Stranded

I was recently eating ice cream at Sonic- one of the best places for a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Blast!! It was great!!! As I was eating I had not come the realization that my headlights were still on. Upon realizing it, i quickly turned them off and continued devouring the sweet sensations of my Blast! When I attempted to leave, the car would not crank. AHHH!!!! I was sooooo frustrated. What a stupid move on my part, I should have turned the lights off as soon as I got there and then this would not have happened. Another thing to add to my troubles was the location of the Sonic- York. So I then was stranded until my dad came to the rescue to jump start my car.

Have you ever felt stranded in your spiritual life? Have you ever felt like God just wasn't there when you needed Him most and there was simply no hope? I know I have. So what is going on in these times? Why does God seem so distant?

The reality is that God hasn't gone anywhere. If we are believers in Christ then we know that He is always with us no matter what, through thick and thin. But there are times in every believer's life where God seems distant and we feel stranded. So what do we do in order to become closer?

What i have found to be the key to getting closer to God is to spend time with Him. WOW, big revelation, in order to get closer to someone-spend time with them. Its not a complex or complicated idea, but what is hard is actually doing it. Its called "Daily Faith Renewal" In order to have an on-going intimacy with God we must DAILY renew our faith and trust in Him. This renewal can be different for everyone, somtimes its prayer, reading, writing, or music, but the key is having one-on-one time with the Creator of Universe. This is where the abudant life truely lies. Spending time with Him, the giver of all that is good, is the onlly thing that will keep us close to Him.

However, so many times we are tempted to fade. We get home from a retreat or mission trip and we are on fire and we feel close to God, but then we begin to fade. We get back to the "real world" and things get real again. We fade more and more as the days go on and our present tense faith is no longer evident. This is the time when we must honestly face the reality of what has become of our lives. We must ask God for forgivness and dive back into His word so that we can become intimate again.

Its an easy concept (spend time with the person who you want to be close to), but it is just as easy to fall to temptation and fade under the pressures of the "real world". What is hard is to stick with it. No one said that the Christian life would be easy, and its not. But if we truely want to honor God then we have to spend time with Him. Isn't that the point? Isn't it all for His Glory the One and Only?

"Therefore my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-not only in my presenc, nut now much more in my absence-continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose."
Philippians 2:12-13

A great song that goes along with this idea is Santus Real's "I'm not alright". Check it out on itunes!!!