Today I am babysitting, so I have my 1 year old, my sister's two year old and my almost 3 year old. Somehow, they're all in bed...so I had my quiet time with the Lord and laid on my couch for a little afternoon snoozer, when the sun shone so brightly through my big living room window that I looked out like, "What's up God?" I knew he was there. And the stillness of God's majesty is one AH-MAZING thing. Psalm 46:10"Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations,I will be exalted in the earth!" Just being still and knowing that He is Sovereign. Omnicient. Omipotent. All knowing, All Present. All Powerful. It was wonderful. And I started thinking about how I came to know him - how any of us come to know Him really. I thought immediately of the scripture John 6:44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day." As I pondered that...I began to think about some of the most studs of men in the old testement who I have recently read about. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses. And, I realized how all of them were drawn by God. They weren't out thinking about the Lord. They weren't on a mission to find God. To take it even further, Moses was even like, "God, you got it wrong. I'm not your dude." In the new testement we see Paul a true picture of a modern-day terrorist killing Christians. That is not a man seeking the divine salvation of our Holy Creator. Then God STRUCK him down on the road to Damascus in Acts 9:1-4 "Then Saul (later named Paul), still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul..." In thinking about these men who God loved and who came to love God and receive many of God's blessings and some of God's covenants, I thought what a PRIVILEGE to know God and how humbling that he would draw me to himself. I know that I am a total screw up, and God knew that and he tells us in His word that we are born bound for hell's eternal fire unless he divinely saves us. Jesus made a long walk up a hill with his cross so that God can draw us to himself through Him. God the Father cared enough for you and me to send his Son Jesus to hang on a cross as retribution for our sins. As our substitute. Now he desires to take you by the hand and bring you to himself and glorify you on the last day. Wow! I laid on that couch stunned by his overwhelmingly infinite character. His very mysterious and difficult to understand but PERFECT HOLY character of the trinitarian Godhead. God, Son Jesus, and Holy Spirit.
Romans 10:7 Faith comes by hearing...and hearing by the word of God. In the case of all these men who came to be of the greatest of faith and graced by God, they audibly heard the word of God. He spoke real words to them. For us today as sinners in the need of a Savior, our faith comes by hearing the scripture (God's word written by eye witnesses.)
If you are in a place where you know there is a Christ-shaped hole in your heart, please just be tender to the drawing of God.
If any one is stirring inside and feeling empty, and looking for God, I'd very much assume that God is already drawing you. ONLY BECAUSE I KNOW GOD CANNOT LIE. We aren't humanly capable of just deciding we need something. We are hard-wired to love sin Romans 3:10-11 as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. If you feel a tug toward the Son and his sacrifice for you...and you ask him into your heart...you can KNOW that the Sovereign God of the Universe..the one true God has drawn you. I then thought about Jonah. Jonah was told what he was supposed to do. And he kicked and bucked God. He hid from the Lord. We all know that can't happen right? Like, from the first living human beings Adam and Eve who hid...it doesn't work. Landri says, "I cannot see God but he always sees me." For out of the mouth of babes....
So, our lives are an open book to him. And he will get what he wants out of us. Hide, kick, buck the system all you want. You will suffer consequences, and then just like our earthly "Daddy" who trains our will to obey his commands, our Aba Father (Daddy in Heaven) perfectly persuades our stubborn dead will to bend to his perfect plan and accept his will for our life. If you do not, he will get his will even through your sinful response. In Jonah's case, the power of persuasion? Shew, a big ole fish! Lord have mercy! But eventually Aba Father showed ole Jonah what was his divine plan and Jonah did just what God called him to do. If you are worried, "What if God hasn't drawn me?" I don't have any worries for you at all. If you are feeling a tug in your heart...if you are searching...if you have a Christ-shaped hole in your life, don't try to fill it with junk, stuff, material posessions, relationships. Nothing can fill your cup: not your spouse or children. Don't try to buy the filler for it. Accept the free and perfect gift of Christ. When you stand on judgement day (because we're all going to II Timothy 4:1) God will need you to give an account. With even one sin on your record you are qualified to go to Hell for eternity. And that's all of us because we are born into sin thanks to Adam and Eve. If you have Christ's blood flowing through your veins, however, it covers the multitude of sins. God will look at you and see only His perfect substitute...Christ, the holy spotless sinless lamb who took your place. Every single one of us are scum. It's the truth. Sorry if that offends you but the Bible says in Romans 5:12Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. So, let Jesus perform surgery on your broken dead heart. Let him make you alive. Your sin will be as far as the east is from the west, and you will 100% be in Heaven for eternity. Nobody wants to realize how real hell is. Nobody wants to imagine that a "fair" God would send anyone there. Thank heavens God isn't "fair" or he would send us ALL TO HELL. But he is just. And he saves us to be with him. T be with him you have to accept Christ first....remember, if you feel that you need Jesus, it is supernatural. You haven't come to that conclusion on your own. God the father loves you that much that he has drawn you to himself. You should be one humbled human being. We all get so caught up on "Why not this person? Why won't so and so just bow down and accept Christ?" But honestly...we shouldn't even be able to get past "Why me Lord? Why am I so blessed to know you?" God is so merciful. His mercies are new every morning. Praise the Lord!
Brand New Year - Same Kingdom Focus:
A HEART OF PURPOSE, Andrea
