Most
Christian's goal is to be as close as possible to God. We want that peace and contentment of life in
whatever circumstances we are currently in.
We want to feel that love that only Jesus can give. We want that abundant life that God has
promised us. Why don't we have those
things if we are Christians?
John 14:27
Peace I leave with you.
My peace I give to you. I do not
give to you as the world gives. Your heart
must not be troubled or fearful.
Philippians 4:7
And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard
your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
John 10:10b
I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
First
let's check to see if there is anything occupying that space between you and
God. Do you have any sin in your life
that you are deliberating choosing to remain in? Most of us would jump to the conclusion of
"no", but take a few minutes and really think about it. Remember that even though you might have
asked for forgiveness for something does not necessarily mean you repented of
it. Asking for forgiveness is really
just saying you are either sorry for getting caught or for doing the deed. But true repentance is truly being sorry for
your action and you are turning from that sin and turning toward God and doing
right. All three parts of repentance is
critical!
Matthew
3:8
Therefore
produce fruit consistent with repentance.
2
Corinthians 7:10a (ISV)
For having
sorrow in a godly way results in repentance that leads to salvation and leaves
no regrets.
Think
about your life over the last week. Go
through it scene by scene and examine your actions, your words and your
thoughts. Did you think, or say or do
anything that you would be ashamed of if you had to do it with Jesus standing
right in front of you? If Jesus was
standing in the same room with you would you have said those words? If Jesus was standing in the same room would
you have acted that way? If Jesus was in
the same room, would you have neglected to do something you should have
done? More in likely you have thought of
things that you need to repent of.
Remember in true repentance you are turning toward God, you are doing
everything you can and allowing God to work in your heart so you never participate
in that sin again. Yes we will fail
sometimes, but we have to willfully keep trying.
Over
and over in the scripture God tells us to repent of our sins and He will forgive
us. He practically begs Israel and Judah
in the Old Testament to repent. They
were His people and He wanted to be their God.
He wanted to be first in their lives not left-overs. He sent Prophet after Prophet pleading with
His people to turn from their selfish ways and turn back to Him. We are being selfish when we hold on to our
sin and refuse to truly repent. Until we
do that, sin will be between us and God.
We will not have that peace and contentment and we will also miss the
many blessings that God has in store just for us.
Deuteronomy 11:27
there will be a blessing, if you obey the commands of the Lord
your God I am giving you today,
Once
you have repented of your sin, the scriptures tells us, "if we draw near
to God, God draws near to us". He
wants that close intimate relationship with us.
He made us to have that fellowship with Him. We are His children. Don't you want to give the very best of things
to your children? Just think how much
more that God wants to give His children good things.
James 4:8a
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.
John 17:24a
Father, I desire those You have given Me to be with Me where I
am.
To draw
near to God we need to build that relationship with Him. We do that by prayer and by studying His
Word. Our prayer life should be more
that a quick five minute prayer of what we hope He will bless us with
today. It should be a conversation of
the many things we have to be thankful for and to praise Him for being our
God. Our prayers should be more about
other people than about us. Many times
our prayers are one way conversations, we are doing all the talking and then we
hang up by saying Amen and move on to our next task. I found it helpful to actually write down
what I wanted to pray about. I start
with my inner circle of family and problems, friends, my church and move out
all the way to the President of the United States. Yes it is our responsible to pray for our
leaders, even more so the ones we do not like.
Prayer
is a conversation and conversations are a two way dialogue. We need to listen to what He has to say to
us. You may not hear an audible voice
but maybe a scripture comes to your mind, or a thought that did not come from
you. We need to do more listening than
talking. Many of us expect God to answer
with an immediate response. Remember His
time concept and ours are totally different.
Many times for myself I have to be very quiet both physically and
mentally and just listen in the quietness for His voice.
Psalms
4:10a (ASV)
Be still,
and know that I am God
Studying
His Word is more than reading your daily one verse of scripture in your email
every day. Yes that is nice but that is
not really digging into His Word and finding out what it really means. Studying scriptures is so much more than just
reading your Sunday School lesson. It is
reading and re-reading, but it is also pondering, researching, mediating and
praying over that scripture. Did you
know that most scripture can be backed up with other scripture? The critical piece of discovering God's truth
in His Word is applying it to our lives.
It will not be easy, but we have the Holy Spirit to help us if we allow
Him to.
How do we
know what God wants us to do if we do not study and read His Word? I have found the more I read His Word the
more I cannot get enough of it. It is
like I am in the dessert and my thirst cannot be quenched.
Psalms 42:1-2
As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for You, God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God?
We are
all very busy people. At the end of each
day we wonder where the day went. This
is Satan telling us how busy we are and how there is not enough time for real
prayer or Bible study. Did you ever stop
and realize if you really want to play at a new hobby, you always find time to
do that? It is a choice of how we spend
our time. God gave each of us the same
amount of time each day. It is up to us
to choose how we spend it. Satan knows
if you pray and study God's Word that you will draw closer to God and he will
have less power over you. Our power over
Satan is drawn from Jesus and our relationship with Him. The closer you are to God the more power you
have over Satan. We find time in our day
for so many frivolous things like watching TV or surfing the web. We need to give God our "firsts",
not our leftovers. Are you letting God
have your leftovers?
