out of our element and into His

"Until He has us out of our element - and into His - we will never see His glory. We will always be deaf to what He was trying to say."

I was challenged when I read this quote . . . and even more so as I thought back through my life into the times when God did teach me something significant. I can see it in my own life, and have heard friends say similar things, the times when I have really grown and listened to God have been the times when I have been taken out of what is comfortable to me and put into the place where God wanted me. Regardless of whether I thought this was what I wanted at the time, I can look back now and see that it was what God wanted, and it was time of growth in my life . . . and ultimately, it was preparation for what was to come in the future.

Think about it, when we're in the place that we're comfortable in and life is going on as normal it can become quite easy to just go through life, and God becomes nothing more than just a part of our lives, whether we do that intentionally or not. But, when God comes along and makes it clear that He has something to teach us by changing something - either by a move, a job change, or some other circumstance - we are all of a sudden listening pretty carefully. No longer is life that same "normal" that it was and we want to know why, so we listen.

I think we also often resist when God tries to change things to move us out of our element and into His. We've grown comfortable where we're at and we really don't want something to change it. But, we need to be willing in these times to allow God to move us so that we can experience what He has for us.

"Until He has us out our element - and into His - we will never see His glory. We will always be deaf to what He was trying to say."