There is a prize in this blog, you won’t want to skip it! 🙂
Genuine faith is knowing and rejoicing that simply knowing God is the blessing.
Christ followers serve the ONLY one true living God. Think about that. There is literally ONE in the whole existence of time. One God who can hear your prayers and actually answer them. The entire world – every animal, cell, spirit, cloud, everything listens to Him! And we have access to this! The most powerful resource in the world, yet we still choose laziness or indifference about accepting this gift. Are we crazy?!
If another human being loved me even a small portion of the way God loves me, I would be obsessed with them. So what the heck has taken me so long to become obsessed with loving and seeking Christ?!
If you really think about it, we as Christians have one of the ‘easiest’ religions, and yet we apathetically choose to pass on the free gifts offered to us by the King of this world. As a follower of Christ – all I have to do is seek Jesus, love Him, and follow Him. The more I get to know His heart, the more my heart automatically wants to align with His. And the more I seek Him, the more my heart naturally changes. It doesn’t change because I feel like I need to do a better job or be a better Christian but because of the way He molds me when my focus is on loving Him.
It’s not like life for a Christ follower is easier, but there is an all-fulfilling freedom that comes with Jesus. I am not expected to endure anything on this earth alone. I have free access to thee most powerful force in the world who is available 24/7 to help, encourage, support, and love me. I don’t have to do better or try harder because my sins are already forgiven. My name was on His heart when He died on that cross. I have already been forgiven by God because Christ died for my sins. I just have to acknowledge Him with my heart and my mouth, and have a personal relationship with God and that’s it.
As Christ followers we don’t have to pray a certain number of times a day in order to be considered good. We don’t have to do a certain number of works throughout our lifetime to make it to heaven. It’s not necessary to recite prayers in order to get favor, we don’t have to go to someone in order to communicate with our almighty God. I don’t have to behave a certain way. My actions just change as a result of my heart loving Jesus more and more. I don’t have to try to earn my salvation or anything!
I think sometimes we miss the boat and don’t really know what following Christ looks like. It’s not about quantity (how much you do for Him) or quality (how good you are for Him) it’s about a genuine relationship between yourself and God. The object we put our faith in (which is Jesus) is what saves us, not trying harder or doing more.
I recently listened to a sermon by Francis Chan called “Lukewarm and loving it” and I think that is how we live most of the time. We do the Sunday church service, maybe even Sunday school, or volunteering at church, but do we REALLY seek to have a personal relationship with Jesus? Or do we just put in the one day of the week and call it good? Because when being a ‘Christian’ becomes an apathetic attempt, we are missing so much of the prize that is offered to us.
And that prize is knowing Him!
Along with knowing Him we have access to an endless supply of joy, love, peace, grace, fulfillment, and much more. Why would we ever deliberately choose not to access this reservoir and try to do life on our own? That’s miserable! God gives us words when we don’t have them for people. When it’s too hard to love our family members, He gives us a supernatural love. When we are in situations that we don’t know how to deal with, He gives us clarity. He gives a peace like nothing else can. He physically and emotionally gives energy and strength. He takes away guilt and shame for things done in the past and freely forgives me for them and erases them. Everything that we as humans naturally crave (peace, joy, acceptance, purpose, etc.) He freely offers.
If another human loved us this way, we would be obsessed with them! So how can we just shrug it off when the only true living God offers it!? It blows my mind how apathetic I used to be towards Him!
Psalm 34:5 “Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.”
A radiant face, never covered with shame again is freely available to everyone. 🙂
I want to be a child who seeks the Lord’s heart in order to see Him better, not a child that just seeks His hands to see what He can do for me.
Thanks for catching up! 🙂
love ya!
heather
P.S. This past month we were in Belmopan, Belize serving with Belize Base Camp. It was an amazing month and we got to do a variety of ministries. Including: painting a house, a feeding program, Bible school, cupcake ministry, and helping set up for local events. We were extremely blessed to be able to serve with this ministry.
Today we are flying to AMERICA (I can’t believe it!!) and we will be in Fort Lauderdale, FL for the two weeks left of the race. The team I am on is working with Lauder Hill Point and will be doing after school tutoring and working with kids! Yay! 🙂 So excited to jump into a new month. We will have a final debrief week in Atlanta, GA before heading home at the end of November. This year has gone so fast, thanks for all your support and prayers!! 🙂 You are so appreciated!!
