God is seriously messing with me these days and I don't even know how to fully process everything that God's been doing in my heart and mind the last few weeks. And I guess right now is sort of the culmination of all that. So it started off that I came to the realization of my deep need for intimacy with God. I think I'm continually, increasingly humbled and aware of my need of Him, how often I fail, and how desperately I'm desired and pursued in spite of myself. In that, I began to ponder and think about intimacy with Christ, what that looks like in my life, what intimate moments have looked like before, and how to best and regularly pursue that. So I guess that's when it all started.
Then, in the middle of this pondering remaining in the background of my mind, I watched a recent sermon from a church back home (well, sort of...Portland, so close.) called Solid Rock, pastored by a guy named John Mark Comer. The sermon was about The Kingdom of Heaven. And if you know much at all about how God's Kingdom works, you know it's all counter intuitive and backwards to you and me. And much of the sermon explained and expanded on this idea. (I really encourage you to check the sermon out for yourself at Solid Rock's sight http://www.ajesuschurch.org/teaching-current/ choose the most recent sermons.)
Additionally, I just finished reading a book that I've been working on for a couple of weeks called Anything by Jennie Allen. (Again, I encourage you to check it out for yourself!) To do any kind of justice in summarizing what is talked about in the book would take me much more time than I have, so I just encourage you to save us all some time and read it for yourself. :) But the book is also absolutely, certainly along the lines of God's Kingdom and how willing we are to advance it. And beyond that, it explores the beautiful mess that unfolds when we are not only aware of The Kingdom but willing to serve it's advancement.
And now, I'm not even sure if the rest of what I'm about to attempt to explain will make any kind of sense to anyone else. But this place has become a journal of sorts to me, so I'm going to go there. Ready? Set. GO.
Sometime between the viewing of that Kingdom sermon, and last chapter of Anything, God also brings 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 to my heart, and lessons I've been recently reminded of. All of a sudden, my mind can't hardly work fast enough, connecting some dots. (It works even faster than my mouth. Scary, I know.) My thoughts go something like this: Rejoice, Pray, Give Thanks. God's Will. Wait, the sermon talked about The Lord's prayer, which mentions God's will. "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done...." Yep. There it is: God's will. So then it dawns on me that a huge reason that prayer, thanks and rejoicing are a huge part of God's will for our lives is because those things bring about intimacy. Being prayerful, thankful, and joyful are definitely married to an intimate walk with Christ. You can't have one without the other...they are mutually inclusive. And therefore, when I'm walking in God's will, that intimate walk with Christ will also be a part of bringing His Kingdom (backwards economics, new way of thinking) to earth in some small way! Not only that, but because I'm in such desperate need of Him to equip me for Kingdom work, that will continue to develop intimacy. And that changes everything. I fail, I'm imperfect and do stupid things. But I'm committed to a posture of submission to Him, biding for His will in my life. And submission brings intimacy and harmony.
So what other ways can you and I strive for intimacy in our walks with Christ? What spiritual disciplines have you engaged in that drew you into God's presence? What times in the past do you remember special, personal encounters with God? What were you doing? What did they look like? What can you do to regularly create that space for intimacy in your life?
These are the questions I plan to continue to meditate on and search for answers to over the next...well, however long it takes me. Which will be most of what's left of my life, if not all of it, I guess. Anyways, I invite you to join me!
No comments:
Post a Comment