Jesus, in telling his disciples how to pray said…and give us our daily bread. To most people in the United States today this does not reach us, we in most cases live our entire life and never have to concern ourselves with where our next meal will come from, or if we will get one at all. When we say we have no food in our house, what we mean is that there is nothing we feel like eating at that time and so we go out to eat or go to the store without giving it a second thought. The Bible is eternal truth, because it is God’s Word and therefore its words present us with much more than any other bound collection of pages with words authored by men or women regardless of their intellect or foresight. The Bible has God qualities in it by that I mean that its application is unending throughout the world to every person in every culture as long as men and women inhabit this terrestrial sphere. Additionally, its truth is multi-layered, there the face value of eternal truth in the words you read, and then as you meditate on it like a diamond, the revealing light from it shines into areas of our life bringing, conviction, blessing, insight and wisdom. Often times a Bible verse we’ve read many times over the span of years, when read today will by the Holy Spirit’s Power thrill our hearts, or pierce our heart with conviction, amaze us with the awesomeness of God’s love.
If we call ourselves a Christ follower, redeemed by his act of obedience and grace on the Cross of Calvary; as a child of the king, we must ask ourselves, having the freedom to choose, why would I choose to not partake from the King’s table daily. We must ask ourselves why would I not put a priority on being fed from the Word of our Eternal, Self Existent God. Years ago I often asked my high school Sunday school class who would be willing to take a dare? The dare was to, in the next week to spend the same number of minutes eating as they had spent reading the word of God in the previous week. Amazingly, I never had any takers? A simple lesson but to the point.
Friendship takes time. The old adage of it takes being a friend to have a friend holds even today. God is ready every moment of every day to be our friend, to listen to our joys, and hear us relate our struggles and sorrows. Even more He, the God of the universe is Eveready to answer our prayers to reveal the plan that He has for our lives. It just takes us unwrapping ourselves from ourselves, our control and the microcosm of our world, our self-centeredness. Being a friend is about showing interest in that other person, giving priority to spending time with them, giving of the time and resources that we have to invest in them. Communicating value is part of friendship, in the relationship we can have with our Heavenly Father that communication of value is called worship.
God desires that we move beyond friendship in our relationship with Him. Did you ever stop to think how many times Jesus uses wedding in parables, the wedding feasts and ceremonies in relationship to our relationship with him? His first miracle was at the wedding at Cana. Twenty-two times through the four gospels, not a coincidence this is a significant fact. Jesus said that we, individual people who believe in him, and are being made into his likeness, the body of Christ are his bride. Today, many people get married without an intimate knowledge of their groom or bride. We know that he knows us intimately, whether we invite him to know us and search our hearts as King David did, or not. He does desire that we know him intimately and spend time with Him. Spend time with him. Think about this model if your spouse said I’m going to give you from 3:00 to 3:30PM everyday to communicate with me but the rest of my day is too full, I’m too busy to be interrupted with your needs and questions, I’ve set this time aside for you and you alone. One day you race home from work, but traffic was heavy and you pull in the drive way at 3:28 – you rush in the house and your spouse looks at you as the clock on the mantel chimes - You say wow it was a crazy day I so look forward to talking with you, your spouse says sorry you’re times up you’ll have to wait till tomorrow. Not intimacy!
Take a good look at your life, the fruit of the Spirit in your life, the desire to do the Father’s will, you’re schedule being able to be cleared to serve others, sacrificing what you have, doing with less to benefit others. Sharing the greatest gift of all time in the message of the Cross.
Being Strong is about being sure that we are well nourished by His Word and His Spirit. Being Strong is about giving up what we hold on to as our own. Being Strong is about being steadfast in holding to His Eternal Truth. Being Strong is sharing the gifts our Father has given us with others, time, resources, the Word that they might know Him. Being Strong is doing what we were created for in His Plan, daily growing in relationship with Him and sharing the gift He provided through His Son at the Cross of Calvary. That’s it, sorry no DVD, the whole story is set in a myriad of times with numerous people like you and me who rebelled and wanted to live life their way – but were drawn gently into Him by His compassion and love; no 13 easy payments – there was only one payment for all our sin for all time and it has been paid in full.
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