This message isn’t about whether or not you hide and search for eggs, or enjoy sweet treats on this holiday. Frankly, hiding things, searching for things, finding things, and tasting something sweet are all enjoyable things to do. My question is, “What are we focused on as we perform our activities on a daily basis, not only at Easter, but year round”?

Are you hiding something? From others, from God? What in our lives should we be bringing into the Light of Day, to be given to God and forsaken and forgiven? What should we be freed from that has a hold on us?

Are you searching for something that you haven’t yet found? Perhaps you attend a church, but you don’t yet feel like a member of the body of Christ? Perhaps you have walked with the Lord for many years, but you are struggling right now under the weight of this world and its attacks? Perhaps you are looking for a friend or companion to help and encourage you.

Have you found what you are looking for? Do you know that you have it, and that it will never leave? Are you assured that you have it, secure in that knowledge, and growing every day into His image?

If you are secure, walking in the Lord, growing with Him every day… are you taking JOY in the journey? Is there a song in your heart and on your lips? Can others not help but see the joy of the Lord shining through your eyes and in your life?

Too many times we are overtaken by the “here and now”, the temporal; but the power that raised Christ from the grave is ours, and it guarantees those that are saved that they will be with the Lord forever. Think about that for a moment: the power that raised Christ from the dead.. is yours. I don’t just mean the power to resist eating that extra Cadbury egg (trademarked), the power to avoid saying that short word to your spouse, or the power to deal with a child that is emotional at the moment, or even the power to overcome every sin on this earth; I mean, the awesome, heavenly power that brought our Lord back from the dead. (Romans 8:11, 1 Peter 1:3-7, Ephesians 1:17-21)

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In the Army we talk about “Be” and “Do”. that is, what character traits should a warrior have and develop, and then how should those affect their actions? We see the same thing in our Christian walk. As we come into contact with the Savior, we see His love, his mercy, and His grace that saves us and we feel the love He has for us, being better able then to pass that on to others. As we study our Lord, we see what He demands of His followers and how we are to communicate with Him to become closer in relationship and “being” to Him.

Why then are we always so focused on one or the other? In this case, I was focused on being a “good Board Member” for Hope Pregnancy Resource Center. I wanted to pray – even setting myself aside a little – and worship for a spell, but then I wanted to set that all aside and “get some work done”.

This conference has made clear to me that “BEing” prefaces “DOing”. I mean, that since we do not pray our will to be done in heaven, but God’s will to be done on earth, we must discern what His will is and we cannot do that unless we know Him. In order to know Him, we must spend time with Him. More than this, we must spend time with Him together, in community with others of faith. God has told us that He will be with us in community… do you understand what that means? I know now that God means that we can understand His heart if we seek Him together, setting ourselves aside, gathering together in agreement to seek His heart in a matter. Once the Spirit of an Almighty God descends on us and gives us each a part of His truth, we can fellowship one with the other and piece together a fuller view of what He desires for our ministry.

Rather than praying a short prayer after a 5 minute devotion, we need to worship our Lord, praising Him and thanking Him together for His work with us. After this, we can pray His answers back to Him in a corporate setting, piecing His will for us together, in community with Christ at the center of that effort. With that level of intersection with the power of an Almighty God, we cannot help but be more effective and on fire for His work.

It is time to put the Lord back on the throne of our lives and back onto the throne of our various ministries. In Psalms 46:10 God says to , “.. be still and know I am God”. We need to set ourselves aside, be transparent one with the other, and connect with Christ as our Lord and Savior.

I praise Him and thank Him for the opportunity to be at a conference with so many faith-filled people in daily contact with a Living God.