There are many who keep God at a distance out of fear. They may be afraid that He’ll ask them to do something they don’t want to do or send them somewhere they don’t want to go. I’ve even heard some say they’re fearful that if they get too close He’ll take them to Heaven before they’re ready. This is not God. He doesn’t want us to be afraid. He’s not asking to be our boss so He can order us around at His whim. His desire to be involved in our lives is not for His benefit at all. He completely wants what is best for us. You see God doesn’t have some need to “be first in our lives”. There’s no scorecard. We don’t end our day checking off the list: prayer – 1 hour, devotion – ½ hour, served lunch at the mission – 2 hours… slept 7 hours, dang God didn’t come in first. What He wants more than anything is to be involved in all of our life. Certainly study and prayer but also work and play. He wants to be included in our laughter just as much as in our tears. We needn’t be afraid. What He has for us is so much more than what we want for ourselves.
Here’s a great podcast that touches on this: The God Journey
The Better Thing 
Jim, our beautiful God amazes me with how He keeps us on the same page sometimes. My devo this morning was related….many blessings friend. I look forward to some time with you!
Thank you Chad, that would be great.
Jim
A group of women and I are finishing up a study on the Holy Spirit. There has been A LOT of talk about fear. If I give in what will the Holy Spirit call on me to do. Some of the women in our group have never truly experienced the Holy Spirit freely move in their life. I see it not happening for them because of fear. I on the other hand have found myself frozen in fear now because of the time(s) I’ve stepped out of the comfort zone and allowed myself to follow His will and it end painfully. Hard place to be when you struggle to trust…
I’m sorry for your pain Suzie. If you ever want to talk I’d enjoy that.
I was your typical sunday morning nod to God worshipper that did just enough to get by. In 2008 I came to a place in my life where I lost all my naturat ability to where nothing seemed to work any more. I asked God to erase everything that I had been taught and within days God led me to a teacher that taught on unconditional love. For months I could not get enough of the goodness of God toward me but yet on the other hand I was rejecting it at the same time. It was as if there was a war going on inside me. I was hearing that by his stripes we are (past tense) healed but yet my body was broken, that I am (past tense) blessed but my circumstances were just the opposite. I could not reconcile these scriptures until the day God revealed himself to me. When he revealed that I had become a modern day pharisee I thought he was going to kill me, punish me, smite me, or cast me out. This is what I had been taught all my life that if I performed well I would be blessed but if i did’nt my allowance would be taked away, fired, divorced, bankrupt etc. It was fear of punishment that kept me away from God. It was my choice not God’s. It was my ignorance of judgement that Jesus took my past, present and future sins for me. But instead of punishing me he spoke things to me honestly and openly not in an angry or frustrated voice. It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance but I must say that I had to force myself to reconcile these scriptures. Thank you Jesus for your patience!
Thank you sweet Jesus.