“Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

-Philippians 4:4-7

God showed me this verse right before I was about to get married. I thought it was very appropriate at the time and I focused on the peach “which passeth all understanding” part. Well I have been led back to this verse and now I am seeing a new part of it (which is a wonderful thing about the living word of God). This time my focus was drawn to the fifth verse where Paul tells the people to live in moderation. I think he was talking about in their faith and every other part of life.

I was reading a passage by Rick Joyner and he talks about how walking in truth means walking in the “tension” between the extremes. This struck me as odd. I don’t use tension that way, normally it means a stress or pull. Tension can be defined as, “A balance between and interplay of opposing elements or tendencies.” Then I thought to myself that this is awful, to try and find a balance between God and earth. I think of balance as equal parts (in my head I saw a scale with two even parts on either side), then I thought as a Christian God should certainly weigh more in anything. Balance does not have to be two equal parts, and it certainly is not equal when it comes to my Christianity.

I think God wants there to be a “tension” between the world and Godliness. We are in the world. There is no denying that, to pretend we are not here would be foolish and living towards an extreme (out of the tension we are called to). We are called to be in this world living as followers of the Messiah.  John 15:19 tells us that we are not of the world or they would love us, “As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”

Finding the tension we are called to is not easy; in fact it is impossible if we search for it on our own. I have done this for the majority of my life. Instead of simply surrendering to God and his great love, I have fought to find what I could not find. The love of God is given freely, not because we deserve it, therefore you cannot find it on your own; it is a gift given to all from God. The tension we are called into simply comes when we surrender into God’s love and live just in this moment. It sounds like a crazy thing to pray but I supplicate to God that I may be led into the tension I’m called to.

Then it’s the silliest thing, right after I’ve just been shown this small tid-bit about tension, I immediately start seeking God for that. Part of what He’s just shown me is that I can’t find this tension by seeking the tension itself. I seek the things of God instead of God himself. If I truly seek God and His love, then all else will be added.

What a great love He has for me. Thank You God!

-Selah