In this video, we're going to talk about the question, "How can you grow a deeper,
personal relationship with God?"
Now, this question was sent into us by frischer kaese.
frischer kaese, I do hope I pronounced your name correctly.
Forgive me if I did not.
But, thank you for this question.
It is Profound.
And, by the way, if you have a question you would like talked about or
a topic to chat with me about, please leave it in the comments section below.
I'd love to hear from you.
But in the meantime, how do we grow our personal
relationship with God?
Now, my name is Charles Yerkes and I am with simplenotshallow.com.
Where we help you keep it Simple Not Shallow.
So, the very first thing that comes to mind is simply to
read the Bible and pray.
Now, it is an answer that I think has become almost
trite among Christian people.
"Read the Bible and pray."
It is spoken so fast, so quickly; I don't think we think about it a
whole lot.
And, as such, I find that little phrase to not be completely satisfying.
I want something a little more.
And you know, I think that God being a relational
God, this question demands a relational Answer.
I think what we need to do is find a way to couch reading the Bible
and praying in relational terms.
So that, we get the most out of it.
And you know, it's interesting talking about relationships.
Relationships, personal relationships always involve two people;
two people actively involved in building the relationship.
And hanging out together and talking together and joking
together just spending time relating with each other.
And, in a personal relationship with God, one of these
persons is God.
So I think, the very first thing is that you must invite God into an
active personal relationship.
And, the second person, of course, is yourself.
You must decide that you want
an active personal relationship; that you're going to be every bit as active
as God is in developing this.
Now, here's the way that this has worked itself out
in my life.
Okay, this is putting things in relational terms.
See, when I come to my study time, when I read the Bible,
before I do anything else I talk to God.
And I say, "Father, please help me find you in
this passage.
Help me learn who Jesus is, let me learn more about who you are, not
lessons, not morals, not guidance, simply who you are.
And I have found God to be a very big boy.
If I ask him to help me know him, since he wants to know me, he
makes that happen.
And all of a sudden, I start seeing him in the different passages of the Bible.
It's an amazing thing.
So, that's step one.
Now, and that, like I said, involves reading the Bible daily and praying.
But now specifically seeking a relationship.
Not seeking anything else.
Just seeking God himself.
Now, to go just a little bit deeper still.
Though, and to give us an example, more of a
direct path to follow, you know, to put some meat on these bones so to speak.
I was looking through the Bible and I came
across a passage in Luke that I found very informative.
It was Luke chapter 6 and in it Jesus, believe it or not, is
talking about love.
And he tells you how to grow.
In Luke chapter 6, and I now put the verses down below somewhere, he says to
love your enemies, bless those who curse you do good to those who harm you.
Love your enemy.
For what good does it for you to simply love those who love you back?
He says everybody does that.
How does that help you grow?
Right?
Love those who hate you, love the unlovable.
That is where we're going to get growth.
Now, before you call me all crazy and you
may already have called me crazy. But,
before you call me crazy; let's take a
look at 1 John 4.
Now, here the Bible says something very… just
utterly amazing.
It says, if you do not love others, you did not know God.
If you do not love all others, you do not know God; for God is love.
Now, before you get all, "You know that's
only talking about other Christians or people like us or in our circles.
That's just talking about loving
each other as Christians."
Check this out, just a little bit later in 1 John, he
says this, "This is the love, that God loved us while we were still his enemy."
Did you catch that?
God came down, loved us, and sent his son to
help re-establish a relationship with him while we were his enemies.
Love your enemies as you love yourself.
And it says if you love others in this way, then God
is living in you and his love is becoming complete in you.
God living in you his love becoming complete.
That sounds like growing in a relationship
with him.
Now, learn to love the unlovable.
Now, if you were to say to me, "Okay Charles, that sounds good.
But how do I do that?
Well, here I'm gonna defer you to God once again.
You know, the Bible says that if we lack wisdom, if we don't know
how to do something wisely, to ask the Father for wisdom.
And he will give it to us, in great abundance.
He will teach us how to love as he does.
We just got to ask him and listen as he instructs us.
Or as he says in Luke 6, we should ask him how
to be kind to the ungrateful, ask him how to be kind to the wicked.
Because he is kind to those two folks.
Ask him to help you know how to be merciful;
because he himself is merciful.
See, people are always more than their
choices.
Yes, where they are is the sum of their choices.
But, who the person is, is truly more than what they have chosen or
what they have done.
And, we need to learn to affirm who the person is and love the
person even as we do not affirm, necessarily, what they are doing.
We're not loving their actions, we're loving them.
Anyway, frischer kaese, I hope this answers your
question; or at least gave you a path down which to walk with your thoughts.
And, I hope you liked this video.
Now, if you folks liked this video, please click the
like and the subscribe buttons.
And once you click that subscribe button,
make sure to tag that little gray Bell icon that pops up.
Which tells YouTube that you want to be notified each time a
new video is posted.
And, if you do have a question that you would like discussed
or a topic you would like mentioned, please tell me in the comments section
below.
I can't wait to read them.
Well, until next time… well, click like, click
subscribe, and I'll see you then.
For more infomation >> How to act on social networks after ending a relationship - Duration: 1:46. 
For more infomation >> Former assistant principal pleads guilty to relationship with middle school student - Duration: 1:47. 
For more infomation >> Secrets to having a long and happy relationship - Duration: 3:29. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét