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Seek Christ by Continually Praying
by If you are just beginning to seek out Christ, then keep on seeking and praying faithfully. This is, in itself, vital obedience. Don't get down on yourself too much about the "unspiritual" things that occupy your mind. You are obeying God by presenting to Him all the genuine concerns of your heart. Keep on asking for whatever you want (if you really want it) and see if God doesn't give you something better. You will find by experience that it is not by your choice of words, but rather by your nearness to Christ that God will answer you. God listens to and answers all prayer, though only in such a way that is consistent with His Divinity. Therefore, we should keep asking Him for help to make ends meet. This is certainly legitimate. But the astonishing, ground-breaking joy here is that we can seek Him out at all. The most miraculous aspect of God's answers to prayer is the fact that He is who He is, the God who listens to and answers prayers. Though our prayerful words are small and weak, yet, as we spend time in His Presence, we will be unable to avoid heavenly transformation. In this way God often shows up where people least expect, in all kinds of childlike prayers. And the sweetest aspect of prayerfully approaching God is the reality of His Presence among us. How could we not want to pray all the time? We will also learn how to pray better as we learn to simply enjoy His Presence among us. However, God's Presence will continue to seem elusive to us so long as we hold off asking. He is already available to us in Christ so that we might ask Him for anything. All we have to do is ask. Excuse-making, religious people would like to think that hearing from God was more complicated than that. Is Christ not our Most Loved One? If I love someone then my heart ought to be open to them, as I hope theirs is open to mine. Therefore, when a loved-one has something I desire, I am not ashamed to ask him or her for it directly. This makes automatic sense to all parties involved. I'll either get what I ask for or I won't, either way I've got nothing to lose. And, if I enjoy the time spent talking to a certain loved one, and they like talking to me, we both might enjoy the call, regardless of whether I got what I wanted. In this way, it should make sense to us to simply ask Jesus Christ for every little and big thing that we need. Just ask. We don't generally fear approaching a close friend or family member, unless there exists some negative complication in that relationship. Certainly, immeasurable hostility would exist between us and God... that is, if Christ hadn't already removed every bit of enmity, complication, and excuse that might prevent us from approaching Him directly. Because Christ is our Open Door, therefore there is absolutely nothing preventing us from having all our heavenly business in order. Either this is true, or God is incompetent and a liar. And, if we keep on seeking, then this is also to Christ's credit. It is not by our strength that we keep prayerfully seeking, but rather only because Christ went so far out of His way to make Himself available for the seeking. We might just as well call what we do "letting Him draw us near to Himself even despite ourselves." And experience will teach us that only the Spirit of God can drive the Truth all the way home, down to our conscience and convictions. Living every moment to please the Lord is mysterious and yet, at the same time, not so mysterious. Though Christ is veiled in eternal, untouchable holiness, He is also entirely approachable at the same time. Therefore, rather than curse the world around us or get down on ourselves, let's maintain this straightforward purpose, which is to seek Christ. Rather than make excuses for what we don't know, let's go to Christ and see if He won't fill every mysterious gap with His down-to-earth Divinity. In this way, we will let Christ be All and Everything to us. by Patrick Roberts. Find related books and articles at www.BooksByPatrick.com Patrick is an average Christ-seeker. His goal is to turn people to Jesus Christ. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |