Let’s take a self examination test. Answer each of these
questions honestly in your mind, then count up the results.
1)
Do you view
yourself as a true Christian?
2)
Do others view
you as a true Christian?
3)
Does God view you
as a true Christian?
4)
Do you take your relationship
with God seriously?
5)
Are you happily
satisfied where God has placed you?
6)
Can others see
that you are satisfied?
7)
Do you have a
peace that you are where you need to be in God’s will?
8)
Do you have a
constant joy in the Lord?
9)
Do you have a
regular, every day time with the Lord?
10) Do you love to hear, read, and talk about the Lord?
11) Is your main focus in life to be all that God wants
you to be and no less?
12) Are you fully surrendered to God?
13) Are you committed to serving the Lord no matter the
cost?
14) Does your life reflect the love of God in every
thought, word, and action?
15) Can you honestly say that you are different and closer
to God now than you were a year ago?
*If you have answered “yes”
honestly to all these questions, then you may count yourself as perfect and in
no need of counseling or training. (Just kidding!)
It’s
rather eye-opening isn’t it? The last question especially. I went through
several years of not knowing if I was indeed closer to God than the previous
year or not. The Lord has changed that these last two years and I am able to
answer with joy, “Yes! God has drawn me even closer and shown me more lessons
than ever before!”
These
questions are just a few of the several that we could ask, but it’s enough for
us to realize that there is still several things that must take place in our
lives for us to be all that God wants us to be. Hopefully through the time of
this newsletter, several of these questions and more will be addressed. I pray
that you glean from it and that the Lord will maybe use you in its message.
The
question I want to address is, “Do you take your relationship with God
seriously?” Now, I’m not trying to force you to “get it right” or embarrass
you. I did not take my own relationship with God seriously until I had been
saved nine and one-half years. But I believe that you will not become the
person God wants you to be, unless you are serious about the things of the Lord
and His Word.
I
had asked Jesus to come into my heart and save me, and I believe he did, but
other than praying and reading the Bible, that was it. I mean, sometimes the
Lord would show me something, and I would try to do better or change, but
things weren’t the way they needed to be.
After
I turned sixteen, I tried to make my relationship “serious”, but the motive I
had was because others were doing it, and I didn’t want to be any lower than
they. My life from then on was a mixed up mess and jumble of emotion, tears,
anger, confusion, and honest searching for, I didn’t know what.
Two
weeks after I turned eighteen, I stood up to myself and asked the question,
“What is my life for anyway? What is it that I’m living for?” After earnest
searching and prayer, the answer crushed me. I was living for myself. There was
no goal but to do what I wanted to do and have others do the same, which wasn’t
really a goal at all. There was not point to my life, and I didn’t know why I
was on this earth. I had nearly turned my back on God. I hated to face the
reality, but I realize now that God had to bring me to that breaking point before
He could ever use me for anything good.
I
had to give up everything I wanted and was to God, and completely open myself
up to Him. His life-searching light revealed a mess of a life that could be
made good by nothing but total surrender and serious living for Him. I argued
with my flesh.
The
hot-headed rebel in me would bluntly tell myself that this would be too hard
and painful. But deep down inside I was hurting and I knew that nothing but to
take this step would help me. I finally surrendered.
“Okay
Lord, now what?” was the first question from my bruised and bandaged heart. The
first thing He showed me was the necessity of a serious relationship with the
Lord.
"But seek ye first the kingdom
of God
Our
lives reflect what our heart and mind’s focus is intent on, and if I spend time
daydreaming about things I shouldn’t and holding feelings I shouldn’t hold, my
life will reflect a life that is sinful and wrong. But if I spend time looking
to God and to His Word, my life would then reflect the Life that is the
ultimate example.
“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be
single(focused on God), thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye
be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that
is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” –Matthew 6:22-23
I
had to pray for a desire to have a serious relationship, because I honestly
didn’t. The Lord dealt with me about having a regular quiet time with Him.
The first few weeks were the hardest, because
reading the Bible had always been boring, and I never could pray for more than
two minutes, even if I prayed for everyone I knew. But by Christ’s strength I
doggedly kept on and then little by little, an amazing and wonderful light
started to gleam through my heart, warming it to the desire to want and know
more.
Before I knew it, I honestly wanted
to be like Jesus, and honestly wanted
to spend time reading the Bible and praying. I never though I’d want to spend and hour or two just
going through that boring book with all those long words, but God placed the
desire in my heart, and then, after that point, God began to show me a little
at a time what I was, and what He wanted me to be. My Bible now is my greatest
treasure, and my relationship with God something I now cannot live without.
Dear
girls, I pray that you would not let yourself wait as long as I did to begin
taking that wonderful relationship seriously. God will not force Himself on
you, just as He did not force salvation upon you. You must give Him the freedom
to create a relationship between you and Him. As soon as you allow God to form
your heart in a perfect, love-filled bond with His, you will wonder at your ever
being so stubborn and resistant to Him, and will find nothing but the Lord will
satisfy you. “For he satisfieth the
longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.” –Psalms 107:9
P.S. Life won’t be perfect from now on though! I’ll write more about that
later!
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Posts from the Past
Every Wednesday I post something that I have written in the past. It may have been written a long time ago, or a very, very long tim ago! :-D So please forgive any mistakes!
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