What hit home for you in the reading today?It's often too easy to forget or underestimate the power of our choices. We make a choice, and fail to appreciate what the resulting consequences could be. We waffle on making choices and miss opportunities that may not come back...for awhile. We also sometimes don't realize that we have the ability to choose in more situations than we do. So it is with our relationship with God: You are as close to God as you choose to be.
Are you mad at God? That's a choice you made. Are you disappointed with God? Again, that's a choice. Are you apathetic towards God? Are you uninterested in God? Are you frustrated by God? All choices you make on a regular basis. Wait wait, you tell me: those aren't choices! That's how you feel because of what has happened to you. No, no, I tell you: things happened and you chose to feel a certain way about it.
Just because you feel a certain way towards something doesn't justify your choice. Things happen in life, and you can either choose to blame God because of how you feel, or you can choose to get more knowledge and understanding despite your feelings of doubt and frustration. Feeling angry or resentful or bitter towards God doesn't have to be the ultimate driver of your choices. When you let your feelings be the most powerful force in making choices, you have surrendered your freewill.
God wants a friendship with you based on your choices, not just on your feelings. God wants us to talk with him, listen to him, work with him, enjoy his Creation with him, and so on. God wants you to trust him, have faith in his capabilities, believe in his promises, and love him back. God wants you to care about what he cares about, to get angry about what angers him, to delight in what delights him.
God is very interested in you, and he wants you to be interested in him. That's how friendships work. And those are all choices that we can make - not just because of how we feel, but more so because of what we know to be good and right.
What can you do to enjoy your friendship with God? What feelings do you have towards God that are souring your relationship with God? What are some good choices you know God wants you to make even though you don't feel like it?
1 comment:
I have found that all the bitterness towards God that I had was a much bigger barrier than I thought. Letting go of the bitterness is allowing me to start having the kind of friendship I need to have with God.
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