Imagine eating food for only 3 days a year. Recently I heard a statistic that echoed within my bones. On average, Christian churches hold one weekly service for approximately 90 minutes (1.5 hours) long. This equates to 3.25 days per year.

We go to church to be spiritually fed. There was a point in my life where I only went to Church on Sunday and had no other spiritual activity for the rest of the week. My entire spiritual journey was based on that one Church sermon. It makes sense why my world was crazy and I was continually filled with self-doubt, anxiety, shame, apprehension and fear. The times when I remembered to pray, I felt that God was not listening.

The Devil is busy

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. – 1 Peter 5:8-9

The devil is not resting. And even scarier, the Devil knows the Bible more than me. He knows exactly what lies to tell me so that I can believe it. His goal is to pull us away from growing closer to God. And he is succeeding! My life was filled with so many different distractions. I had no energy or time to do things that I knew I should have been doing as a woman who wanted to be ‘godly’.

Being intentional with God

Many of you know my story. In summary, I was tired of being tired. I felt like I was in a long-term period of suffering. The only solution I had to get out of my suffering was for the Lord to kill me. I was ready. But the Lord had another plan. God was pursuing me but I repeatedly refused Him.

There is a verse in the Bible that confused me for years: Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. – Psalm 34:8. “How is this even possible?”, I pondered. In my desire to learn this, I knew I had to become intentional with God.

How can you be intentional?
1. Fall in love with the one that Created You and repeatedly gives You gifts.

That’s it. No other steps. As a young girl growing up, I kept on hearing about this one-sided love: that God loved me so much that He gave up His son to die for a sinner like me. I was a living testimony of this love but didn’t realize it. If I could tell you all that God has done for me it would be a never ending book. I desired to pursue God back.

How to fall in love

I hear you. Well, how do I fall in love with God?

Being battered by love for decades, this was not easy for me. But, for once, I wanted the real type of love. That BFF type of love. Here is what I did:

1. Get to know God: I studied the Bible with a desire to learn and understand who God really was. I needed to change the beliefs I was always taught and build a new foundation based on what the Bible said.
2. Talk and spend quality time: Talking to air is weird. This was the most challenging. I was doing all the talking. But most important in this step was not allowing distractions to stop me from this special time with God. It meant that if I had to do it in my car or take a walk, that is what I did. But the beautiful thing is that the more I talked to God, and stopped talking to just sit in His presence, I felt His presence. Things would happen around me and I knew He was answering. I was hearing Him speak back to me.
3. Jiving: Ok, I am giving away my age with that word. But, there is nothing sweeter than singing and dancing with your bestie. And God loves worship. The Bible said that David, a man after God’s own heart, worshipped and danced so much until he was almost naked (2 Samuel 6:20). God loves worship so much that He is with us when we worship. John 4:23 tells us that God is seeking true worshippers.

Like Trust

Love, like trust, takes time. It won’t happen over night. In order to taste and see that God is good, we need to grow closer to Him. I can testify that Psalm 34:8 is a real thing! I have tasted and seen God’s goodness. The older I get the more in love I am with Him and I never want to turn back. My life is filled with such joy and peace even on the days that I have trouble. It’s because I know He has my back and I hear Him guiding me throughout the day because I am constantly now speaking to Him.

You may be where I was. God is passionately pursuing you and He wants to give You everything that you ask for. But in order for that to happen, you have to be in a close relationship with Him. Change your life today and become intentional with God.

Prayer

Let us pray:

Jehovah Elyon (The Lord Most High God). My Peace. Wonderful Father. Worthy of all of our praise and worship. My King forever, I revere You. Your love is unrelenting and sometimes can be so overwhelming. I desperately long for you. To hear Your voice and feel Your presence is like a sweet aroma to me. I pray for the person reading this. Help them to desire You. Give them a taste of what experiencing Your goodness looks and feels like. I pray that this will create such a deep hunger and thirst in them to know You more, Lord. That they will be desperate for Your presence and being in a close relationship with You. I pray that we will move away from this one-sided love relationship and fall deeply in love with You, Yahweh. Free us from the bondage of the evil one who is throwing distractions at us constantly to push us away from You. Help us to be intentional in growing closer with You. Like Moses, we desire to seek You, Yahweh, face to face and to be called Your friend. Be glorified, Lord. Take over our lives and have Your way. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Join us

Join us on WhatsApp for all types of content: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Val9OGV4IBhNNHKmi51G