Doing or Dwelling?

Have you ever gone through a time when you question your life and what kind of impact you are having? I dare say at some stage we all ask this question. There are just seasons when we feel that we are in a desert not necessarily due to our own choices or actions. There are seasons in life when days seem to turn into weeks, months and years in a blink of an eye.

I have been in one such season. Due to my health battle I have had to withdraw from a lot of public settings, the main one being church. Winter presents a greater risk due to low blood cell counts and so most of my days are spent within the walls of my home. Though I still attend church online I admit I sometimes feel disconnected.  These seasons in our lives can be due to many reasons, this just happens to be mine. Sometimes they are because of our work schedules, or life activities. It can feel like a bit of a rut where you find yourself wondering what am I doing?

The enemy loves these opportunities to whisper lies that we are failing to walk out our faith, or that we are distant from God because we aren’t “actively” involved in the “right” things. He makes it seem that these whispers are truth and the at we are not “good” enough to please God.

The one thing I have learned and am blessedly reminded of during this life shift of battling cancer is that God never asked me to do anything, He did it all. He asked me to dwell with Him in relationship and He paid the price so I could have that access. The beautiful thing about dwelling is that we reflect Him without effort. He hardwired us to pour out what we allow to fill up within us.

Genesis 2:19-20 is a great example of this. God was with Adam just relating together and God drew the animals to him. It wasn’t so that Adam had something to do ”for God” to earn his place or be good enough. It wasn’t because God needed Adam to do this. It was because God wanted to see what Adam would name them. Simply put God wanted to see Adam express himself. I picture it like a father watching a baby start to learn to walk. The father doesn’t want the child to walk so they can earn a relationship it’s just the joy of seeing them become who they were meant to be.

Also, once that child learns to walk they begin to interact with the world around them in ways they couldn’t before. The same goes for Adam. Once he spoke and named the animals it allowed him to interact with the world God made for him. He got to use his creativity, his authority as a steward of the garden. He didn’t have to work to earn his authority in the garden, it flowed out of that moment when he sat with God.

So if find yourself in a season when you wonder if you are doing enough ask yourself, am I dwelling with God or am I doing?  Doing lasts for a moment and makes little difference. Dwelling impacts us and the world around us forever!