I know… it’s been a while friends, brothers and sisters. I don’t know about you, but it’s been too long for me. I have missed talking and sharing, but enough about me, because if there is one thing I have been learning in our recent time apart, it is that it is most definitely not about me. It is all about Jesus!
John 14: 6, our Savior speaking, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Did we catch the key phrase there? John didn’t write it like this, everyone can come to God any way he or she chooses. Nor did he say that we could get ourselves there. John penned the words of Jesus that the way to get to God is through Jesus … period.
How many times have you and I tried it our way? We all have an empty spot, I call that the God spot, that we are trying to fill. What do we try to fill that spot with? God has a plan for all of us who will follow him, but first we must become “Jesus freaks”.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:11-13
The last part is the condition of the first. We must seek god with all our hearts. What does that mean for you? Does that mean doing more good? Does that mean allowing God to help you drop some things you shouldn’t do? That’s between you and God, and it takes time and effort. When James Garfield (late President of the U.S.) was principal of Hiram College in Ohio, a father asked him if the course of study could be simplified so that his son might be able to go through by a shorter route. “Certainly.” Garfield replied. “But it all depends on what you want to make of your boy. When God wants to make an oak tree, He takes a hundred years. When He wants to make a squash he requires only two months.” We are producing too many squashes and not enough oak trees in our day. (Source Unknown).
Let’s seek to make ourselves the oak tree. Joshua has a challenge to us all, “And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." (24:15)
God Bless!
