Are we spending enough time with God?
In early 2006 I lived in Northeast Pennsylvania here in the United States and I was getting ready to see a great change in my life. I was housebound during a snowstorm. I decided for some reason to go for a walk. I put my coat on, my gloves, my boots, my hat, and stepped out into the snow and started walking. The snow was coming down at steady pace and was about six inches deep as I walked. I lived in a very rural area without many houses, and it was filled with tall trees everywhere you looked.
As the snow came down and I walked toward the lake at the bottom of the hill, I remembered when I had gotten the closest to the Lord and wondered why I was not that way again. I got to the bottom of the hill and saw the bench by the lake. It was covered with snow, and I brushed off a spot to sit on.
Then I felt what it was. It was the place I had diligently spent many hours sitting and listening and praying with the Lord. It was where I had many hours of quiet time with Him and gotten closer in my relationship with Him.
As the snowflakes continued to fall, I was reminded who was first in my life and how we were to grow in our relationship with Him. That is the message.
Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you. declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”
Growing in our relationship with our best friend.
My best friend is Jesus.
He is not looking at whether I am wearing the newest style of clothes or driving the most popular car. He is watching me to see if I want to continue in a greater relationship with Him.
There are many people over time that have been in the same boat as me. They were wandering through life so intent on being a certain image that they forget who they really are.
A person whose plans were created and thought out well before they were in their mother’s womb. A person made in God’s image for a purpose. I came down to Florida in 2005 to a pastors’ conference and it started the awakening that I needed. I was walking to the church that was hosting the conference on the second day and a car pulled up next to me and rolled down the window and the man driving said come on and ride with me. It was pastor Eddie Long who since gone to be with the Lord. He shared the opening message for us that day. It was about using your thermostat. Not the one for your air conditioning but the one for your life. Adjusting it when you need it to get closer to God. Adjusting it when you don’t feel quite as close as you need to be.
Turn with me to Romans 8:28 and say, “Amen” when you are there.
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Many have heard this verse before, but many may have never really believed it or understood it.
You may have thought about it and said to yourself, “I have done so many things my way, the wrong way, how could God have called me to have a purpose?”
Or He may have been calling you to go after something in this life that you just do not feel worthy to achieve or do.
You have may been thinking that you are living life the way that you need and you are sort of comfortable and you are not willing to take a chance to disrupt anything.
Congratulations on where you are but you are worth more. God has a greater purpose.
Turn with me to Romans chapter 9 and say, “Amen” when are there.
Romans 9:17 “For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”
When you made a commitment to Him and asked Him to forgive you of your past and make you a new person, He raised you up from being a dead person wandering along without a real purpose in life.
When I went for a walk that day and saw things that had happened in my life and how God had changed me, I realized that the new part of the journey of my life was going to be for His purpose and plan.
You and I would not be alive today if He did not want us to be part of His great plan.
Wherever you are right now, close your eyes. Now you may have done this before but, let’s do this together.
Breathe in.
Exhale.
Breathe in.
Exhale.
Breathe in.
Exhale.
Open your eyes. God created you and I for a purpose. He allows us to breathe in and then breathe out to take care of the bodies He created for us to use while we are here on His earth.
I know that I must continue with the purpose I have here on earth because it is God’s plan and that is why I am breathing each breath.
I have learned what it is to just live a life that is guided by having a true relationship with a loving God through His loving son Jesus Christ and taking the steps that He puts in front of us one at a time.
We are all far from perfect, but we are walking the walk He has called each of us to do for Him.
That is what we are all doing serving Him with our daily walk here on earth.
He is our hope.
He is our strength.
He is our friend.
He is our direction.
He is our comfort when it is needed.
Let’s go to Him in prayer.
