Christianity is not a mechanical device that comes off the assembly line, every motor working exactly the way that every other motor does. We are not mechanical beings — we are human beings, and that makes the job much harder, more challenging. It requires more skill to work with people than with machines.
Machines can be frustrating, but people are even harder to figure out. We cannot be programmed to give the right results every time. We cannot plug in a half hour of prayer and an hour of Bible study and setting up chairs every week and passing out hymnals as any sort of spiritual assembly line that gives a predictable result. Humans are much more complicated than that...
Most times, I can't even figure myself out, and I certainly can't prescribe a formula for anyone else! We have multiple commitments- we want to be committed to family, to church, to personal growth, to community, and to worship. All these commitments are good, but they are not equally good. Sometimes our commitment to family comes before church and sometimes our commitment to the church comes before family. Sometimes we have to set aside our Bible study to take care of community concerns; sometimes we have to skip the community thing and spend time in the Bible. The balance is constantly changing and needs constant monitoring to see what we need to do at each particular moment...
But there is one commitment that always takes priority, that should never be compromised, that should never be relativized — and that is commitment to God. This comes before all other commitments — and in fact it is because we are committed to God that we also want to keep our commitments in all the other areas. Commitment to God is the foundation for all the others, for why we do them - and how we (do) can be successful in managing our multiple commitments. Put God first
The way we serve God is by desiring God, by wanting Him. We see Him as the answer to our innermost needs. We spend our time seeking Him, obeying Him, wrapping our lives around Him and not seeking the stuff that He gives. We are seeking God Himself — not to possess Him, but to be with Him. Our ultimate desire is not material stuff that will someday rot away — our ultimate desire is a friendship with the eternal God. Matthew 6:33 —'' seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things will be given to you''.
This idea is also found in John 4, where Jesus is speaking to the woman at the well, and he says, "Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst." He is talking about a thirst, an internal desire, that is fully satisfied in Jesus Christ.
We all have an inner desire for something and that something is Jesus Christ, and our thirst can be satisified in no other way than through Him, and in Him it can be fully satisfied. God satisfies in a way that nothing else does.
And until we find our satisfaction in Him, our souls will thirst and we will be on a never-ending quest to fill a void in our lives! We might try to fill it with cars, or with careers, or with money, all to no avail. When it is God that we need, nothing else can substitute.
And that is what commitment to God is. It is a recognition that He is what we need. He is the power — the only power — that can help us with our deepest and most permanent needs. God wants us to desire Him, to seek Him, to look for ultimate satisfaction in Him. It doesn't get any better than Him! With Him, we can be content. With Him, our souls have rest. That is what we were made for and that is what we need.
We can chase the wind, or we can seek the Spirit of God!
We are to be content with God, and to trust Him with our lives, to trust Him to take care of everything else, to trust His instructions for how we ought to live, to trust Him for guiding us in work and in church and in family.
Now, when our innermost desire finds its satisfaction in God, we will not be racing around for other thrills. We will not be driven by money, or driven by career success, or driven by public opinion. We will have no other gods before God.Everything else will be brought into subordination to God. Life will have a stable order and structure to it because it will have the right foundation
— and the key to that foundation is desire!
Commitment to God boils down to a desire for God. He is our treasure, our hope, our value, our supreme goal. He is our God — and there is no competitor. The book of Hebrews(my favorite Book of the Bible, by the way!:-) ), talks a lot about faith, often in the sense of being faithful. The whole book was written to a people who were on the verge of apostasy, of falling away from the faith. The whole book is written to encourage (us) them to remain committed to faith in Jesus Christ. The book is a manual for commitment to God.
*Do not drift away, he says. Fix your thoughts on Jesus. Don't fall short. Make every effort. Hold firmly to the faith. Approach the throne with confidence. Go on to maturity. Draw near to God. Hold on to the faith. Encourage one another. Meet together. Throw off the sin and run with perseverance. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Strengthen yourself. Worship God.*
The positive exhortations outnumber the negative ones four to one. There is a lot more said about seeking God, than about stopping sin. For example, "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. " Hebrews 4:14. ...I want to stop here and thank you for this reminder to seek God! I pray not to wanna stop! I pray I don't get 'mechanical' about it while at it as well! I just wanna be commited to God! Thank you and God bless you for ...
N.B: If I get his permission to post the note here, I will gladly do so. But for now, enjoy this and God bless you! Guys, it has been quite some time , you know? Hmmm. I will write soon! Loads! Stay here. Love.
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