Over the centuries Western culture has relegated God to the periphery of our lives. We live in a me generation: self-help instead of God-help; self-esteem instead of God-esteem. God is mocked or discounted. Many Christians may think of God a couple of hours on Sunday morning, but then it's "let's beat the Baptists to Luby's Cafeteria" or "can't wait to see the Cowboys-Redskins game."
Christians: Let's put God first in our lives. If you, the non-believers, become tired of consuming more and more while enjoying life less and less; find success vacuous; discover that relationships bring loneliness; consider work meaningless, you may find that God provides a way to the abundant life.
A superficial relationship with God provides no path to a joyful life. A God who becomes the center of one's life does. Purposeful Christians consider God the essential nature of life independent of human success. They find a world infused with spiritual force where everything points to God. Those who know they are designed by God find the divine presence everywhere.
Let's look at ways to find God in the secular world:
- Detach ourselves from our own passions and train our heart to love, finding that a virtuous life reflects the radiance of God. (Love is an act of will, not a feeling.) When we consider ourselves nothing without God, God shows up.
- Prayer maintains an awareness of the divine presence and helps us do all things with God in mind. Praising God frees us from human desire. Contemplative prayer--thinking about God--brings us closer to Him. Reading a Scripture passage, meditating on it and contemplating its meaning changes prayer from asking God for things to being in his will, doing things as a loving response to Him. Each day I sit quietly for 30 minutes and repeat the Jesus prayer over and over: "Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." This was dull and difficult initially but by and by I developed a deeper relationship with God that stimulated divine ideas unexperienced in frantic times pursuing worldly success. Prayer in its highest form is being with God and learning from God.
- Work not to serve ourselves but to serve God. Consider work as an opportunity to glorify God.
- Consider everything a gift of God.
- Mastering physical desires develops an awareness of God in everything we do. Fasting one day a week encourages us to resist human passions. I discipline myself by practicing the guitar 15 minutes daily. I hate it. I'm no good at it, but the discipline of practice grounds me in self-denial.
- To develop spiritual roots that produce healthy attitudes we must stay in one place long enough for the roots to grow deep. One of my biggest sins and a source of unhappiness is my tendency to move from place to place. This restlessness prevented me from developing lifelong friendships, kept me from a deep, lasting commitment of serve others, and frustrated my family life. (No one will come to my funeral because they won't know where I am.) Freedom to move from place to place becomes a form of bondage. Stay put and your service to God will grow.
Please comment. Any personal story you would like to share? Any ideas you would like to contribute? Any disagreements?
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