Pursuit & Passion

Pursuit 

I was asked what it takes to inspire people for God. Truth be told, I really have no idea. I don't know what it takes for a spark to ignite between an individual and God. What does it take for an individual to value his/her heavenly Father? All I know is what God has brought me through, and my personal experiences with Him. I have come to know Him from being in places of absolute weakness and need, and I have known Him in the day to day shuffle. I don't know why I am so loyal to God, by that I mean I can't explain the affinity I have towards Him. This loyalty is truly born out of the Spirit of God in me, He helped ignite the spark. When I took one tiny step towards Him, He came leaping from far across the greatest expanses to reveal who He was to me, and He does this daily. God has shifted my perspective to His so drastically that I can't help but want to follow His lead, and follow Him.

If I really think about it, what inspires me to pursue God, and what makes me passionate about Him, is that I see how helpless I am every day, and I have seen how great He is every day. This realization happens when we connect the events of our life back to God in worship; it happens in prayer, singing praise and in studying the Bible when we encounter life from day to day. Passion for God happens when you realize Christ is the only the hope you have. I've been studying my Bible quite a bit, but two things (in tandem with meditating on and studying the word of God) have really have given me perspective in pursuing God: prayer and fasting. 

Persistent Prayer

"A prayer-less life, is a prideful life." -from Rob McKee sermon on Persistent Prayer. I've been checking out some of the messages from the Life Center, and so far I've enjoyed what I've heard. 

As I've stated in earlier entries, the power of prayer lies in how God conforms our will to be like His; prayer is submission and conformation to the will of God. The effectiveness of persistent prayer is not because God loves to hear us pester Him with the same request, and needs to hear it a certain amount of times before He acts. Biblical persistence always has to do with being persistent to the glory of God. Persistence is not interpreted as 'pestering' to God, because you persist for the right reason, because you desire what He desires. 

The effectiveness of persistent prayer lies in how God shows us who He is in it; God teaches us reliance on Him, and to know His desires through persistent prayer. Your prayers for a specific need have the potential to evolve; prayer evolves in full submission. Until God is your sole desire, and until you depend on Him always and in all ways, you will always have room for your prayer life to grow.  

Slowing down to fast

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;" (Joel 2:12)

In this day and age, fasting happens quite regularly on schedule; some of us participate in Lent, Muslims have Ramadan. Outside of designated fasting periods, to me, the concept of fasting has always been something old fashioned, and meant for those special designated occasions. Call me dense, or ignorant, or what have you, but I had never fasted before. I just never considered fasting to be anything useful to my relationship with God. 

The effectiveness of fasting arises when we fast consciously, with intention and purpose. It's easy to not eat, go about your day and call that fasting, but in fact, that's just starving yourself needlessly. Like prayer, fasting is to the glory of God. Fasting has taught me reliance on God, and almost acts as blinders to help me to set my sights on Him only. By your hunger, you are reminded moment by moment of the sustaining goodness of God, and perhaps given a physical representative and reminder for a hunger for Him. Fasting loses its effectiveness the moment you start thinking about what you're missing. People fast from multiple things, Facebook, TV shows, food, specific foods etc, but the moment you start to concern yourself with yourself, you lose out on the purpose of the fast.

As cheesy as this sounds, when you fast, you starve yourself of one physical, earthly thing, in order that you may know what it is to be filled by God. It is a deeply personal act, and so for people like the Pharisees to publicize it, to make their suffering known, just makes them look really stupid. Fasting is one of the personal, intentional actions we take when we are desiring to pursue God full on, when the distractions of the world just seem to be a bit overwhelming. So long as you don't get distracted by what you're fasting from, God uses fasting to turn our gaze to Him in such a powerful way. 

One who has complete reliance on God has made God his/her refuge. He becomes the place you go to when you are looking for safety, comfort, recovery, strength and protection. God is the one you fall back to at all times. 

"...But for me it is good to be near God;
    I have made the Lord God my refuge,
    that I may tell of all your works." (Psalm 73:28)

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” (Psalm 91:1-2)

Passion

In every way, I am thankful for the situations I encounter every day, because in studying, praying and fasting I have come to learn this:

"But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." (2 Corinthians 12:9)

I understand Paul's passion and joy of being able to boast in the weakness, in order that the power of Christ may rest on him. I too accept and have started to find joy in my weakness and need, because when I am weak, I am given the chance to lean on God even more. I have no choice but to trust Him, as I ought to do in the good times and the bad. For every moment of decision and choice, in trials or peace, each situation is a moment to re-evaluate my perspective so that eventually and completely conforms to God's.