Maybe you don't think you ever have and it is something that burns in your heart to experience?
Maybe you have been a follower of Christ for a while now, but recognise that maybe, just maybe, that if you are honest, that you can not remember truly encountering Him for a while now?
My hope is that this little series of Simple Thoughts I am starting today, helps you, encourages and grows you on your journey from this point.
Don't dwell on what may or may not have come before, but see this as a new day, a new opportunity to encounter God.
Over the next few weeks I want to throw at you a series of possibilities, opportunities, challenges, questions, with all the same purpose, to help you experience who God can be in your life.
I would encourage you to pray over them and be brave enough to be honest about where you are truly at. If you are, I am confident you will encounter God in your life in a refreshing and glorious way...
Today I want to be a little contentious and rip the band-aid off the issue for some of us...
I promise it is worth considering for a moment, as the implications of ignoring it won't help us.
James 4:8 says this...
Come near to God and he will come near to you.
Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
I love how James simply conveys the principal of what needs to happen.
How God is ready and willing to meet with us, and that He is looking for our next step, our intention, our desire, to move us in the right direction.
The promise simply is, that if we come near to Him, that He will come near to us. That means encounter! It is a promise!
If we do silly things that would be considered by God to be sin, then that actually hinders the encounter. The more we sin or wilfully rebel against heaven, the harder it seems for us to truly feel like we can encounter God. Sin hardens our heart which needs to be soft, and dulls our ears when we really want hear His voice.
Because God is love, the amazing thing is that we can put things right real fast, move on and get back on track with the best that God has for us. God is faithful and just to forgive us if we simply ask Him.
I personally do a stock take of myself on a regular basis.
I look at my life and ask God to forgive me for where I have got things wrong.
Where I have said wrong things. Where I have reacted inappropriately. Where I have missed the mark in some way. Where I had not acted in faith but under some other unction.
My encouragement to us, myself included, is that we live in a Christ honouring way.
Because scripture promises us that God is 'right there' for each of us when we do.
Something to think about...
Over the next few weeks I want to throw at you a series of possibilities, opportunities, challenges, questions, with all the same purpose, to help you experience who God can be in your life.
I would encourage you to pray over them and be brave enough to be honest about where you are truly at. If you are, I am confident you will encounter God in your life in a refreshing and glorious way...
Today I want to be a little contentious and rip the band-aid off the issue for some of us...
I promise it is worth considering for a moment, as the implications of ignoring it won't help us.
James 4:8 says this...
Come near to God and he will come near to you.
Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
I love how James simply conveys the principal of what needs to happen.
How God is ready and willing to meet with us, and that He is looking for our next step, our intention, our desire, to move us in the right direction.
The promise simply is, that if we come near to Him, that He will come near to us. That means encounter! It is a promise!
If we do silly things that would be considered by God to be sin, then that actually hinders the encounter. The more we sin or wilfully rebel against heaven, the harder it seems for us to truly feel like we can encounter God. Sin hardens our heart which needs to be soft, and dulls our ears when we really want hear His voice.
Because God is love, the amazing thing is that we can put things right real fast, move on and get back on track with the best that God has for us. God is faithful and just to forgive us if we simply ask Him.
I personally do a stock take of myself on a regular basis.
I look at my life and ask God to forgive me for where I have got things wrong.
Where I have said wrong things. Where I have reacted inappropriately. Where I have missed the mark in some way. Where I had not acted in faith but under some other unction.
My encouragement to us, myself included, is that we live in a Christ honouring way.
Because scripture promises us that God is 'right there' for each of us when we do.
Something to think about...
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