Never to Relate!
Sunday’s Monday
Never to Relate!
Please give this question your full attention for a few minutes. How many people are you related to and you don’t know anything about them? Truth is; many of us have a lot of kin folk we’ve never seen or haven’t seen for a number of years and know little to nothing about. Now, ask yourself why? Not to put too fine a point on the question, but when was the last time you had a serious thought of them? No one need know your answer except you, God and hopefully “someday soon” the relative or relatives.
I currently have relatives in which I was close to during their childhood years but once they became adults, we lost touch. For the longest time, I had no way of keeping up with them, no one that I knew had contact information for them. That is until one day another relative called to say his child was coming for a visit. In which several weeks later that person came to visit their dad and had a child with them. I was called by the dad and went over to greet the now estranged kin along with my new unseen kin folk, only to discover total strangers. I knew absolutely nothing about either of them! I had no clue of, what they like, what they thought, what they believed, nothing! It seemed that every question was unwelcomed and certainly uninvited, so I soon had nothing to say. Because we knew each other but knew nothing about each other. They went back and we lost touch again and our lives moved on.
The truth is; I said all of that to say this, we have a relative that we know but know little about, “if at all.” The bible tells us in Romans 8:15 (NLT), So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father. It has been proven both physically and spiritually, the only way to know someone and / or build a relationship, is through spending time in their presence. We are instructed in Matthew 6:6 (NLT), But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. This should become a daily, fulfilling event! A simple Father, daughter / son talk from the heart is all that is required and yes it takes self-training. As I have said for years, Satan can’t stop God from answering prayer, but he can stop us from praying! God doesn’t need your prayers; His desire is time with you!
Please! Remember, to not make this a chore, or something dreaded, it doesn’t have to be any more than a child telling the Father about needs, the day ahead, life in general and any concerns for others. Prayer is nothing more than a form of communication between us and Father God, but yet it is the most powerful thing we can do “if we listen and act upon what God says”. After all God has asked us through the writings of Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:12 (NLT), Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Because we can’t and don’t see things clearly, we have a very limited understanding in the spiritual realm and tend to dread or avoid conversations with Him to avid His knowing how little we’ve grown (in Him).
Most of us can’t get grip tightly to those things we have little knowledge of, call it fear, call it pride, call it whatever you will but, the majority of people see God as a sort of Santa Clause. They tend to depend on Him as Mr. Feel Good or Mr. Fix It and even Mr. His Fault. Ergo, there is little seriousness involved in listening to what is being said about our Lord or from our Savior. Sadly, once the message of Jesus is eventually accepted as truth, it’s seldom accepted at full value. Just like most of our perception, toward friends, relatives and neighbors, we experience doubt, fear and have questions toward their loyalty. Most of our upbringing gave us little encouragement toward fully trusting in God or anyone else for that matter. Unfortunately, the majority of our elder’s exampled a weak belief in Jesus (due to their upbringing) and never had a true relationship with Him, as well they felt the same of their friends, family and neighbors. The bible says in 1 John 1:6 (NLT), So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.
Jesus asked His disciples in Mark 4:39-40 (NLT), 39 When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. 40 Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Even those closes to Jesus struggle with their fleshly battle in keeping a relationship with Him. I think; they soon discovered in order to have a relationship with Jesus or anyone, it requires desire, determination, dedication and lots of communication / contact! Just as it is written in 1 Peter 1:8 (NLT), You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. I’ve heard it said, you can’t physically be with Jesus, but I beg to differ because I believe it all depends on one’s personal definition of physically. I say that because I (my life has been influenced by God more than anyone, I’ve ever had physical contact with. I know, “one will never come into the presence of God and walk away the same person!
My prayer for the week is; 1 Peter 1:17-20 (NLT), 17 And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So, you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as “temporary residents.” 18 For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. 19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 20 God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake. Amen
HAVE A BLESSED WEEK BY BEING A BLESSING TO OTHERS!
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