Our absolute #1 goal in life is to know God... not to save the world or even to feed the hungry, but to know God. And it will take an entire lifetime to even scratch the surface of really knowing God. But nothing else matters.
I've been learning more and more that my prayers are not for getting what I want, or even what I think I need. The purpose of prayer is to get to know God.
Everything that happens to me is to help me to know God better. Whether it's good or bad, the purpose of every circumstance, every relationship, everything is to help me to know God better.
Oswald Chambers says, "Paul was not given a message or a doctrine or proclaim, he was brought into a vivid, personal, overmastering relationship to Jesus Christ." I don't think any single person did more to advance the gospel, and yet that was not his main purpose. His main purpose was to know Jesus. Wow.
But it's so much easier to "do stuff!" Getting to know God requires discipline... quiet... time... listening (rather than talking!) Hustling and bustling and "looking busy" are so much easier--and yet so much less productive. Ouch!
Like it or not, God does not have a facebook account... or a cell phone number. The only way to get to know him is to see him in our loved ones (even when they make us crazy,) to respond to our circumstances in ways that draw us closer to him, and to be brutally honest with ourselves about the time-wasters in our lives (i.e. facebook--ouch again!) and to jealously guard the times we spend in prayer and quiet time--listening for that still small voice.
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I would love to hear from you! Let me know what you think and how I can pray for you. Most of us are carrying some pretty heavy baggage and the good news is, you don't have to carry it alone! You can lay it at the feet of Jesus, and sometimes we need help just letting go of our baggage and not picking it up again. We're in this together!