that longing in your heart
I grew up in a Christian home, a good church, went to Christian schools all the way through the university and then taught for a while in a Christian school.
So what? (I know that's what you're thinking)
So...my experience has influenced, as has yours, my "world view", or how I see things and as the years roll by I'm realizing some things are not as I've always believed them to be.
At my church we'd have special services to which we were to invite our unsaved friends, of which of course, I had none. I lived and went to school in a Christian environment, where would I find unsaved friends?
After I married I discovered a world outside of the one I'd always known, and found what unsaved friends looked like, and surprisingly, they looked and acted pretty much like everyone else I'd ever known. I wasn't expecting that.
In the church I'd always assumed that everyone there is there because they love God and want to live their lives in a way that is honoring to him. I've found that is not always the case. I'd assumed that if you've come to the cross and accepted Jesus as your Savior that you'd also seek to make Him the Lord of your life, and yet I see that for some Jesus is Lord, for approximately two hours on a Sunday morning...
I find that even among those who claim the name of Christ; that not all pursue this intimate relationship He offers us.
I find that, as once I'd never realized, that having this desire, as did the psalmist
"O God you are my God, earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
I've seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory,
because your love is better than life my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live and in your name I will lift up my hands." (Psalms 63: 1-4)
is not the normal, the common, or the universal.
If you find that thirst in yourself; if anything in your being longs for God, seize it.
As the plant that naturally seeks the light and turns itself to face it, if God is stirring in your heart, do not deny His calling. For we are not guaranteed that tomorrow we will continue to hear his voice - "today if you hear his voice, harden not your heart".
To have your heart drawn to God is a precious thing.
The sunflower is honored to have the pull within itself to continually turn its face to the sun. Impatients, petunias, forget-me-nots; these are all beautiful flowers and they serve a purpose in beautifying the world, but they do feel this impetus to turn towards the sun.
We may serve and love and lead in our churches without knowing this heart wrenching yearning to be continually with our faces toward our God. There is a song that says "Draw me close, and I'll run after you." Seems like an oxymoron doesn't it? But if it doesn't to you, than you understand what it's saying.
I implore you , if there is anything in your heart that stirs you towards your Lord this day, do not let it go unanswered, for even that very stirring is of God.
"How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You" Psalms 65:4
So what? (I know that's what you're thinking)
So...my experience has influenced, as has yours, my "world view", or how I see things and as the years roll by I'm realizing some things are not as I've always believed them to be.
At my church we'd have special services to which we were to invite our unsaved friends, of which of course, I had none. I lived and went to school in a Christian environment, where would I find unsaved friends?
After I married I discovered a world outside of the one I'd always known, and found what unsaved friends looked like, and surprisingly, they looked and acted pretty much like everyone else I'd ever known. I wasn't expecting that.
In the church I'd always assumed that everyone there is there because they love God and want to live their lives in a way that is honoring to him. I've found that is not always the case. I'd assumed that if you've come to the cross and accepted Jesus as your Savior that you'd also seek to make Him the Lord of your life, and yet I see that for some Jesus is Lord, for approximately two hours on a Sunday morning...
I find that even among those who claim the name of Christ; that not all pursue this intimate relationship He offers us.
I find that, as once I'd never realized, that having this desire, as did the psalmist
"O God you are my God, earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
I've seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory,
because your love is better than life my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live and in your name I will lift up my hands." (Psalms 63: 1-4)
is not the normal, the common, or the universal.
If you find that thirst in yourself; if anything in your being longs for God, seize it.
As the plant that naturally seeks the light and turns itself to face it, if God is stirring in your heart, do not deny His calling. For we are not guaranteed that tomorrow we will continue to hear his voice - "today if you hear his voice, harden not your heart".
To have your heart drawn to God is a precious thing.
The sunflower is honored to have the pull within itself to continually turn its face to the sun. Impatients, petunias, forget-me-nots; these are all beautiful flowers and they serve a purpose in beautifying the world, but they do feel this impetus to turn towards the sun.
We may serve and love and lead in our churches without knowing this heart wrenching yearning to be continually with our faces toward our God. There is a song that says "Draw me close, and I'll run after you." Seems like an oxymoron doesn't it? But if it doesn't to you, than you understand what it's saying.
I implore you , if there is anything in your heart that stirs you towards your Lord this day, do not let it go unanswered, for even that very stirring is of God.
"How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You" Psalms 65:4
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