Nick Emery God's Will, love, More, Psalm 42, spiritual disciplines

More

“Can I have more? Please daddy?!” These words came from my middle child, and they surprised me. She had already had two serving at dinner and she wanted more. The kid doesn’t even weigh 30 pounds herself and she had almost eaten her weight in food!

Okay, she didn’t eat that much but she consistently wanted more food! She knew who to ask and she kept asking! Her plea for “more” made me think about my own relationship with the Lord.

Psalm 42:2 says: “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?”

Seeking more of God can mean many different things – the statement itself may even seem too vague. For me, seeking more of the Lord means to purposefully and daily connect with God in my prayer time, my time in the Word, practicing other spiritual disciples like meditation or solitude, staying focused during times of musical worship and participating in quality small groups or Bible studies.

What does seeking more of the Lord look like in your life?

And, what are you going to do in order to seek more from God?

It has to begin with child-like faith. The kind of faith that truly believes and fully trusts. Then, you are in a fully surrendered position to seek more. God wants to develop our faith in Him and He desires that we become His disciples – fully surrendered and fully devoted to Him.

Seeking more of the Lord, it happens when we have child-like faith that positions us in a place of trust and growth, but it also happens when we follow that up with with a longing, a hunger, a thirst for more of God that leaves us crying out for more!

Psalm 42:2 spoke of position and longing. It’s a great reminder of two basic elements we must have in our daily pursuit of God. Daily we must strive to grow closer to God. This means growing in His grace and in His Word, in His truth for our lives. We have to place ourselves in a constant place before the Father where we can ask and seek out a deeper relationship with the Lord! Some of us are starving and cheating ourselves out of a full meal on God. We’ve bought into the spiritual diet plans offered by others, things that will never truly satisfy.

Because of this choice that we’ve made for ourselves, we feel like we won’t be able to do anything to seek more of God. That is a lie. There is room at the table for you. God has provided a way for you to encounter Him and to daily grow in His grace and truth for your life. You have to make a choice. Will you choose to thirst for the living God, the creator of life and the savior of your soul? He longs for you to make this choice and to live in daily surrender to Him, seeking His presence, His healing, His love, and His truth!

Position yourself to encounter God. Choose this above all else. Pray. Serve. Get into the Word. Look for ways to display more of Gods power and grace in your life. Connect with others who are committed to growing spiritually. Do let yourself be distracted from making this the greatest pursuit of your life. Your future and legacy depend on the choice you make today.

Nick Emery God's Will, Matthew 10, prayer

How Does One Know?

Do I need God’s permission, or His direction and/or revealed plan to do good to others? Yes, and no? Here is another question then: can I, in doing an act of goodness towards another, get in the way of God? I am a very logical person and yet I really try to allow God and His Word to direct me and the direction I take. Do I need God to always confirm for me to do good to others? This week through a few different situations I have found myself really wrestling with these questions.

Jesus gathers His disciples. Simon (also called Peter), then Andrew (Peter’s brother), James (son of Zebedee), John (James’s brother), Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew (the tax collector), James (son of Alphaeus), Thaddaeus, Simon (the zealot), and Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him). He sends these guys out. He commissions them. He gives them authority. They’ve been spending all this time following Christ, the Messiah, the Savior and in Matthew 10 Jesus calls them together and gives them His seal of approval to go & do…He gives them authority to cast out demons, to heal people, to raise people up from the dead…to give as freely as they have received.

Jesus Himself told His most loyal men to go and give as freely as they have received.

Has the Lord ever set me free from “demons”? Yes. Has the Lord ever healed me? Yes, physical hurts as well has heart-hurts. Has God raised me from a dead-end life? Yes, absolutely. I’ve received so much, and as a respond to what I have been given I am called to give as I have been given.

So, do I need to permission from God to go and do? And if I go and do, can I get in way of God’s plan?

Later in Matthew 10, Jesus says this: And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.

Jesus tells these men that regardless of what you do, just do something, in His name and for His glory and then, you can’t be wrong. See a need and respond.

But that doesn’t really answer the question I’ve posed and the question I have been wrestling with this week myself (about getting in His way) but I think Jesus answers that question when He says that He has called us to a large work. The Kingdom of God is near. And God is sovereign and He has promised that when we step out, regardless of getting His “green light” to go, that we, as His followers are going to come across the sick and the needy and that we have been given His authority to act on His behalf.

If we in our going, come across a need, we don’t have to worry that we are affecting the work of the Holy Spirit. Simply said, God is God and He has control. For when we act or speak in a way that God would, the Spirit of God is speaking through us and will use that act.

Jesus came and told his disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Go and do what God has called you to. More then likely, where you are when you see the need is exactly where He has lead you to be already. He has given us the authority to go and serve and to show the World God. He is with you. He believes in you. Just go…