Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Getting God's Attention


      
The other day I found myself singing this song to the Lord. “There is none like you, no one else can touch my heart like you do. I could search for all eternity long and find there is none like you.”  Oh, how I found that to be true in my life. The flip side of this is when we get impatient, expecting God to do something great in our life.
     Upon reading the bible we see some of the great feats God did for his people and find ourselves wondering why we don’t see things like that in our lives.  When we don’t see God doing spectacular things we tend to think he isn’t with us.  Take for instance, Abraham. He has some great victories, but do you realize that God only “showed up” about every fifteen years in Abraham’s life?  Or look at the life of Joseph. He was falsely accused, thrown in prison. Forgotten by key people, yet he remained faithful to God. Yet look what Genesis 39:21 says, “But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” The Lord was with Joseph through all his trials.
     Let’s look at another perspective of God being with a person.  There was no doubt that God was present with the Psalmist David.  He had won many battles personally and on a national level. But when you read 1 Chronicles 14 where David has an opportunity to go defeat the Philistines again. He doesn’t just go up in his own strength, or with the attitude “I beat them before I’ll do it again.”  No, David inquire of the Lord if he should go to battle and asks the Lord to go with him. (Verse 10 & 14)  David didn’t rely on past methods/traditions of victory. He wanted God to move in a very “present” way.
     My question for us today is do we really believe God wants to touch our lives and are we willing to build godly characteristics that will draw God’s attention to our lives? Let’s briefly look at three things we need to trust God’s presence to be with us in everyday life.

Relationship

     Then King David went in and sat before the LORD; and he said: "Who am I, O Lord GOD? And what is my house, that You have brought me this far?” 2 Samuel 7:18
     We must build an intimate relationship with the Lord. It begins the moment we accept Jesus Christ to be the Lord and Savior of our life. Then like any relationship we must nurture our relationship with him. Here’s another example from David’s life.  We may not see the tings happening “we” think should happen right now, but let’s not forget the blessing we’ve already received from the Lord. Look back on your life and see the progress you have made with the Lord’s help. Then be encouraged to know that he will continue to help you make progress in your life. The key can be found in Matthew 6:33.

Delight

     3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.
 Psalm 37:3-5
     As parents we experience a special joy when we see that our children delight in being blessed by the things we do for them. God is no different. He takes great joy when we appreciate the blessings he brings to our life. And it makes it a joy for him to bless us again.

Recognition

     "Therefore You are great, O Lord GOD. For there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.” 2 Samuel 7:22
     We must recognize God for who he is and what he has done for us. The question now is are we able to sing to him from our heart “There is none like you. No one else can touch my heart like you do. I could search for all eternity long and find, there is none like you.”  Take time today to reflect on God’s goodness in your life. Think of the time he protected you from danger, the time he came through with finances to pay a bill, the time he kept you from getting involved in the wrong things, etc.  He loves you and has a good plan for your life. (Jeremiah 29:11) But he won’t force himself on you; you must invite him into your life.
     In closing, I haven’t arrived to being all I know God wants me to be, but I do know that no one can touch me like he can! How about you?