I was reading this scripture and I thought you might want to see it.

“Now apart from faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing, for he who is coming to God must believe that He is, and is becoming a Rewarder of those who are seeking Him out.” Hebrews 11:6

In reading this scripture I thought about what it means to seek out God. It is an individual action and it can also be a collective action, that’s why we meet together on Saturdays/Sundays. I think independently seeking God is more important because we have to independently maintain that relationship. We get out of it what we put into it. It’s no different than maintaining any other human relationship, I see I have to intentionally put time into my relationship with God. 

We learn that we should find out what is pleasing to God as discovered in Ephesians 5:10. It’s similar to finding out what our parents or loved ones favorite things are. We learn them and many times bend time to accommodate them. This is another good reason to read the bible because we learn from what others did in the past, and get to see their relationships with God. Imagine if we could have a relationship with God like Enoch or Job or Sarah and Mary. 

In general, relationships take a lot of work, a part of the process is being intentional. Bending time to yield and see how your friend is can take effort in the world of busy, busy, busy. 

Have you ever looked at your phone and thought “I called…” and got their voicemail and you didn’t get a callback?” Welcome to life. We’re you ever on the receiving end of calling someone to see how they were doing and you got their voicemail? Yep, they could be busy. But they could call you back. 

In our free will we have to be intentional with our relationship with God. Praying, reading the word, bringing an approach present, these are all things that are involved. When it’s your parent’s birthday it is custom to bring them a gift correct? How about a good friend, a loved one, or your spouse?

I see this is why we bring approach presents aka tithe. We bring our best to God. 

You ever talk with your friend about your concerns and worries? God wants you to share them with him as well. The cool thing about sharing your concerns and worries is He can give you the peace which surpasses understanding and help you. This is all made possible through Jesus. 

This is like having a friend of a friend who loves you. Friend A send friend B so that you could have the option to be with friends A. God is not just any god, He is the creator of the heavens and the earth. Jesus… he is the son of God and he died for our sins and was raised to life securing salvation to all of us who would believe. 

Here are a couple of tips on how to strengthen your relationship with God. 

Pray

Go into your closet, just you by yourself and spend time with the Lord. Jesus teaches us how to pray in Matthew. He says don’t use useless repetitions like the world because the Lord knows what your needs are. He gives us a template of how to pray as you see here:

“Thus, then, you be praying: `Father of Us in the heavens, holy is the name of you

Let it come the kingdom of you, let it be being done the will of you as in heaven and on the Land

The bread of us the on beinged you be giving to us today

And you be from letting to us the owe effects of us as and we from let to the owers of us

And no you may be into carrying us into trial but rescue us from the wicked.’

Read the Word

I think with the advance of video and social media reading for many has taken a back seat. Watching video is so simple but there is an equal if not better benefit to reading. This allows us to personally connect with the author. Who is the author of the bible? Someone will say man and yes many men allowed themselves to be an instrument of God and write what God wanted them to write. 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, strength. The second command is like it, Love your neighbor as yourself.

If you’re not aware God gives everyone free will, the bible is living proof. 

Do

The Word teaches us to do what the Word says not just listen to it. A ‘Faith in Action’ step if you will. I see this is no different than showing your loved one you love them through your actions. If they need some kind of help you’re there for them or you would try to be. We can’t say we love someone and then see they’re in some kind of trouble and not help them if it’s in our ability. Faith without works is dead.  It’s the same with God’s Word and maintaining our relationship with him. 

Trial And Error

Yep we’re people and we can and will make mistakes but God being Sovereign isn’t surprised by any of the things we do. How so? If you can see the past, present, and future would anything surprise you? That is God perspective, me and you… currently, we live inside of time. Jesus lived inside of time to when he came here on earth and when he rose from the dead he showed that he is above time. Actually time was made for him. Look at Colossians 1:16 and  John 1:3. These scriptures put things into perspective and shed light on where we really stand in creation as human beings. 

I am thankful that God didn’t totally wipe out mankind during the time fo Noah, thankful Noah was righteous in God’s sight. Thank paved the way for you and me to have an opportunity to have an individual and collective relationship with God through Jesus. 

All of this is about spending time, your time with God. Cultivating your relationship through Jesus. 

Dealing With Self

One thing about life is you get to see yourself. I haven’t been the greatest friend as many times I haven’t prayed and talked with our heavenly Father, I haven’t read the Word, I didn’t do what the Word teaches. In that, I can tell you the same grace that covers you covers me and for that, I am really thankful. God has been, is, and will be, and is Good if you get my past, present, future statement. Many times I have dropped the ball and showed my frailty and mortalness but He has been faithful. For this, I am forever thankful and humble. This is how we are to treat each other, with grace and love each other regardless of what sinful past we’ve come from. In the present, we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves and even pray for our enemies. In doing so we show reflections and glimmers of Jesus.  I hope this was, is, and will be helpful to you.

#soaweosme

StedoCli out.