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I used to worry about offending someone by talking about God. Now, I worry more about not speaking his name.
Our God is amazing beyond words.To KNOW him is to know love beyond measure.
To KNOW him is to know purpose and hope.
To KNOW him is to know yourself.
Only he has the ability to show you your true self, your true nature, your true passion, your true motives, your true being.
To KNOW him requires time. Not just church on Sundays, but everyday. I have never felt I was on a clear path until I spent time actively listening to the Lord, everyday. The more time I spend, the more natural it feels, the more our relationship grows, the more he makes me grow.
I follow instructions well. He gives instructions well. Its a match made in....well, you get the idea.
I stand in awe of the clear messages he gives when you actually listen. The lesson's keep on coming. I am soaking it up! I am still uber excited about it.... and Him. I can not believe I have been attending church for 7 years and I am just now experiencing him like this. I can clearly see why I wasn't feeling the intensity of his love as I am now. I couldn't have. I wasn't listening.
Don't get me wrong. We talked. He carried. He loved. He always loved. I loved.
But like any one sided relationship....their was no passion. I let myself be intimidated, lazy, offended, judgmental, hypocritical. (Okay, That was slightly harder to write then anticipated)
I was waiting on God to do all the work. Most of the time, without even realizing it. Until, I was challenged to go to him daily. Pray, read, think. Everyday. Then discuss what I learned and be held accountable. I was hesitant because I didn't know if I would follow through but I prayed and made the commitment to God and to myself. It was the best decision I have EVER made. I found God and he showed me who I really am.
I mess up all the time. I don't SOAP EVERYday. I intend to but sometimes for one reason or another it doesn't happen but I do spend time talking to him daily. (We are pretty much BFF's we talk ...like...all the time! ;)
Nothing compares to living FOR HIM. There are so many things I have tried to do on my own and it just wasn't working because it was about ME....not HIM.
I could go on and on...apparently. (Being that this was one of those "what should I write about tonight?" posts)
So if you haven't yet, make God your first priority in life. I DARE YOU! You will forever stand in awe at just what he has to say when you listen. I know I am and will forevermore.
Ps. and PLEASE ask questions. I love excuses to talk about Jesus!
6 comments:
Beautifully said, Kristina. Yesterday I was reading in Mark 8 where Jesus says that if we are ashamed of him, he will be ashamed of us when he comes in his Father's glory. For the application in my soap, I wrote, "I want to be a joyful, committed child of God and lover of Jesus. I want to have Jesus and his love for the world, his sacrifice for our salvation, his desire to walk with us, and my experience of his work in my life -- joyously and unselfconsciously rolling off my tongue!"
How right you are - this only happens as we spend time in his word and in his presence. As we set our hearts and tune our ears to hearing his voice.
Kristina....what a beautiful post! I love it when God talks to us through others and tells us what we need to hear. All day the past couple of days, God has been telling me things that I know deep in my heart, but just didn't listen. I hear Him loud and clear...no matter how painful it is, I know Jesus is beside me and I am going to do what God is calling me to do. Everything else is trivial.....it's amazing to think just how much God loves us and loves it when we become intimate with Him and He becomes our best friend, the first one we talk to, the first one we reach out to!
Kristina....what a beautiful post! I love it when God talks to us through others and tells us what we need to hear. All day the past couple of days, God has been telling me things that I know deep in my heart, but just didn't listen. I hear Him loud and clear...no matter how painful it is, I know Jesus is beside me and I am going to do what God is calling me to do. Everything else is trivial.....it's amazing to think just how much God loves us and loves it when we become intimate with Him and He becomes our best friend, the first one we talk to, the first one we reach out to!
Kristina, which god should I be learning about? Allah? Zeus? Jesus Christ? Wotan & Thor?
There have been thousands of gods from the beginning of time, literally. If you lived in the middle ages or if you were born to parents in another country and less civilized society, you would believe in a god different from the one you worship right this moment.
Who is your god - the one readers should ask you about? And what makes him the god I should learn about vs. the others? How do you know he's "the one" and the others aren't? And why are you so blessed to know "the one" but billions of humans from the onset of man didn't know him or learn of him or any god and the billions who did learn of a god didn't learn of your god.
So which is it, truly?
Because at the end of the day, you're absolutely certain that there is ONE god, your god. Presumably, you've found reason to dismiss all other gods over yours. You're no different from me, really. You see, I've dismissed all of those other gods too. I merely went one step further and dismissed yours, too.
Denise
Denise, Thank you for allowing me to point out that I do not have all the answers. I can not tell you the "why's" of the world. I can not tell you all the "why's" of Jesus. I can however, tell you my "why's."
For me it is simple. Faith. I know whole heartedly that Jesus is the one true God. I can feel his presence in my life. The Holy spirit has been guiding my life for as long as I can remember, even before I wanted to acknowledge him. I think it is safe to assume that is not the answering you were looking for.
The answer is the bible. Our history. I can dismiss other "gods" because they are not factual. Do I think less of those who choose to believe differently then I? No. That is not what I am about. That is not what Jesus is about.
I think you were right in saying we are not that different. We are both tremendously loved by God. I just choose to serve him. I choose to love him. I choose to trust him. I pray that one say you will to.
Kristina, you should have stopped with this simple quote "For me it is simple. Faith." because there is nothing "factual" about any supreme being. If there were, you wouldn't need faith, would you?
You're right, it is about faith.
You are no different from every other human being since the dawn of man who knew "whole heartedly that" their god was the "one true God."
They, too, believed with all of their hearts. They, too, were spoken to by their gods. They, too, felt their gods "guiding" their lives "for as long" as they can remember.
Your evidence is a very common theme, I'm afraid, yet distinguishes your god from none of the others.
Grown men who loved their god more than life itself drove jets into lower Manhattan earlier this century because their god spoke to them and they felt the love of their god. A man in Waco, Texas torched a building full of families and children because Jesus Christ spoke to him and he, too, felt the presence of the "Holy Spirit" throughout his life. Men on battle fields all over this Earth who believe in a variety of gods (your god, included) send rounds of bullets into one another and feel the support of their god.
You're right though. Ultimately, we're not that different because we don't believe in tens of thousands of gods and, as I noted previously, I merely discredited yours as well. You're still hanging onto that one. And that's fine.
At the end of the day, we're sitting towards the outer edge of the Milky Way galaxy, one of 100 Billion (note, that's Billion, with a "B") galaxies, each containing several billion stars (just like our star, the Sun). And that's JUST the observable universe.
One day you and I will both be gone to return to the place we were the past 13 Billion years until we were born. Nonexistent.
That's what the evidence shows.
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