Have you ever met a Christian poser? Those are the ones that seem like they have this dialed in, but when you look a bit deeper you see they don’t. So how to do you become a connected and centered person?
“The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.” Isaiah 29:13 NIV
Reflection
In Isaiah 29:13 God is making it clear He wants a relationship with us and not based on the man made rules. He wants one that is rooted in the journey you and he are on together.
A thought.... How do you use the structures to help you remain in relationship and advance past the various levels you can experience? In other words, how can you be helped by religion but not be hindered by it?
A strong relationship requires investment of time. Each individual has to be engaged. It cannot be one sided. God will speak and God will listen. He will at times lead you and other times be close by. At times He will pursue you and at others you will need to pursue Him.
You and He will laugh, cry, be filled with joy, and have some sorrow to experience.
Ups and downs but if you are wise you will be together. God wants this for you. He is prepared to live this way with you.
My life is a reflection of this kind of relationship through the many years I have lived. God and I have had much joy, sorrow, happiness, sadness, excitement, wonder, laughter, loss, and much more. He has helped me in ways that cannot be measured.
Where we are now is a place of incredible certainty that he loves me. That he is happy with me despite my faults. That he continues to have hope for my ever deepening relationship. He is excited to see where we have come, together.
Fortunately, I don’t play the Christian game the way any particular “club” says.
I loved growing up Catholic. But I do realize it clouded my view of God to some degree. Those rules Isaiah suggests in verse 29:13 contributed to a deeper relationship actually. Why? Because I challenged them with communication through the Holy Spirit. This allowed God to trust that I would listen to Him and not to man. That I thirsted for something much more.
God has allowed me to be my own man and one that is constantly informed by God. How? By openness to his communications. By the humbling I have received and a sincere desire to be a son of God’s that He is proud of.
To be powered by the Holy Spirit is to be in communion with it. It will be different for everyone but at the core it is a longing for relationship with God. A confidence that comes with investment in that relationship and the excitement that comes from a truly awesome two-way relationship with a Father who loves me no matter what forever and always.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, you truly amaze me in how you constantly reveal what grace is, what unconditional love is, and why being that interested in someone to love them through everything. You shower me with your grace. You embrace me with such a warmth I wish to help others feel this way. This confidence in this walk together. This certainty of your presence and the comfort that your will and way is so much better then anything I could invent for me.
Thank you for keeping me and my family safe. Thank you for every thing you have allowed me to experience. It has been a very rich life of experiences. So many memories and examples of your presence. Father, please never let me wander in myself. Let me go beyond those things that might want to pull me away from us. Let me always call on you and please allow us to have our time together. I am so fueled by it.
I love you God. I cannot imagine living in your creation without you. I ask all in the name of Jesus my savior and Lord. Amen.
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