No one can integrate their faith unless they have a faith. To have faith one must be sure of the things they hope for, and to be certain of the things they cannot see. (Hebrews 11:1) What we hope for as Christians is that we will have eternal life in the Kingdom of God, and we are certain that there is a Heaven and Hell. We know that God has made it possible so the assurance will come if we have obeyed Christs commandments. These are to love God with all of our being, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to love one another as Christ has loved us. We are to show our love by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving water to the thirsty, taking strangers in our home and visiting the sick and prisoners. We can do these things, though, only if we are born again and filled with the Spirit. Since we have free will we can choose to be obedient and invite Jesus into our life and when we have been empowered we can can begin to do these things. Without him we can only do what the human nature leads us to do. Our human nature only wants to please itself.
Once you have faith you have to grow in it. Paul called newborn Christians babies that only could drink milk, but once they have grown a little bit they have to be nurtured and learn to communicate with God. Christianity is a relational religion and for us to grow in it we have to learn to talk the talk. We need a thorough knowledge of the Bible, we need to know how to pray, and have to learn that we have access to God by conversing with him and we have to be still and know that he will reply. It is imperative for us to regularly be in conversation with him. This is the greatest failure of Christians in the church today. They pray on the average about 1 minute a day and read their Bible only once or twice a week. Supposed you only conversed with your wife or parents that much. You would not have a relationship. Relationships only develop when we are attracted to other and come along side them and learn all about them. as you do you make them supernaturally part of you because you have installed them in your mind. If you love them you will put their best interests and welfare above your own. An you will live your life for them. To maintain that love and devotion you will have to spend a lot of time with them and communicate with them all that is on your mind. You will never grow or maintain your relationship if you don't. This is what your hove to do to maintain your relationship with God.
When I first became a Christian I did not know how to communicate with the God who had told me he loved me. I had heard preachers pray in King James English, Calling him Gawd, and going on an on with flowery language. Jesus spoke to that when he excoriate the Pharisees for standing on the street corners dressed in fancy robes, and going on and on in their prayer. He said that they had already received their reward. That reward was the admiration of people who saw them there. To learn ho to communicate I had to learn to pray. I realized this when our church had a prayer vigil. We were encouraged to sign up. I went out into the foyer of the church where the sign up sheet was located and found that only two times were available--2 AM and 2:15 AM. I thought they had to be crazy to have someone come to the church and pray at those times., But I felt I had to sign up so I signed up for 2 AM. I went to bed that night set my alarm for 2 AM. When ti went off, I got up brushed my teeth, put on my close and went to the church. When I arrived the woman who was there got up an left. I want to the communion rail and knelt. It was then that I realized that I did not know what to pray for, so I said Lord I don't know what it is that they want, but whatever it is let them have it Then for the next 14 minutes and 30 seconds I knelt realizing not only that I did not know what to pray for that night, but I did not know how to pray.
For the next months I read everything I could find on prayer. When I finished I knew how to pray.I also knew what to pray for too. Now I had to learn about other ways of communicating with God. More about that next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment