Preaching number 2, Intimacy
Intimacy with God, and how to get it.
As living christians, we try to get as close to God
as we possibly can, in every way we can. We will never
by statisfied with the level of intimacy we
have with him, we will always long for more.
Some Christians fall for some pitfalls though, even
though they were chasing God in every way they could
they got absorbed by the world and its troubles
and they lost focus of God. Instead of asking God
for help they decided, maybe unwantingly, to focus on
their problems first and then they would look
for God again.
That, is not the way, beacouse the danger of this way
is, that you close God out of a piece of your life, in
which he wishes to be completely and always, and by
this, you will start to close out God more often and
often untill you only have eye for the world around
you, and all that is happening in it, and God gets
pushed to the background. And by this Christianity
becomes a religion, the person will go to church every
sunday faithfully, and do lots o Christian stuff, but
it will be meaningless really beacouse that person
doesn't go there anymore to meet God, be it in
worship, be it in their work, no, they will be purely
focussed on their own gain. They may not see it like
this, but if they really would self reflect they
would come to the same conclusion, or they are busy
working themselves up on the social ladder, or trying
to get a favor of someone, etc... This is one of the
way Satan works to get Christians to turn away from
God.
He just throws some random problems at them, in such
a way that they do not look for Gods council in the
matter but try to handle it by themselves. It starts
with very small problems, maybe just a decision of
going to church or just to finish that little thing
first. Or go and talk to that person they promised to
talk to, or just to do that other thing... small
things like that. And when they get used to make those
decissions on their own, they get a bit bigger
problems thrown at them, but all aimed at that they
try to solve it by their own and not seek the help of
God in it.
And by this a bigger wedge is pushed between those
persons and God. People who have this wedge will get a
wakeup call from God one day, and might be a gentle
wakeup touch, it might be that the person is shook up
by God, but the wakeup call will come, and then they
will see that wedge between them and God and then
they will try to get rid of it.
But sometimes people even ignore that wakeup call,
beacouse they are so cought in this world and all its
problems... they will be like, oh yea, God is there
still. But I still have to... and they go and continue
their ways.
Sometime people don't even see that they have this
wedge between them and God, they think that all is
allright between him/her and God, but it isn't. They
place work, family, the world before God in priority,
whilst God should always be the focus of that person.
They usually hide it behind excuses of: But I'm so
responsible for my staff, I have such a work
pressure, I have to keep a strickt leash on my family,
I have to do all these things exactly correct, it
takes up all my attention, I need to do..., etc...
These people should self reflect and see where their
attention lies...Or, you are a christian, and try to
be as close to God as possible, Or, you are just a
person disconnected from God.
God wants you near! God wishes to be as close as you
let him to be with you...All you have to do is to give
your life to him. Some people see this as such
a big and difficult step, whilst it is the easiest
step in the world.
Just try to think of God in a moment you have time
to think. Grab a bible sometimes, Ask/pray to God,
that he learns you something, just open the
bible somewhere, read what your eye falls on first,
and think of how it affects you, and what God means by
that verse. Just say thankyou to God every now and
then. Thank him for that green traffic light when you
were in a hurry, Thank him for that 10 cent you found
on the street. Thank him for the beatiful weather,
just thank him. When you go to church, Don't go with
the idea of, hmm, I'll see all my friends again, and
plan what you will do after church.
Go there with the attitude of that you are open to
God, just say to yourself, "God, today is your day,
please be with me today"(actually you should say this
every day, but you have to start somewhere eh?) and
say to yourself, "Okay, I'm here to learn something
new, God, please show me what you wish me to learn
from this preaching" and enjoy the service and try to
meet God in worship. If you truly worship him, with
the intention to feel him, to experience him,
if you are open to him, then he will come in such a
way that you cannot deny that our God is a living,
breathing, loving, magnificient, holy, wonderfull,
mighty, caring....(list goes on and on and is
endless) GOD!
Just try to find God, I beg of you... Life is useless
if God isn't in it. If God is allowed in your life,
your life will turn so much better. You will recieve
mental rest, you will be able to just give
all your problems to God, so that he can solve them
for you, You will just have so much more time for
everything, and God will be with you ever, so that you
know that you will never be alone and forgotten.
Our God is a great good wonderfull GOD! Halleluja to
him!!
Preaching by
Michael Dibbets