Seeking intently

Many a time we read a lot of spiritual books and materials, watch sermons or hear spiritual messages and exclaim they are good. But seldom implement them in our lives. We take them so lightly that we fail the importance of life application. The Word of God is not just to read and feel good about it. It is for our nourishment and growth for only these can change and mold us to what God expects us to be...

James 1:23-25 (New International Version)

23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

One more thing to be noted here and not to miss is, whatever we do will be blessed only when we yield to God's Word. It is no magic but God's order and way. This is to say, that the person who has set his/her heart to do the will of God by doing what the scripture says is a blessed person. May our hearts be set to follow God's Word intently so that we will be in the center His will always.

Praying as per His will

Once I was startled when I heard someone remark, 'There is nothing like God's will when it comes to claiming God's promises'. This is highly non-biblical I believe. When we claim God's promises, it is understood that we ask or claim something as per His will. Only in some contexts we need not doubt if it is God's will. For instance to pray for healing or to become debt-free. But in other contexts such as a job, career, ministry, marriage, migration, business, any aspect of life, we need to pray with a 'if' clause.

When we pray, we say something like this, "God if this is your will, then let it be done". This kind of attitude reveal submission, humility and acceptance of His sovereignty in our lives. In contrast to this attitude is self-centered will, unsurrendered spirit and taking control of our life and situations. Only when we learn to pray as per God's will, would we ever live a life surrendered in Christ. Otherwise we may be just confessing and proclaiming Christ without allowing Him to be the Master.

Matthew 6:10 (Amplified Bible)

Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Many does not know the in depth meaning of this prayer. When we say "Your will be done on earth." It also implies that His will be done in our lives - our job, ministry, marriage, family, career, education, wealth etc...

So next time when we pray let us not pray with ignorance but with submission and acceptance of His Lordship...

Changing our question patterns

Many times we are plagued by the question 'Why?' in our lives. Even in the book of Psalms we find the psalmist asking God why, when he fails to understand the things happening in his life. It is natural to ask the question why? But we should not get into a demanding spirit to have answers for all our whys?

Rev. Selwyn Hughes says that instead of asking why to God, we should move on to ask 'What?' or 'How?'. Instead of asking, "God, why this happened to me?" We should ask, "God, what you want me to do in this situation?" Or "How you want me to handle this issue?". That is maturity and helps us to handle life efficiently...

Ecclesiastes 7:10 (Amplified Bible)

Do not say, Why were the old days better than these? For it is not wise or because of wisdom that you ask this.

The preacher in Ecclesiastes say, that it is not wise or in other words not maturity to ask demanding questions. If we do so, we will not find answers but will become angry, disappointed and frustrated. It is better to grow up in our Christian life and faith so that we become better persons.

Allowing Him to Lead

Sometimes we may think if only we had the power to do something we could walk back to our past and make things right. This is when things wouldn't have turned out favorably in our life especially those for which we would have labored.

Of course we all know that we cannot go back to our life to make things as it should have been. But instead of lamenting over the past, we can always do something better now...

Psalm 37:5 (New International Version)

Commit your way to the LORD;

trust in him ...

We may wonder what happens when we commit our way to the Lord? How it is going to change our present now?

The Word of God says,

Psalm 37:23 (New Living Translation)

The Lord directs the steps of the godly.

He delights in every detail of their lives.

We need know this fact for sure, that He will direct our steps for He delights in every detail of our life. After having committed we should not think that everything will turn out like a magic. We may still have to trail through some rough paths if the Lord desires us to walk through them...There we should not complain or grumble, but know that these lessons of discipline is for our good. Our only consolation is that God is directing our steps (as long as we commit and allow Him to lead) and He knows the best path...

We ought to leave our lives into His hand to set things right. And He will make this as the result...

Psalm 37:6 (New International Version)

He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,

the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

Obtaining by losing

Sometimes we focus on the by-products life (work, blessing, prosperity, success, a relationship etc) so much that we become desperate to get them or set them right, and would do our intellectual best to achieve it. When we do so we are sure to get disappointed. The reason for such a thing to happen is: we wouldn't have placed the thing we seek in the hands of God. Or even if we had placed them in His hands, we would often meddle with it by taking it from Him and try to work on it by our own intellect. The result of which would be frustrations, delays and disappointments.

Only when we are able to fully leave it with God to work on the thing we seek and are able to trust His way to deal with it, will there be achievement.

The Word of God says,

Luke 17:33 (New Living Translation)

If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it.

Here 'life' refers to the by products of our life... all the essential aspects of our life. When we let them go into the hands of God, then all the by products which we seek will fall into right place and we don't really have to struggle to derive them...

Deriving the by products

We see that the by products of Christian living is success, prosperity, blessings, health and well-being. One may wonder how to derive them in our lives to stand up as a testimony before others? By striving or just seeking? Nothing by just abiding God's will and way...

Let us look at a few scriptures which shows us this truth...

Proverbs 16:20 (New American Standard Bible)

He who gives attention to the word will find good,

And blessed is he who trusts in the LORD.

Proverbs 28:25 (New International Version)

A greedy man stirs up dissension,

but he who trusts in the LORD will prosper.

Proverbs 29:25 (New American Standard Bible)

The fear of man brings a snare,

But he who trusts in the LORD will be exalted.

Blessings, success, prosperity and well-being are all connected to heeding to God's Word and trusting in the Lord. 'Trusting' doesn't just mean having faith to obtain all that we pray for or seek. But trusting refers to absolute trust in the way God works in our life and deals with us individually. This may be seem difficult for some. However, when we learn to accept this fact, we will find ourselves more at ease in dealing with life issues and problems.

By-products of Christian life

'The whole purpose of why Jesus came to earth is to make us holy' says W.E. Sangster, a well-known author and preacher. Our God is Holy and His purpose for us is to make us like Him...Blessings, success, prosperity, growth are all by products of Christian life.

Sometimes we can make these by products as top priorities of our life. Then we will miss the mark to some extent. We will not concentrate much on doing God's will, being what He wants us to be or pleasing God as the primary goals of life. When we loose focus on the essential things in our Christian life, then our we will find our lives more imbalanced and non satisfying. For the by products of Christian life cannot satisfy a person's soul. A person's soul is satisfied only when the person and his/her life is in the order of God.

Luke 12:15 (New International Version)

Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

If we focus on the by products of Christian life, we will come to see that we have no shortage of wants or desires as these are continuously present one after the other. And they are never fulfilling or fully attainable.

Only when we allow the Lord to establish His order in our life, will we find that the by products of Christian life fall in its place...

Matthew 6:33 (New International Version)

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.