If Only

The words "if only" are tough words. They are words of mistake or regret. We look back at something that didn't turn out as hoped and say, "if only." Nate, Cliff, and I had a great pastor's conference down at Camp GoodNews this Thursday and Friday. The topic was 'mentoring.' During the conference, the Holy Spirit really spoke to me in a very powerful way through His still small voice, through the speaker (Barry Beebe), and through a older pastor friend (Roger Blundell). I was rebuked and reproved by the Spirit as He showed me a mistake I had made, was still making, and He ground into me the reality of what I had done and needed to do. I was bowled over and humbled. Thankful for such a clear and definitive answer but utterly crushed by the realization of what I should have been doing. Today I met with a person to begin to set right what I needed to. "If Only" Isaiah 48:18 "If only you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your well-being would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Matthew 23:37 "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. If only Cain had listened to God, if only Eve had believed God, if only Israel had followed God, if only..., if only. We are not called to lives of regret. God forgives us and we move forward, but so often we end up in a place of if-only because we have failed to listen, to heed, to step up and do what we should have known. We are strong-willed, self-willed, stubborn or lazy, prideful or worried, and we hang back from the right. If Only we would listen, do, obey, act, follow. Read this article by Barry Beebe that is part of what he shared on Friday morning that the Lord used to speak so powerfully and clearly to me. Look at those three disciplines and see how they apply to your life. I have already moved away from my 'if only' and onto my 'now, Lord!'