et’s talk about our relationship with God. Do you ever feel as if you are walking through a dry desert? You know the place, you are walking and walking, the heat is getting next to you, you are dirty, sweaty, don’t know where your next meal is coming from. All you can focus on is the “heat wave” that you can see in front of you, then within that heat wave, you see a mirage--an oasis, with water, and shade, you take off running; thinking “This is it! I’ve made it!” only to get ready to dive next to the water and drink and only pulling up more sand--you heart sinks. You rollover and think “Why me?”
Maybe this is a visual of your relationship with God. So you are thinking how can I have changed things? Is it possible to change this? Before you loose heart, yes, you can change things.
Like our earthly relationships, we must dig deeper in our relationship with God. So I know you are asking “How?” I mean it’s true we can walk the walk, talk the talk, but are you really connecting with God?
According to Crosswalk.org there are several steps to help you dig deeper roots in your relationship with Christ.
1-Look beyond what you can see to a deeper reality. We have to look beyond the current circumstances of our lives and see how God can use and will use those to make life better for us and to His glory. Then we must be passionate about them.
2-Define who you are accurately. How you define yourself, is how you will grow. If you define yourself as a certain thing, then you will go in that direction. Don’t define yourself by what others think of you, or by negative descriptions. Define yourself as God sees you.
3-Come out of hiding. God knows everything about you. He knows your sins and weaknesses. So don’t withhold yourself, instead let God use those things in your life as your strengths.
4-Focus on who you are rather than what you do. Don’t focus on the roles in your life (husband, wife, friend, volunteer, etc.) yes, they are important, but they don’t define you! God’s love for you and your love for Him define who you are.
5-Immerse yourself in Scripture. Don’t take at face value what the preacher says on Sunday. Every day, you need to make time to study, read, and meditate on God’s word. This is prevalent in Jewish society. It is an HONOR to sit in a Synagogue or a Yeshiva and study God’s word. Sometimes they study only one or two verses at a time, to get the full meaning that God has for them.
6-Learn from your History. Reflect on the important events of your life so far. Reflect on what God has taught you and how He walked you through them. Then pray and think about how God wants you to apply the lessons so far.
7-Trust in God’s Protection. This is the best type of protection. Take America’s history. We were the minority in soldiers during our Revolutionary War, but with God, we became the majority. God will guide you and walk with you every step of the way. And when the adversary decides to try to harm you, God will protect you. If you fear anything it will block you from a deeper relationship with God.
8-Trust God’s Plans. God created us all and he has a plan for each of us. All we have to do is believe in it and trust that God is in control. Nothing in our lives happens by chance! It’s been preordained!
9-Replace unhealthy thoughts with healthy ones. When negative thoughts enter our lives, replace it with one that is positive and reflective of God’s love for us!
10-Choose a new direction. Even though we can’t control what happens to us, we can change our attitudes and the way it affects us. Make sure that God is in your attitude and the direction your life takes!
11-Depend on the Holy Spirit. Instead of relying on your own limited strength, you need to rely on the Holy Spirit and God living in your life. Pray daily that the Holy Spirit will guide you and fill your spirit in a way that is pleasing to God.
12-Become an everyday vessel. Everyday of our lives is a gift from God. And most of the time God didn’t use the “special” but rather the mundane, ordinary and frankly the boring people to show His goodness! At the wedding in Cana, Jesus turned ordinary water, plain old H2o and turned it into the best wine. There was nothing special about the water, there was nothing different about the vessels that the water came in. Rather the difference was the “Creator” or Vintner in this case. So if God can take ordinary water and turn it into the BEST wine--what MORE can He do for you?
*the points were adapted by Crosswalk from Debbie Alsdorf’s Deeper: Living in the Reality of God’s love. Available from www.christianbook.com
All elaborations are the understandings of the “Note Author”
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