Desire For God
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)
I came to the church early on Monday morning. I felt refreshed and ready to go take on the tasks for the day, except my neck is extremely stiff. It’s been very sore lately and I’m trying to find relief. The older I get the more there seems to be a lot of aches and pains… and I am still fairly young! I realize that each day is a gift from God that cannot be taken for granted. When I asked someone Sunday how they were they responded by saying, “I’m glad I woke up on the right side of the dirt.” Yes… what a blessing! To feel these gifts and blessings is more than simply appreciating the joys in life or even dealing with the pains of the day.
I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and it would be quite easy to focus on those pains, but I chose to see the glorious gift our Lord has provided. Our faith has a lot to do with how we feel about each new day. I think that there are people who chose to dance around with their faith, picking and choosing what they want to credit God within a particular day. Maybe they spend more time trying to be a “good Christian” than realizing that each of us really need God to enjoy what life brings. We need to know our need for God. It’s important we in a world of material happiness to confuse what we really need, with what we want and can easily get on our own.
In sharing the faith and God’s grace many times to people who have never heard about Jesus’ forgiveness, I am convinced that a desire for God is the place where we begin to grow in faith. When we are in the presence of people like this we are given an opportunity to share God’s love. Like, picking someone out of the gutter of guilt and dismay, and by sharing the good news of Jesus and seeing them find true grace, is another one of God’s gifts. To see one desire the gifts from God is a numinous experience! I saw this happen recently when I asked someone if they would like to be a part of the church family… an official member of Beautiful Savior. This person has never been a “member” of a church and was honored to be asked to be a part of something like a church family. For him, I think it was a beginning of understanding that they desire God and have a desire for more of God’s love. He desires to belong!
One of my favorite hymns reads, “My soul proclaims your greatness Oh God and rejoices in me!” This phrase is part of Mother Mary’s song when she finds herself with the baby Jesus. The Apostle Paul also once wrote, “I WANT to know Christ.” So, while we tend to define ourselves by our possessions and how much we know of worldly things, it is necessary for us to think about what we most desire in our relationship with a God.
As a minister for Christ, I really enjoy helping to stir up and share the desire for a life in Christ. My job is not to get Christians to get committed to Jesus… it is to get us all to WANT Jesus. It is my hope that we all can long for the Lord and spend these wonderful days of life longing for others to desire God as much as we do.
It is June and it is exciting to see that we still have a committed group of worshippers gathering each week! It’s not about numbers, but when we do look at them, it’s great to see we are still averaging over 100 people each week. IT’S SUMMER! And we still are maintaining a great group of those who desire God each Sunday! Thank you for your commitment to Beautiful Savior!
AMEN THANKS BE TO GOD !