"The world can no longer be left to mere diplomats, politicians, and business leaders. They have done the best they could, no doubt. But this is an age for spiritual heroes- a time for men and women to be heroic in their faith and in spiritual character and power." - Dallas Willard in The Spirit of the Disciplines : Understanding How God Changes Lives
Have you ever found yourself playing hide and seek with God?
Maybe God has found you, but then you go and hide again?
You found yourself in a tough predicament and you prayed for help. Just after a miraculous rescue or miraculous answer to prayer, you explain it away as a coincidence. Rather than allowing this to draw you close to God, you head right back to where you were before that moment.
Or maybe you aren’t sure God is real.
Or maybe You’ve always believed in God, but He’s always felt so far away.
Perhaps you felt close to Him when you were a kid or maybe you have walked with God for years only to find yourself slowly drifting away....
Maybe you feel good about your relationship with God, but you know there have been times when you felt so much closer to Him.
Sometimes God feels far away from us, and we aren't sure why or how that happened or how to even feel close to Him again.
Is this all there is or is more even possible?
Believe it or not - God is not playing hard to get. All too often, we are the ones who are playing games.
God is not far away. He is with us, but we will only find Him when we draw near to Him.
Here's a promise from the Scriptures:
"Come near to God and he will come near to you." James 4:8
God is seeking us, but too often we are hiding.
James shares more about our brokenness and struggle:
"You’re spoiled children, each wanting your own way. You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way.... You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet." - James 4:2-10 (MSG)
When we seek after God, we will find Him. When we ask for mercy and forgiveness, we will receive it. When we humble ourselves and admit we need His help, He will lift us up!
Too often, we don't feel close to God because we don't want to! We are playing hide and seek with God and hoping he does not find us!
Some of us may be thinking: “I’m not hiding from God, He is hiding from me!
Well, have you ever played a game of Hide and Seek with someone who is so stealth that even though they are the Seeker, you can’t hear Him coming?
God is not hiding. He’s right here for us! God is right here with us, even if we don’t see Him or feel Him or notice Him.
We can experience a life beyond our wildest imagination when we maximize who we were created to be, but we have to want what God has for us. We have to become receptive.
Applying the principles Jesus shared in describing the four types of soils in Matthew 13 and Luke 8, we can become fruitful (i.e., creative, generative, and productive). Jesus’ parable points out that we struggle to become who we were created to be when we have a hardened heart, a shallow faith, or find ourselves trapped among the thorns. If we can avoid these pitfalls, we will be fruitful.
Which soil best describes you?
Soils
To avoid these common struggles, we can discover our God-given destiny by developing 4 skills. Becoming who we were created to be means we need to become receptive, tenacious, intentional, and proactive.
In these snippets, we will look at how developing these new skills can help you make progress in your spiritual journey.
The skills are derived from Jesus' parable. To move from a hardened heart to a vulnerable one, we need to overcome the silence and become receptive to God's voice. To move from a shallow faith to a deep faith, we can overcome trials by becoming tenacious. To move from a thorny situation and instead have clarity, we can overcome temptations by becoming intentional. To avoid living a life of desolation, a life lacking fruitfulness, we overcome rebellion by becoming proactive.
This chart shows us a way to apply the parable of the soils to our lives:
SOILS ------- ALTERNATIVE ----- SKILLS
Hardened ----- Vulnerable ------ Receptive (Overcoming Silence)
Shallow --------- Deep ----------- Tenacious (Overcoming Trials)
Thorny -----------Clear ----------- Intentional (Overcoming Temptations)
Desolate --------- Fruitful ------- Proactive (Overcoming Rebellion)
The following snippets enable you to dive deeper into this process. The four essential skills to develop in order to become who you were created to be include:
Becoming Receptive ($.99)
Becoming Tenacious ($.99)
Becoming Intentional ($.99)
Becoming Proactive ($.99)