Words I post in blogs are never enough of what God could say, nor are they straight from Him or even worth reading unless it's a quote from the bible. Don't take what I say as guidance. Do the reading for yourself. I'm only here to share with you. Not at you. I'm far from worthy of that.
At our church yesterday and today, we've been having some conferences with Dr. Greg Frizzell. Let me rephrase that. We've been extremely blessed to have too few conferences with Dr. Greg Frizzell at our church the past couple of days. Great man. Wise. Been there and back. Look him up: www.frizzellministries.org
Anyhoo. He said something that caught my attention. Well, actually he said a whole lotta lotta things that caught my attention, convicted me, encouraged me, and have put me to work already in my personal prayer life... But the one thing I wanted to relay to you today that he said was (and this is not an exact quote... paraphrasing...):
Don't let your church activities or personal ministry be a substitute for your intimacy with God.
We don't even realize we do that. He said that he often does things (such as this) without realizing he's doing it. We often think we're doing our spiritual and Christian duty by reaching out to the lost, giving to the poor, sacrificing a few nights a week to church ministries or ministries of our own, for example. But that does not have anything to do with our intimacy with God. Sure, it's like giving Him a gift. Or kind of our way of telling Him, "thanks. I appreciate all you do for me. I hope this satisfies You. I hope You find joy in what I'm doing for You." But that has nothing to do with the intimacy. Intimacy is much much deeper than that.
His conference is called, "Going Deeper with God." In Sunday morning's conferences, he used Jeremiah 29:11-13. And from me, personally, I've reminded you a lot that, in verse 11, God says that He has great plans for you. No plans to harm you, only to give you a great future and a hope. But Dr. Frizzell made verses 12 and 13 show the power and the relevance behind verse 11:
"In those days, when you pray, I will listen. If you look for Me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you," says the Lord.
Now notice what he says. When looking for Him with all our heart, He will listen, and we will find Him. When looking for Him wholeheartedly. Dr. Frizzell mentioned that, when doing our little "quiet time" or our little devotional time, we read our little passage or verse, pray for God to bless this, bless that, heal him... la di dah. Our "wish list" as he called it. We're not searching wholeheartedly. We're not turning off the cell phone, going into our "closet." (As The Word tells us. Which means to shut yourself off from the rest of the house, world, etc., and to be completely and utterly alone with Him and Him only.) We're not listening to what He's gotta say to us. We're not praying Scriptures to Him for certain people or certain situations. In other words, it's shallow. We do our little Christian duty, and think we're so special and honorable and righteous. When we begin to think we're righteous, that's when we need to give ourselves a big ole' kick in the butt.
We're not experiencing revivals in our country because our country is known for everything and anything "instant." We always think that everything happens instantly, and if it doesn't... well, it apparently isn't God's Will if He's not speaking to us or moving mountains or situations. And the phrase, "God's Will," has become sort of a "well, God... if you really want that for me... I guess that's okay." As if His Will is something we have to unfortunately accept. If we would just sit and listen and shut off the rest of the world for a little while a day to get to know our God intimately, we will find that His Will is what we want most!
Dr. Frizzell suggested that you add about 10-15 more minutes onto your daily quiet time/devotion time every day for about 7 weeks to just pray to Him, talk to Him, through Scripture, and to simply listen and wait for what He has to say. And He will become more real to you. You will find joy that you've never had! You will see the Will of God better. Now to get the entirety of what Dr. Frizzell was saying, go to the website I offered above.
He also said that a study found that 1 in 2 marriages in America(?) end in divorce. But a family that prays together on a regular basis, the odds were much different. Different as in, 1 in 1,256 (I believe) ended in divorce. Big difference, am I right? Dr. Frizzell even joked, "and one of 'em was probably lying."
But don't bother doing all of this if what you want to get out of it is personal success. Do it to become intimate with your Creator, because you want to get to know Him.
By grace, Tara K
2911ThePlan.com
iTunes.com
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=55236307744&ref=ts
twitter: https://twitter.com/2911ThePlan
No comments:
Post a Comment