So this is the first of a "series" that I want to do on words and phrases we use as Christians.
One of these phrases is "Following God" or "Seeking after God". Many times it will be in a conversation and it will go something like this "Yeah I am just really trying to seek after God right now, you know all I want to do is follow Christ!" But what does that mean?!? If you were talking to a professional football player about their life and daily schedule and they said "Usually each day I just try and be the best at football and that usually takes up my day" You would be confused and completely unsure of what they do each day.
Same thing goes for following God. It is not ambiguous. It has concrete actions. You could even say it is being legalistic. When a athlete is trying to be the best at what they do they usually have a strict routine, they wake up at a certain time, eat certain foods, do specific workouts etc. They have structure and that structure is there to accomplish a goal. So why do we think that having a relationship with God is any different? The way we follow God is to set a plan and work on it! If I want to be a better husband to Amy I don't just think about it I have to work on it! I have to set reminders to pick up flowers, put notes on my phone to remind me of the gift that God has given me in her. I have to DO THINGS!
For me to grow in my relationship with God I need to put reminders on my phone to pray, to memorize scripture, to be loved by God and to love others. I have to be purposeful about being purposeful to "seek after God".
Why? Because he is doing this for us. He didn't just "happen" to send his son to die for MY SIN. He planned it, he knew I would sin against him and so he prepared from the beginning of time the way in which to repair what I had destroyed. If God plans things for us to better our relationships with him how much more do we need to do the same? -> answer: WAY MORE!
Food for action
One who is not even close to doing this very thing,
Keegan
Keegan, that is an excellent word sir. It is one thing to use the phrase because it would take too long to go into all the details of our pursuit of God for the sake of a 2 minute conversation. It is another, as you point out, to simply use the phrase and then do nothing with it, be it because we do not know how, because we choose not to, or because we simply know the phrase like an infant using words they hear their parents say incorrectly.
ReplyDeleteYou raise a very solid point.