Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me.

Jacob did it. (Gen 31:16)

God was calling Jacob to move. Earlier (over 20 years earlier), God had called Jacob into relationship and during that time God had blessed Jacob with flocks, family and character training. When God called, Jacob acted. In the same way, when God called, Abraham acted. When God called, Noah acted. When God spoke, Cornelius didn't wait -- he acted.

At the wedding feast in Cana, Mary advised the servants to do whatever Jesus told them. When they heard Jesus speak, they did it and they saw a miracle.

In contrast, we read of Cain. He heard God's voice and chose to ignore it. Lot's sons-in-law heard and laughed. Lot's wife heard the warning, but still turned to look back.

Our temptation is to water down, turn away or get distracted from God's high calling.

Who can climb Mount God? Who can scale the holy north-face?
Only the clean-handed, only the pure-hearted; Men who won't cheat, women who won't seduce. (Ps 24)

We may wonder what God is calling us to or we may have forgotten. Perhaps, like Jacob, we felt God calling us to work hard, to marry, to move, to have a pure heart or to have a deeper relationship with Him. But, our heart may have become polluted with pornography, lazy from entertainment or drawn away to worship a false god of stuff.

He is calling you to something: a new job, to marry, to be a real husband, to be a loving mother, to study, to strive with evil or to move. It might be scary or sound hard. Sooner or later the situation will get desperate. An addiction to pornography might call for dynamic action such as smashing our computer. God gets excited by wholehearted response. When we get wholehearted about following Him, He will cause surprising things to happen.

I have heard
and failed to act.
I started to act
but then got discouraged and turned back.
I have not heard
because I stopped listening,
It is not too late.
God is patiently waiting for me
to see His love in Jesus,
to trust His love,
to hear His gentle voice,
and He is eagerly waiting for me
to ACT.

My lover spoke and said to me,
"Arise, my darling,
my beautiful one, and come with me."
(Song of Songs 2:10)