The Cost

Are you willing to pay the cost to go deeper in/with God? I find my self asking this question repeatedly through out my journey with the Lord. It is not an easy question to answer, if you are truly honest with yourself. I find that their are different seasons that we go through that affect the way we answer this question. Ultimately, though it is the Father that draws us onto Himself. He hides himself not from us but for us.

A few months ago I was comtemplating something that I heard spoken at a school that I'm a part of. The statement was made that: "There's a difference between those who come to the Lord and those who come after the Lord!" The inference is that we have one of two reasons for coming to the Lord:

1) We're coming to Him because we need something.
2) We're coming after Him not because of physical/self-serving need, but because we just need Him (His prescense).

This can be clearly displayed in the following examples. The first is the classic example of when a child comes to a father and asks for a new toy. In this example the child comes for the purpose of: "I come to get." The other example would be of a child who searches out the father for no other reason than to just be with him; to spend time with him doing something; and being in his prescence because the child enjoy's their daddy.

I want to be like example number two. I often however, find myself in example number one. Typically, after prayer and reflection I find that I move into the first example after having a lack of time with the Father. When I'm not spending time with Him, I begin to reflect more of the world and less of Him. My desire moves from God focused to me focused. It's been said that whoever you hang out with the most will determine who you look like. Please don't mis-understand me though, I'm not saying that we can not go to the Father for physical, emotional, or other needs. I'm just merely stating that more often than not our relationship with the Lord can be self-serving at times. I'm just suggesting that we look at our motives behind why & when we go to the Lord. The indication of the "when" may serve as a better indicator for the above two reasons than the "why".

At this point your probably wondering what's the next step? How do I move to the next level and breakthrough. I believe the answer is to spend more time with the Father even though our flesh may not always find it conveniant. Pray for His assistance. Pray dangerous prayers that only He can answer and that will require you to make choices that determine how you move forward in your relationship with Him both now in the present and future. The decisions you make today will affect where you end up tomorrow.