Lena Journals today!

One of the differences between living a religious life and a life of faith in The One True and Living God is found inside of the pursuit of a personal intimate relationship. He is Our Father. Yes our Lord, because we’ve submitted to that willingly, but also Lover of our souls, brother, friend. The scripture says, “Abraham was a friend of God.” Wow!
Let me ask you this, where friends are concerned, would a good friend of yours be feeling like you really like them or have a good relationship with them if you always talk about them, even to the extent of going on a street corner and shouting their name at passersby, even if you tell the strangers you see that your friend loves them, but you never talk to that friend one on one?
What kind of relationship is that? A very surfacey one. What if you always do stuff for the friend, but never do anything with them? How do they feel then?
God created man as He is, if man feels a void even in these nice dutiful actions, how do you think God feels when we do religious acts with no personal relationship? He barely knows us.
There was a statement made by Jesus in the NT. He said, “you workers of iniquity depart from Me, I hardly know you, be cast into utter darkness”. The ones He spoke with were surprised and said, “but lord, we did this and that using Your name! We even used it to heal some and deliver some.” He said, “away from Me, for I do not know who you are!”
How can that be? It is the difference between being personally related to God and Christ and knowing of Him. Do you know Him as Father, Lover, friend, or as acquaintance and co-worker? The person who was cast into utter darkness did a lot “for” God, but nothing to know Him personally.
To know Him and make Him known to others is the only purpose for being here. Let’s not miss that purpose!
One of the tactics of the enemy is to hurt people to the point that they will not pursue personal relationships. If one has been hurt by others there is only one way to obey God, loving Him and others still. That way is the way of forgiveness and healing.
Is God Great enough to heal that past wound that is now preventing you form relating with others? Can we trust Him? Yes, and Yes! God is great, so very great and He is greatly to be praised. If fear and dread have kept you from loving and knowing God, and lack of trust has separated you, come back home to His heart by faith! He IS NOT like man, though man was designed to represent Him and be as He is, we all know they do make mistakes. Don’t allow the mistakes of men to keep you from an ever loving God! If you allow that, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth in the eternal realm, when you see it very clearly at that time, you’ll be regretful. Erase the regrets now, trust God and go for the knowing of Him, a trusting faith-filled personal relationship with the Master, Father, Brother, Lover. He IS our All in All, our Creator, Provider. He is and has ALL we’ll ever need, seriously.
A relationship with this God is only a decision away.
If you were speaking with another person you knew, would you say the same thing over and over repeating yourself and begging for what it is you are asking of them? If this is not how we relate with people, then why do we relate this way with God? If it is odd to relate with others in a specific mannerism, then it is probably also awkward to relate with God this way. It is probably a good gage of religious behaviors.
Even in the area of service. We serve the ones we love, right? We do it because we know they need us to and we want to help them, right? God has needs we’ve never thought to ask of. Religion does whatever it does as a duty, not out of relationship and a heart motive of expressed love. Somewhere it was taught to do good things, even if they are not the specific things God has on His heart for us to do today. It’s going through a score keeping motion rather than living out relational faith.
In this light a person can do the same good work with either a right or a wrong motive. Do you feel you have to, or do you want to please the Father? If say you serve in nursery or help coordinate a church picnic, or work to pick up after someone’s mess at the picnic, how do you do it? Is it done as a good work, and a have to work, or as a duty? Or is it an act of faith, hope, and love? What is the heart motive? Remember God is looking on the heart. To obey the Word with no heart of obedience is the same before God as not obeying at all.
How many of us start our prayers in reverence of our Father God and really truly want His name glorified and magnified in our lives? How many of us have had the correct heart motive of making Him look great while we are barely seen? How many are seeking to diligently set up His kingdom and be a part of the building and erecting crews for kingdom of God on earth life, now? Not just Sundays, but is this the task of every waking moment? The thought and intent of the heart for today? The first thought? How many seek after His will first? Then how many of us believe for spiritual strength before natural strength, and that spiritual strength gives natural strength? What about forgiving others? Is this a regular happening in our lives? Is it a checklist we purposely go down, daily, making sure we are right with God by forgiving others? Do we take His word seriously, to where we realize and actually believe if we do not forgive, we aren’t forgiven?
Do we regularly pray for strength to resist evil before it comes our way? Do we become watchmen for our spiritual growth and protect it as though it is valuable to us, watching ahead rather than making many mistakes and picking up pieces later on?
Do we believe in an unseen God enough to live for Him and His will outwardly?
One visible way to know if one is trusting God is to see how money is handled and what life is spent on. If life is mostly being spent on buying things and getting and storing up more and more things, then the evidence is on the table (or in the house). It is clear who the master is, whoever they are enslaved to, that is who they really serve. We can say we love God all we want, but if the pursuit of getting money takes first place and can even take the place of building a strong relationship with God, then it has shown who and what we truly value.
Example, how many times have you been invited to a Bible Study group, to join it regularly and to participate with that group in something to build the kingdom as one man, but with many, and you opted out to work or because you were tired form work? Or you had to clean or tend to your things rather than tending to people? Did your things ever cal for your attention and you were tired after tending to them, so tired that you couldn’t participate in the extra group deal, because you were already spent?
See the group effort or participation was about building relationships with others that are of eternal value. You had to stay home to dust and clean and tend to your own things, you’d spent time at work to buy them and now they have taken you captive, you stay alone with their pile ups and maybe you worshipped God while you worked with the earthly treausres, but in the end, God will not be happy that you were alone and had not spend time to work through trusting Him to be more relational and to make deposits and sacrifices of unity with others to do what one cannot do alone. He wanted to use you as a participant also, to a corporate calling. Your task and fellowship with God are great, but there is much more! The biggest much more on all this is that He’s leading you to trust Him more and to relate more and trust Him more in relating more with others. Others are His treasure! Staying alone does not help Him build a kingdom of the treasures He values.
Sometimes we think the opportunities given us from our local church leaders are just options we can take, and they are to us, because God won’t force us to do anything, but each one is an opportunity to relate, to associate, to unify, to trust and to build His kingdom. The pastors make announcements, church happenings, prayer meetings, baby and bridal showers, bible studies, church help, etc. We can opt in or out, we can say, “God and I are ok, we do well ourselves”. I’m sure you do, but self fellowship is not His plan, there’s much more!
It has a lot to do with trusting Him in the case that someone relationally harms us, do we trust Him that if as we build someone accidentally (or even intentionally) hits our :finger” with a “hammer” God is great enough to heal us?
Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.