No matter how intimate, or distant, you feel with God, He never changes. Waiting in the End Zone When I was in high school, my youth group leader would draw a makeshift football field in her journal and say, “If God is in the end zone, indicate how close you feel to Him by putting a mark on the corresponding yard line.” The paper field would then circle through the group, collecting marks ranging from the 1-yard line all the way to the opposing end zone. We did this exercise every Thursday night. And some weeks, we felt as if our fingertips could reach across the last yard line to touch God; others, we felt impossibly far away. I eventually noticed the common denominator between my erratic graph of perceived closeness to God. It was me. No matter how intimate or distant I thought I was in relation to my heavenly Father, He never changed. He was always in the end zone, waiting with open arms. Am I getting closer to God? It’s a question Christians often ponder throughout their walks with the Lord. In his sermon, “A Barometer for Our Spiritual Growth,” Dr. Charles Stanley gives us key questions to ask when determining if we’re growing spiritually: • Is daily prayer a sweet time you relish, or do you rush to check it off your to-do list? • Do you hunger to uncover the hidden truths in God’s Word? • Are you increasingly aware of your deep-rooted sin and equally aware of the great measure of grace lavished on you? One difference between a growing Christian and a stagnant believer is a heightened awareness of his or her need for grace. Grace is humbling because it reveals to us how far we are from perfection. As Dr. Stanley teaches, humility helps us die to our own ideas of how life should unfold and helps us to embrace the way God desires for our lives to play out. And though His way may be harder at times, the Father will use a life lived in submission to Him to make His church flourish. To know our role in the body of Christ, we need to know God intimately, know His Word, and know His grace. Ephesians 4:16 says, “From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (NIV). What part of the body did He make you? A growing Christian will delight in the role God has given him or her. “For I know the plans I have for you,” Jeremiah 29 says. “Plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart” (v. 11-13). By God’s grace, He has a plan for you; when you pray, He hears you. And by His grace, you’ll find exactly what youre looking for when you seek Him. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in God’s family or how far away you appear to be. The Father is waiting with steady, welcoming arms to answer those who desire to draw close to Him.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 09:58:41 +0000