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- What God Lost — Part 2
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- Finding Peace
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- From Fire and Thunder to Love and Submission
- The Coming One
- Forgiveness Made Possible
- The Innkeeper's Wife
- Do You Have The Right Words?
- The Lamb of God As Told by a Scribe
- What Love Is This?
- When Heaven Came Down
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Looking for a Relationship?
What would you think of your husband if he pursued you with a passion before marriage, then after marriage ignored you?
He was there, all right, but he was waiting until you were finished taking care of the kids, and doing your other stuff, so that he could really get to know you.
What kind of a relationship is that?
Many couples drift apart because they do not work to stay together.
They get busy with their own things, or the children, or work, and forget their true love.
Too often, Christians view our relationship with God in the same way.
We “got saved” all right.
And we’ll see God in heaven.
But…
Our relationship stopped there.
We know He is there, all the time.
But…
Well, how much of a relationship can you have with a God you can’t see?
Do we have to wait for heaven to have that intimate relationship?
Enoch didn’t.
Nor did Elijah.
Or Moses.
Or David.
They knew God here.
On earth.
How?
How do you build a relationship with a God that is a Spirit that you can’t see?
My oldest son experienced a long-distance relationship with his wife-to-be.
He didn’t see her.
But he sure improved his writing skills by emailing her—daily. (This was before he was allowed a phone.)
These epistles were long, lengthy letters.
She, in turn, responded to his questions, probably had a few of her own (how else would she get my engineer son to write anything?).
Those letters weren’t the only thing he did.
He thought about her when he wasn’t writing, about what he wanted to share with her.
Same with God.
He’s given us His Word.
As we read it, think about it, mull over what He says, think about what pleases Him, thank Him for what He has promised us—our reading becomes a two-way communication of what He shares and our thankful, grateful response to it.
George Mueller found that extended his prayer life exponentially. See Is Your Soul Happy?
By using God’s Word as a direction for his prayers, he changed the way he prayed.
By praying for what God desired, he learned Who God was.
It opened a relationship with God never before experienced by Mueller.
Ever study the life of Elijah?
He was always telling someone what God said.
He didn’t even have the Bible.
How did he know?
He had such a communication with God that God told him things other people would never hear.
Because they weren’t listening.
And he was.
One time the woman, whose son Eljiah had promised for her, died, came to him.
She fell at his feet weeping.
Elijah’s servant tried to move her away.
Elijah rebuked his servant, “God has hidden this from me. Let her alone.”
He wasn’t prepared for her accusation that her son had died.
Yet he responded instantly by returning with her and raising her son from the dead (2 Kings 4).
Nothing like this had happened before.
He didn't follow a three-step program that you do this, this and this, then God does that.
But Elijah knew what to do.
How?
He didn’t need to prepare for a given set of circumstances.
He knew what his God was capable of doing.
Elijah walked with God so closely that he heard God speak, he did God’s works, and he so pleased God that he did not die, but was taken to heaven in a chariot.
Do you think there was a battle in the heavens when that chariot tried to leave the atmosphere?
I do.
Elijah’s bones would have been worshipped by some.
Like Moses’s—the angel buried Moses for the same reason (Jude 9).
Was Moses or Elijah more special to God?
Could they hear God better?
They wanted to hear God.
They chose that over everything else.
They searched for God in His Word.
And in His world.
They were so in tuned with what God wanted—to please Him above everything else.
Moses wanted to see God. And was rewarded with a glimpse.
Is that relationship only for people in the Bible—who can watch God write with His finger or hear judgment for their nation?
No.
God still seeks people who want to know Him.
Those who yield their lives totally.
To. Please. Him.
George Mueller was one.
Elizabeth Elliot was another.
Her first husband, Jim, was one of the five missionary pilots killed by the cannibals in Ecuador.
Elizabeth returned with her daughter to reach those same people for Christ.
Corrie ten Boon was another.
Her years in concentration camps, because she helped Jews escape Hitler’s killing, were not wasted time in God's timetable.
Those years brought her to know God as the God He Is.
Eric Liddle refused to run his 100 meter race in the 1924 Summer Olympics because it was held on Sunday.
He ran instead the 400 meter later in the week.
And won the gold.
He then went to China as a missionary. (Remember Chariots of Fire?)
God is not just in the business of saving everyone He can for heaven.
He wants a relationship with all those saved now!
Yes, I can’t wait for heaven, when everything is perfect, no evil, grief, tears, wrong—and I will see Jesus.
But the relationship with God starts this moment.
Not just so we don’t cry over foolish mistakes made because we didn’t know God enough to even know we weren’t doing what He wanted.
Nor because we didn’t pursue a relationship with God as the all-consuming, only thing we did!
But because that was why we were created!
Because that brings God pleasure.
We have come again to why we do things—what gives us meaning, purpose, passion.
We were made to have a relationship with God.
Nothing else satisfies.
Looking for a relationship?
Pursue God and His Word with all your passion.
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I write about what matters...to you---
women, wives and moms---
about your family, faith and future.
I write about what's hard, what helps and what heals.
I show you how it's done. And not done.
I hold your hand as you find what matters to the Savior.
And let go of those things that mattered to you, but not to Him.
I write about what matters...to Him.
Sonya Contreras
Faith
Find more articles about faith here:
Dear Faithful and Loyal Readers
Life Falling Apart? Try Gratitude
A Few Words about Marriage
When Suffering Gets Personal
What an Amazing God We Serve
Response to Healthy Gaming
How Miserable Are You? Are You Happy?
The Need for Meaning Even in Pain
Reminders of What's Important
God's Unmeasurable Love
A Quarter of a Century Spent for Our Country
What Were You Thinking?
Who Are You Watching?
Boundaries for a Better Life
God's Boundaries
Memories of a Hero Mom
The Ripple Effect
How Do We Think Like Jesus
Litany of a Waiting Woman
Ever Cook a Frog?
New Year's Reminders
They Galled Her Gammy
When God Speaks
A Russian Christmas Story
Be Thankful
Be Grateful
Are You Tired of the Same, Old Thing?
(reprint)
Laughter—Why Laugh?
Mom
Are You Disturbed?
Unity of the Brothers
Encouragements To Declutter
Do You Have Too Much Stuff?
Too Much Stress
Getting Past the Noise—The Value of Silence
Are You Scatterbrained?
How Good Are You?
Looking for Something Good To Read?
A Cup of Cold Water
I Will Trust When I Cannot See
Encouragement—What Is It?
Being in God's Presence
"Einstein and the Professor"
When God Is Silent
Do You Crave Beauty?
Using Stories to Discipline
The Danger of the Wrong Story
Using Stories to Teach Lessons
God is in charge of the future
November Dare Joy Challenge
Ungratefulness
Developing an Attitude of Gratitude
Looking for Jesus
What Do Your Prayers Reflect?
Life's Little Pleasures
Daniel—Greatly Loved by God
Take Every Thought
Jars of Clay
What Do Your Words Reveal about Your Heart?
How Do You Get Strong Faith?
Too Busy for God's Word?
How Do You Think Like Jesus?
Reflections from a Mom
Pain—What's It Good For?
Why Marry?
Consider the Robin
One Life Who Made a Difference
What Day Are You Living In?
Interrupted by God
Is Jesus Really the Answer to Everything?
Are You Beat Up?
What's Your Hurry?
Are You a Manipulator?
Are You Salty?
Are You Condemned?
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Do You Expect Answers to Your Prayers?
Do You Eat Your Stress?
Need Focus?
Going through Trouble?
Immanuel—God with Us
Looking for a Relationship?
When God Says, "No!"
What Do You Do with Left-Overs?
How Great Is Your God?
Are You Needy?
How Do You See Sin?
What Do Your Words Mean?
Is Evil Overwhelming You?
Those Aha Moments
Is Your Soul Happy?
Are You Ignored?
Looking for the God Moment
Do You Know Truth from Almost Truth?
I Believe in Jesus—What Now?
Do You Have Your "Son"-Glasses On?
Less Is More
Singing His Praise
Are You Trying To Do It All?
What Do You Do with All These Prayer Requests?
Have a Problem?
Do You Know How to Pray?
Looking for God in Every Moment
Are You Receptive to God's Blessings?
Tell the Senate: Mothers Aren't Birthing People
Is Your Life Complicated?
How Do We Fight Evil?
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
Giving Up or Taking Away
the Bible is simple
Are You a Dripping Faucet?
What's Your Testimony?
The Final Move
Be Careful What You Wish For!
Are Your Prayers Answered?
I Choose Joy
What Have You Learned from Your Hardship?
Who Are You Trying to Change?
What's Your Five-Year Plan?
The Danger of "Aloneness"
My Colors
Are You a Whiner?
Are Your Works Approved?
Do You Think You're Stressed?
Is Your Soul Feeling Ragged?
God Speaks to the Heart of the King
What about the Details?
Have You Felt the Long-Suffering of God?
How Does God Lead You?
Do You Have Enough?
Don't Carry More than You Need
Cast the Seed
God Is Faithful
Are You Deceived?
Are You Essential?
Are You Safe?
Are You Tired of the Same Old Thing?
Does the World Make Sense?
Have You Seen God's Majesty?
Do You Feel Judged?
If You Only Had One More Day To Live
Are You Understood?
Do You Long for the Word of God?
Slow Down and Smell the Dead Leaves
Are You Hospitable?
Our Heritage Is Bought by Blood
Are You Disturbed?
Are You Depressed?
I Did It My Way
Finding the Simple Life with Meaning
The Simple Life
Do You Have the Right Words?
Did Your Dream Die?
On the Other Side of the Fence
Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence
Confessions of a Desperate Mom
Saving for Tomorrow
A Wedding Remembered
Who Will Stand in the Gap?
Are You a Protector or a Ruler?
Who Are You?
Are You an Image Bearer or a Wad of Cells?
Are You a Watchman?
Where Do You Find Meaning?
The Lamb of God as Told by a Scribe
What Love Is This?
Remember: The Symbols of Passover Explained
Tea and Rest
Do You Have Peace?
What Makes a Marriage Work?
When Life Is Awful
Are You Strong Enough?
Rules
Seasons
Be Faithful through Suffering
Do You Know the Word?
Wake Up! Strengthen What Remains
Are You Spit in God's Mouth?
Is Jezebel in Your Midst?
Do You Stand Against Satan Himself?
Are You Tired of Being a Mom?
What in the World Is Happening?
It's Not My Story
How Would Your Faith Compare?
Are You Sinking?
Are You a Rule Follower?
Useful for Him
An Intimate Moment with Mary
The Worldview that Makes the
Underclass
Thoughts to Ponder
What Does It Take To Know the
Heart of God?
See the Story in the Stars
Do the Scriptures Burn You?
Being in His Presence
Contentment: It's Not for the Timid
How Secure Are You?
How Do You Respond To Stupid People?
The Earthworm Is My Hero
Heart Issues or Issues of the Heart
Things Aren't Always What They Seem
More faith articles are found here:
under the Table of Contents. Also available in book form.
Or here:
under the Table of Contents. Also available in book form.
Articles on Suffering can be found here,
under Table of Contents. Also available in book form.
Special Days
Remember: The Symbols of
Passover Explained
Aug 12, 2017 The Heavens Declare the Glory of God
July 4th, Freedom
What Is an American Soldier?
Valentine's Day: A Day of Love?
Memorial Day-A Day To Remember
Veterans' Day-To Honor Our Men
Fall Colors
First Thanksgiving Day
Proclamation
Christmas: Stories behind the Songs
Christmas: Stories behind the Songs, part 2
Author of Biblical fiction, married to my best friend, and challenged by eight sons’ growing pains as I write about what matters.
This article really speaks to me as I've been seeking a deeper relationship with God. Going to read Mueller's article again too. T hanks so much Sonya, know your words come from deep within you and all you have experienced and are going through. God bless you.