that if we will do it, our day can be so much better.

These heart alignments are usually little adjustments. It doesn’t have to be something huge, but as we get used to starting each day in prayer and in the Word, we will notice on the days when we don’t take the time for this, things are just a bit off. Something is missing, and our focus is not quite so in tune with God’s design for the day.

If we get into the habit of using something a lot, we will notice when small changes occur. A few years ago when I was riding my bike many hours each week in preparation for a ride that would cover 100 miles in one day, I got to know my bike very well. I knew immediately if something was wrong with it, if something had changed. I remember taking my bike in for a final tune-up right before the big ride and with just the slightest adjustment to the gears I could feel the difference. I became one with the bike, so to speak. Now, when I ride my bike, I am not so tuned into these things. The gears change fine, but I couldn’t tell you if they are different from one day to the next. I have not spent enough time on my bike lately to know.

As the years have gone on, I have become one with God more than ever in my life. As I spend time with Him each day, I start to notice little things that I may have never noticed before. I notice very quickly if I am in perfect peace or if something has started to interfere with that peace. I feel out of place if my day has gotten started without that special time with Him, One on one. It does not necessarily mean it will be a bad day, it could be a very good day, but I know that if I go too many days and get caught up into the busy-ness of life without spending time in prayer and in the Word, my heart’s alignment will wander way off. I will start to look at this world in a way that will be out of proportion to the way I view God.

Each morning as I rise, I know that it is very important to get God into a right perspective. I do this in my prayer time by going over the names of God, by putting Him into the place of being my Provider, my Healer, my Shepherd and so on. I take my eyes off of the morning I have just woken up to and I place them on Him and Who He is in each new day. In this way, my heart gets realigned to His heart, and I find the peace that I long for.

Of course there are days when this does not happen. When the circumstances of life call for my attention immediately and I’m on my way without putting God into a proper perspective in it all, but this is not a big deal if it is the exception as compared to the rule in my life. The problems arise when the exception starts to become the rule and the role of God in each day is diminished to the point where I am no longer as God conscience as I should be.

I have always been a little confused as to what “praying without ceasing” meant. I wondered how it could be possible to pray without ceasing all day long with all the other things that need to be taken care of in an ordinary day. Then I heard “praying without ceasing” explained in a way that I understood it. It’s not a matter of talking with God all day without stopping; it’s a matter of being God conscience from morning until night.

Now you may be saying, I don’t get that either. But think about this. If you’re driving to work and someone cuts you off, are you God conscience or are you working in the flesh? Do you get angry and think some rotten thoughts or do you ask yourself why they might be in a hurry, what is happening in their lives and pray that God will help them on their way? Or how about this, you’ve just received some news that disturbs you, you don’t like what has happened, it seems so unfair, you want to strike back and see justice done. Do you let your thoughts run away with you or do you take every thought captive and let the Spirit within win out over the devil’s tactics to steal the joy from your day?

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:5

What I’m finding out more and more is that it’s a matter of aligning our heart with God as soon as possible each day, so that when anything happens we’re already prepared. Once the world has been put into God’s perspective, we will not be thrown off course quite so quickly. When our hearts are aligned with His, everything lands under the umbrella of His protection and we know we are not standing out in the rain of life alone. It doesn’t mean the rain will stop, it may continue on all day, but we do not have to drown in it!

I don’t know what happens during the night. I don’t understand all of that, but I know that even though I get up most mornings and I am here by myself, something is not quite right. Something seems out of place, something inside is disturbed. There were days when I would have never noticed this because the days started much too quickly with much too much confusion and I just plowed into them and did what had to be done. But now God has given me some time to spend with Him as never before, and I am noticing the difference that it makes and how much I miss that time with Him if I don’t get it.

Just like my bike and knowing all the little changes that were made to it. I wanted the bike to work a certain way, change gears at a certain time and in a certain way and anything less than that felt wrong. It is becoming the same with God. I know what it feels like to be in His presence, to spend time with Him, to be filled with His peace and I want nothing less than that each day. I want to get my heart aligned with His each morning and after that I know that everything else that happens during the day will be covered with Him.

This is God’s fine-tuning. This is probably along the lines of what Adam and Eve had in the garden, it’s what we long for but miss so much of the time because we are not walking with God as we should. I would imagine that when Adam and Eve ate from the tree they were told not to and hence were separated from the relationship with God they had enjoyed, something felt very wrong. They probably didn’t even know what it was but instead tried to cover it up with leaves. What do we do in our lives that separates us from God and what do we try to cover it up with? Do we cover our unease up with our jobs, our children’s activities, our clean houses or maybe even a fun vacation? Maybe we are running from what doesn’t seem just right and looking for something that will make it right, but are we looking in the right direction? Could it be as simple as some time in prayer and some time in the Word? I believe so!

I have a great view out our window here in our RV. I start my mornings with a cup of coffee and time with my Father. During that time I can see all the activities going on outside. I can see other RV’s leaving for a new destination, I can see people passing through on the Highway that’s not so far away, I can see people going out for the morning newspaper by the little store here and other’s working on small things that need tending to on their rigs. I see some leaving for work, coming out their door with coffee and cigarette in hand—others taking their dogs out for their morning walk. All simple activities that start each person’s day—but how many of them are God conscience? I have no idea, but the thought passes through my mind as I’m aligning my heart each morning. How many have given any thought at all to Who created this beautiful day, to who made the sun rise in the east? How many have prayed for their children, or asked God’s direction on where they should be heading as the day gets started? How many have acknowledged that God is in heaven watching over every step they take and that He knows every hair they combed on their head this morning? Is this crazy thinking on my part or is God calling my attention to it?

There’s a lot to be said for the simple life. There’s a lot to be said for having the time each morning to align our heart with God. I think too many of us are running through life on bumpy roads created by our activities. They seem fun and good and they seem to make us happy but what do we find at the end of the day when it gets quiet? Do we find peace? Do we find joy? Do we find that all is well with our soul? Or are we exhausted and frustrated and tied in knots?

Do you know that God will make time for everything in our days if we will make time for Him? He really will! It’s the devil’s lie that we don’t have time for God. There have been days when I think that there is no way I can get everything done that needs doing and I just don’t have time for God. I have found that if I spend time with God, everything that really “needs” to get done seems to get done without much hassle. But if I skip that “heart alignment” time I may get everything done, just barely, and I’m exhausted.

Just recently I had a challenge set before me. It was a contest to write a book and submit it by a certain date. The thing was, I didn’t find out about this contest until seven days before it had to be postmarked. Now, God knows I love a challenge and being that this happened during the time of the Olympics, I think He was having fun with me! After praying about even entering this contest at such a late date, I began writing the book. It required writing approximately 10,000 words a day. You would think I would have had time for nothing else, but that was not true. I not only started each day getting my heart aligned with God, I then spent time writing and even finished up each day’s writing in time to enjoy the Olympics in the afternoon/evening. On the sixth day when the writing was completed, I walked out into our living room only to find out that the Olympics would be starting in four minutes. I smiled, knowing that God was good! He knew I would not want to miss the closing ceremonies.

That was an amazing week for me--meeting the challenge and watching how God took me through each day of writing, not without Him, not without my time with Him, but with Him. It was a huge challenge but not a stressful one. It was a pleasure and an experience that taught me many things. I felt that when the week was over, when the book was completed, I could have thrown it away because it really wasn’t about the book at all, it was about what God was teaching me as I wrote it. I did send the book in, and am awaiting news on the contest winner, but that won’t come for a few months yet.

The title of the book is, “Impossible is Nothing.” That is exactly what God taught me while writing it. With Him, impossible is not even in His vocabulary. When we devote our lives to Him and give Him time each day, getting our heart aligned with His, all things are possible. I know that I could not have written that book without Him, but with Him, I learned that whatever He asks me to do, I can do it. He will provide what is needed. He will stretch the minutes and the hours in each day to just what we need when we give Him our time in prayer and reading His Word.

God is a good God. He does not want us to spend time with Him so we’ll be bored. He wants to give us a sense of excitement for what each day can hold when we place it in His hands. What happens outside our window here in this RV Park are simple things, people living their lives, traveling on their way, taking care of business. That is what most of our lives are made up of most days, simple things. Things that seem mundane, but in that mundane-ness we can find so many gems--never knowing who God will bring across our path or who may call, or what simple pleasures we will find in the ordinary things of life. When we start to see it as all part of the big picture, each color that is added can be thrilling!

Most times we’re looking for the big things to thrill us. The new car, the new baby, the new house, the grand vacation. Things we plan for, look forward to, take pictures of. But life cannot be that every day, most days are pretty ordinary. We can get bored. We can get stir-crazy. We can get frustrated at how slow things seem to be moving. We can just get a sense that something’s not quite right, that our hearts are not quite at peace, that we’re not quite as happy as we’d like to be. If we take note of that and take our hearts to God, we’ll find what we are missing. We’ll find Him making the adjustments to our hearts that we’re needing and we’ll come away from those moments with Him refreshed and ready to meet the road of life with a new joy in our hearts.

God is not only a God we run to in our desperation when nothing else seems to be working, He should be our Best Friend who we long to spend time with every day. We should miss Him when we don’t spend time with Him, but if we’re not accustomed to that Friendship, then we won’t realize what that missing piece is quite so readily. We’ll think it’s something else, that it’s someone else’s fault that we’re not happy, that if we just had a little more energy life wouldn’t seem to be such a drag. We need to get to the place of not needing anything but Him, and then we can truly enjoy all that He adds to that. When we realize that He is all we need, everything else becomes so much more alive in our lives. The simple things aren’t simple, they’re all part of His plan. The complicated things aren’t complicated, they’re part of His plan. The waiting isn’t frustrating; it’s part of His plan. It’s all in His plan and the more we grasp that, the more we can relax in each day and enjoy the life we’ve been given.

I don’t have anything big planned for today, but I know it will be a good day. I know that whatever happens, if I remain God conscience through it all, my heart will be at peace. I am learning the only way to remain God conscience through each day is to start each day that way. To align my heart with God’s, to see things through His eyes, to sense the things He is trying to tell me and to give Him all of me before the day gets busy.

I don’t think the ache in our heart each morning is a bad thing. I don’t think the unease that might be felt is wrong. I think it’s in God’s design because it gives us a yearning to spend time with our Best Friend. Once that relationship is acknowledged, everything just seems to make more sense. All the questions seem to not matter quite so much. The plans for our future seem to be in good hands, and we can know that wherever we go and whatever we do, our Friend is always with us. He will fill us up inside, and bring us an assurance like nothing else in this world can provide. He is our lifeline to eternity, our Hope, and our Joy through each day. All will be well with our soul when our hearts are aligned with our Maker.

Enjoying His peace,

Diane