Lara Love's Good News Daily Devotional
You are at:»»Magic at Church?

Magic at Church?

25
By on Uncategorized

Magic at church? God does not have anything to do with magic, right? Church has nothing to do with magic either, right? If you had followed me around in years past, you might have thought otherwise. Maybe you have fallen prey to the same mistake I did.

I must have worn the soles of my shoes down and burned a zillion calories running back and forth between my seat in church and the altar where I was convinced, if not hopeful, I would receive yet another magic fix. What am I talking about? Maybe you know. Surely I was not alone.

I had turned the altar in just about every church I attended into a dumping ground where I could trade my troubles in for magic. I figured if just the right pastor, with just the right prayer, or just the right sister or brother in Christ, with just the right words, and just the right praying hands, would pray over me, I would be fixed.

I cannot deny it. I got relief. Lots of it, in fact. For seconds. Sometimes minutes. Once in a while hours. And, once in a rare while, for days. Then I was right back at it again. Running to the altar for magic. For my instant fix.

I would be remiss to leave out what I did in between Sundays. My heart was so hardened I could not see. I walked around with bitterness, anger, self pity, fear, doubt, unbelief, anger, worry, envy, judgment, condemnation, and occasional confession with no real desire or commitment to learn to walk free from what was clogging my heart.

That, my friends, was only the surface. Underneath it all, I had no real, intimate, personal, relationship with the Lord. I had a relationship with friends, with strangers, with loved ones, with books, with the Bible, with churches and pastors. I did not have a healthy relationship with most, but what I had was a relationship with everything and everyone I felt could fix me – minus a deep, loving relationship with the one who matters above all. The Lord.

It would be unfair for me to speak against churches, pastors, prayers, and altars dedicated to God. It would be wrong, in fact. They all have their place, but they are not God.

Looking back, I was looking for magic. And, what I got, was a distraction from what is the greatest gift of all. The Lord.

The Lord set me straight. He took me out of church for a long season. I hated every minute of it. But He knew what I needed. When everything around me I had depended on was all of a sudden gone, many relationships included, I could do nothing but cry out to the Lord – and find out who He really is, who I am in Him, and what He desires for my life.

When He led me back to church, He did not choose any one church for me. He did not want me to re-form an old dependency. He wanted my heart and eyes on Him, first and foremost.

I wonder how many of us run to our churches and altars looking for the magic fix.

It was not until I found my own, unique, special, beautiful, amazing, intimate relationship with the Lord, and not until with that relationship I learned how to take responsibility for my life and actions in between Sundays that I discovered I was on the right track.

There is no magic in God. What there is – is His everlasting love.

I have found more freedom in learning to love and be loved by Him, and in learning how to repent from my sin and live the way He desires, than I ever found in my moments of relief running to church altars.

I would not trade anything in the world for the Lord, and I can think of no greater gift than to love Him, to be loved by Him, to love people and animals through Him, and to serve Him with all of my heart and life.

No more magic for me.

I’m going for the very best in the universe.

The Lord.

Please visit Walk by Faith Ministry at https://www.walkbyfaithministry.com.

25 Comments

  2. Israel on

    Howdy! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with Search Engine Optimization? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not
    seeing very good gains. If you know of any please share.

    Cheers!

  3. online marketing on

    After looking into a few of the blog posts on your blog, I honestly like your technique of
    writing a blog. I book marked itt to my bookmark site list and
    will be checking back in the near future. Please visit my wwebsite ass well and tell me what
    you think.

  5. 먹튀검증 on

    I used to be suggested this blog by way of my cousin. I’m now not sure whether or not this put up is written through him as no one else know such
    distinct about my difficulty. You’re incredible!
    Thank you!

  6. 토토커뮤니티 on

    I think this is among the most significant info for me.
    And i’m glad reading your article. But want to remark
    on some general things, The web site style is ideal,
    the articles is really nice : D. Good job, cheers

  9. Dirk on

    Heya i’m for the primary time here. I came across this board
    and I find It truly useful & it helped me out a lot.
    I’m hoping to give something again and aid others like you aided me.

  12. Derick on

    Having read this I believed it was very informative. I appreciate you taking
    the time and energy to put this informative article together.
    I once again find myself spending a lot of time
    both reading and posting comments. But so what, it was
    still worth it!

  13. Miles on

    Does your website have a contact page? I’m having problems locating
    it but, I’d like to shoot you an e-mail. I’ve got some suggestions for your blog you
    might be interested in hearing. Either way, great blog
    and I look forward to seeing it expand over time.

  14. Jefferey on

    Hey there would you mind letting me know which webhost you’re utilizing?
    I’ve loaded your blog in 3 different browsers and I
    must say this blog loads a lot quicker then most.
    Can you suggest a good web hosting provider at a
    fair price? Thanks, I appreciate it!

  15. Bobbye on

    Hey this is kind of of off topic but I was wanting to know
    if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML.
    I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding knowledge so
    I wanted to get advice from someone with experience. Any help would
    be greatly appreciated!

  17. Frank on

    hello there and thank you for your information – I’ve
    certainly picked up anything new from right here. I did however expertise a few technical points using this website, since I experienced to reload
    the web site many times previous to I could get it
    to load correctly. I had been wondering if your web hosting is OK?
    Not that I am complaining, but slow loading instances times will often affect your placement in google and could damage your quality score if advertising and marketing
    with Adwords. Anyway I am adding this RSS to my e-mail and could look out for a lot more of your respective
    interesting content. Ensure that you update this again soon.

  18. Roman on

    Asking questions are truly nice thing if you are not understanding anything fully, but this piece of writing presents good understanding even.

  20. 24시간대출 on

    I like the valuable info you provide in your articles. I’ll bookmark your blog and check again here frequently.

    I’m quite certain I’ll learn many new stuff right here!
    Best of luck for the next!

  23. gate.io on

    Leading cryptocurrency exchange with over 1400+ cryptocurrencies & stablecoins such as Bitcoin ✓ Ethereum ✓ Dogecoin ✓ Start trading crypto with Gate.io now!
    gate.io

Leave A Reply