Do the Next Thing…

(God says) “Find out what I’m doing and then do it. Find out what God is up to and move in my faith and do it. Well, I learned that actually this human being is made to contain God, He isn’t something flying about. Christ is In me. He made me wonderful, but to contain a wonderful God. When I know that, life is simply ‘do the next thing.’ What I’m saying is God is operating in me and I’m Native to His operation. I move as a real person with a real God inside me.” — Norman Grubb

Norman Grubb

Norman Grubb was a missionary to Africa and a friend of my mother’s. They corresponded by letter often. My mother was an author who wrote material for Christian media. There were a few occasions that Dr. Grubb (as I called him) would visit our house. He and my mother would have lengthy discussions about the Bible and how God was working in each of their lives. I remember him as a spiritual grandfather to me. He was a positive man with a genuine love for Jesus. I remember his encouragement to me as a young child to grow in the knowledge of God and allow Him to work through me.

Recently, a friend posted a video with Dr. Grubb in it which brought tears to my eyes. They were not tears of sorrow, but tears of joy, remembering a life well lived. It was fun to hear his rapid English accent, a sound that brought a feeling of comfort. There are times you just know when you have been in the presence of someone who truly sought God. I remembered his gentle personality and the love of God he expressed as I watched the video.

I love the prayer Dr. Grubb used daily asking God to direct him. My own day is much more productive and worthwhile when I allow God to guide me from the start of the day. In Dr. Grubb’s prayer, he says that God made us wonderful human beings to contain a wonderful God. When he says contain, he is speaking of embodying the Spirit of Christ. I know that he doesn’t mean that we could ever actually ‘contain’ God in the sense of keeping him in a box. God cannot be contained and His presence is always with us, in us, and around us. He is real, Yes! God is real. We must know the tangibility of God, know that He is forever with us, know that He is in us.

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? I Corinthians 6:19 NLT

But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. Romans 8:9-11 NLT

Nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” Luke 17:21 NKJV

Prayer: Father, I thank you for being in me. I thank you that you have chosen me. Help me to understand what I am to do to fulfill your will. Let me speak with your voice, hear with your ears, see with your eyes, and Love with your Love, so that others may see that you are real. Help me to ‘do the next thing.’ Amen