Read my archived posts! Click Here
|
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
|
Hey all, you know what. Today I basically have no daily events to report on outside of the routine. It was a wakeup-work-come home kind of day. But in retrospect I wanted to share some other things about my day that I don't normally touch on. I hope a change of pace will grab some of your attention.
Five months ago I started a devotional journal. In my journal I keep track of all the ways God speaks to me through my daily devotions as well as write out personal prayers/letters to God. Before I started this journal my personal time with God was intermittent and usually when I would have time with him I would never “hear God”. Each time I sat to read, my mind would always begin to wander or I would just sit and read like it was an assignment. It felt like a “process” to me. After I decided to really crack down and decide to really “try this out” things have progressed quite well. Still at first it was difficult for me. I could never get into the bible as well as I could any other book. However, I did not give up I persisted on, in what seemed to me, a mechanical process. I would just do it because “It had to be done”. I felt like a seed buried deep underground. I would keep persisting and pushing upward but I would just keep hitting more dirt. Time would go on and more dirt. I wasn’t ready to give up but I desperately wanted to see the “Son” So onward I continued. Well, as time progressed my opinion slowly started to change. Finally I reached a point of open air. My seed had become a sprout. Once I had reached that opening in the dirt I was free to grow at an amazingly fast pace. Eventually my times with God started to produce fruit in my life. It has been five months now of growing and, I can’t say when exactly this happened, but lately my morning devotions has moved from a “It has to be done” attitude to now where I look forward to reading and learning more about my Lord each morning.
Now I say all this for a purpose. During the last few weeks I've been realizing all the more that the Christian walk is all about spending time with God. That's what it all comes down to in the end. We spend money to go on the best retreats, with the best speakers, and the best praise teams, in an effort to jumpstart our hearts...and that's cool...but just keep in mind that it all comes back down to the basics, our personal time with God through devotion. That is where the real relationship is held. When you realize how holy and how powerful He is, it changes the way you approach him. I cherish every moment the King of kings allows me to share in His amazing presence. I come to Him first thing every morning and say “How can I serve you today?” We may be spending our lives just going through the things that come our way. We may be pushing through a schedule so full you barely have time to sit down. I realized a few months back that my schedule can be so full some days with serving God by serving others that I hardly leave any time to actually visit with God and relate to him. Our lives can be so filled up by doing things for God… but if the next day we don't even spend time with our God...what was the point of it all?? The point, my friends is this: we've got to read the Word and pray...we have to have intimate moments with God. That is the real reason for our existence. Devotionals are not things we do as rituals but things we do because we need it...because only through these times are we given the strength to walk the walk. In Luke 16, Jesus teaches that anyone faithful with little will be faithful with much. Can we be faithful to God, putting Him first before anything else we do in life? Can we be faithful to Him and fellowship with Him each day? We all have doors we are waiting to be opened...and opportunities we are waiting for God to release to us....but it all starts with seeking Him daily through His Word and prayer. When we're reliable to come before the Lord in full surrender, taking up our crosses each and every day in self denial...then the Lord will entrust greater things to us. Psalm 37 - Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart”
Have you Praised the Lord today?
|
|
posted by Jeremy Dillinger @ 3:00 AM
|
Read my archived posts! Click Here
|
