Gazing on His Beauty

Awhile back I had the desire to study the life of David. Specifically his heart, since he is described by God Himself as being a man after God's own heart.  The more I journey down this path with the Lord the more I desire to have that type of relationship with Him.

As I read about David and his relationship with God, I realize the key to having a heart after God's is to understand God's Heart.  The more I understand how passionately He loves me, even in the midst of all the "junk" in my life - the more I will begin to love Him.  The more I will desire to spend time in His presence and to follow Him.

For too long I've allowed my perfectionist tendencies to drive me to try to be righteous and holy.  The problem with this is I am focuing on myself instead of Christ.  I've focused on being a "good" christian for so long and when I've stumbled I've focused on how much of a failure I was because of it.  I've heard for so long how I need to focus on Jesus and not myself, that God loves me no matter what.  But it was not until this last week that this finally clicked for me!  I've been preaching this concept to others but without realizing it I was not living it myself.  I was still focusing on my failures and running from God when I failed instead of running to Him.  I was still focused on my efforts to be "good" for God, trying to earn His love.  A love that is greater than I can even begin to imagine and which is already wholly mine - no strings attached!

Now, instead of expending so much energy on being a "good" christian I want to spend my efforts gazing upon God, understanding His emotions and His love.  The rest will happen naturally as I fall more and more in love with this amazing, awesome God who loves me.

Remember your first love?  The giddy feelings?  How you wanted to know as much as possible about the person and could not stop thinking about them.  How your heart would flutter everytime you saw them.   Remember how when they expressed their love for you, it would increase your love towards them?  Our relationship with God is to be like this, but soo much more.  And more permanent.  It is not a fleeting feeling that fades after a few months when we get to know each other.  There is always more to learn about God and His love for us.  There is always something new to inspire us.

That is how I've been feeling lately.  I've been giddy with excitement for no apparent reason.  I'm excited to spend time in His Word, praying, worshiping and just sitting in His Presence.  I crave it and run after it.  I want more! 

Do you feel that way about your Lord and Savior?  If not, ask Him to begin to reveal His heart to you.  Ask Him to show you His beauty and to give you understanding of how great is His love for you.  How passionately He pursues and woos you.  Ask Him to give you more understanding of Psalm 27, to truly place this desire deep within your heart.

Psalm 27:4
One thing I ask of the Lord; this is what I seek:  that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.

One book I'm reading right now that I recommend to anyone who wants to take this journey is "After His Own Heart" by Mike Bickle.  I leave you now with a quote from this book:

"The heart of God is a wonderland, a universe of beauty like no place mankind could dream up.  All beauty on earth is merely a reflection of Him..."

Effective & Productive Godly Lives

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. ~ 2 Peter 1:3

I take this verse as saying if we have knowledge of (or in other words, a relationship with) Jesus, then we will have all we need for our lives and all we need to live godly lives.

So then the question becomes how do we have a relationship with Him? I would answer that with another question. How do you cultivate any relationship? You must spend time with the person, put aside your selfish desires and ambitions in order to listen to them and get to know them. Take the time and make the effort to learn and understand their mind and heart.

So, my next question is are we spending time regularly with Jesus? AND is that time spent talking about us or putting ourselves aside in order to truly know His mind and heart?

2 Peter 1 goes on to say we should make every effort to add to our lives the following things:

• faith
• goodness
• knowledge
• self-control
• perseverance
• godliness
• brotherly kindness
• love

For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ~ 2 Peter 1:8

I think this is one of those circles that build upon themselves. Notice it says to possess these in increasing measure. That means we can always use more, we should always seek more.

Spending time getting to know our Savior will increase these qualities in our lives as we know Him better and give Him more control of our lives. Having these qualities increases our ability to know Him better - it is a never ending circle.

As sinful humans we are not able to possess these qualities without our Savior so the best way to get this cycle going is to spend regular time in the Word, in prayer and fasting, in worship in order to see God's heart. As we begin to understand and follow His heart, these qualities will grow in us and we will become effective and productive members of God's Kingdom.

Key to God's Heart - Prayer & Worship

I've been mulling this post over in my head for almost a week now. Trying to determine how best to approach the subject. In the past year I've been on a very serious pursuit to know the heart of the Lord. In the past it has all been about knowledge for me. Studying God's Word, disecting it, reading the interpretations of others. When it came to church I was totally into the Bible study part of fellowship - doing studies, having discussions. However, the prayer and worship part of fellowship was always lacking for me. I would pray in private a little each week and I would listen to Christian worship music, but I just did not "get" these two things and I honestly felt no desparate need to "get" them. I was often distracted during times of prayer and worship and could not wait to get into what I viewed as the "meat" of things.

However, I've realized now that I had things all wrong. I've recently heard a quote (not sure of it's source) that really hit home for me.

The Bible isn't a magic book . . . we don't open it and the Light shines up in our face. The Light is in us and shines down on the page and illuminates the written word.

No matter how much I study God's Word, if He is not giving me His Wisdom, I will not get it. That is why so many individuals can read the Bible, study it in depth and still not Believe. God needs to touch our hearts first, He needs to illuminate our hearts so we can understand His thoughts. I've come to realize to fully understand God's Word I first need the key. What is the key to understanding God's Word? I believe it is understanding God's heart. This is done through prayer and worship.

Let me explain. If want to get to know someone, want to develop a relationship with someone, how do you do this? By reading about them? Doing research on their past, their present, their thoughts for the future? That may help you to gain a surface understanding of the person. But to really get to know them, to understand their heart, their desires, their dreams - you need to spend time with them face to face. You need to talk to them, reveal your heart to them and allow them to reveal their heart to you. God is the same way. He desires a relationship with us, He wants to reveal His Heart to us and wants us to do the same with Him. This means we need to spend time with Him face to face and talk to Him. This can't be done just by reading His Word. Prayer and worship is the key that unlocks our heart to what God truly wants to show us - His Unconditional Love for us!

God tells us that His ways and thoughts are above ours, that the Wisdom of God is foolishness to those who do not believe. Worship and prayer opens our hearts to see past the wisdom of man to the True Wisdom of God. It speaks to us at a level that involves not only our mind, but also our heart and soul. It allows God to speak to our innermost being and change us from the inside out. It allows Him to truly dwell within us and guide us in our walk with Him. Most of all it allows us to learn to focus on Him and His Kingdom no matter what we are going through in this world. It helps us to see past the flimsy reality of this world to the true reality of God's Kingdom.

In the past year God has used my reality here in this imperfect world to teach me about His perfect love for me. I prayed to better understand His heart and He answered that prayer by teaching me about prayer and worship, the importance of it in my life and in my understanding of His Word.

I recently heard Eddie Boasso speak here at RHOP regarding the importance of Day and Night Prayer. If you are able to listen to this podcast I highly recommend it. I found this message to be very convicting and highly encouraging.

In the end, I'm still in a learning process, probably always will be. I'm definitely not anywhere near being an expert on prayer or worship. But I do recognize the importance of these things in my life. I desire more and my prayer is that God continues to teach me and draw me closer to Him. That He continues to fan the flame He has lit inside me to pursue Him in a deeper relationship. To more fully understand the Love that transcends all and resulted in the Lord giving up everything to become human and give His life for me. A love that will allow me to spend eternity as Jesus' Bride, eternity in heaven worshiping my Creator.