Flowing Rivers

That I may know Him

and the power of His resurrection,

and the fellowship of His sufferings,

and  being conformed to His death

Phil 3:10

 

 

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." John Piper



 

 There is nothing more enjoyable to me than to read and listen to the great spiritual writers of the past.  It appears these men had insight into the very heart of God.  Their communion and fellowship with the Lord appears so deep and real that just reading their stories cause my heart to burn inside me.  It is my desire to know God more deeply and in a way that these men seem to experience.  The one theme in each of these men’s life is that they allowed nothing to interfere in their daily practice of the presence of God.  God was their great delight and they took the time needed to spend in intimate fellowship with him. Their personal and public lives portrayed the presence of God.  My greatest prayer for me and you would be that our lives would portray the very presence of God.

 My problem is that I allow the urgent things of this life to crowd out my time with the Lord.  A deep personal relationship cannot be developed with quick devotions.  It takes time for our hearts to be quieted and prepared to hear from the Lord.  I have lived on both sides of this coin.  I remember sweet times of rising early before the hustle and bustle of the family to have my personal time with the Lord.  Today, I seem to be so busy for Him that I don’t have time to develop the relationship with Him.  I think this is Satan’s greatest strategy.  He does care if we work for Christ but He does not want the work of Christ flowing through our lives.  This constant flow of living waters can only be maintained by spending that quality time in His presence.  Done, finished!  There is no other way.  You want the power you must be plugged into the source.
 

 Experiencing God in this way personal way leads us to satisfaction in Christ.  The trials of this life seem insufficient and unimportant when our souls are completely satisfied in our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.  Our perspective on life will change.  Our mindset and hearts become united as one to know the One and to share the One.  It will not be busyness or difficult.  Christ will just naturally flow out of our lives.  A river does not have to stir itself up to flow.  It just flows.  If an obstacle shows up in the river’s way, it (the river) does not fret and worry.  The waters continue flowing over the obstacle until it is reshaped, smoothed out and make beautiful.  Christ will make everything beautiful in His time.  We just need to be cultivating a relationship with Him and allowing Him to flow out from our lives.

Don’t misunderstand God by comparing Him to people.  People will fail you. We fear rejection of people so we don’t allow them to see our true heart and motives.  We tend to put on our best face for others in the hopes of not being rejected.  If we try to find our satisfaction in others we will always fall short.  Man just cannot satisfy the soul.  The awesome thing about God is that He knows our hearts and lives even better than we do.  He really knows us.  He understands we are just dust and in this understanding He does not reject us but He sacrificed His home and glory to come as a man to die for us.  Now that is true love.  For someone to understand our sin, to know our hearts, to see our ugliness and choose to make a way of redemption for us is true love.  I must make some changes in my life this next year.  Exactly what this consists of I'm not sure.  But I must get to know this ONE who gave His all for me.