My journey with the Lord has been most powerful when God dug past my facade and dealt with the real me on the inside.
It is easy in life and in our faith to play the game, look the part, go along with the routine and go through the motions, while the reality of the thing is missing.
We can play at our role as parent, giving a child the attention they seek, but not really connecting with the child in the deeper way that’s best for us and them. We can pray, read the Bible and go to church, singing the songs and listening to messages as passive participants, rather than being actively and deeply involved in the process.
I praise God that at times, when I am in that sorry mode, God breaks through, usually by calling me to be real with him and with myself.
God is real and His love, power and salvation are very real. Heaven and hell are real, and so too are the spiritual realities we cannot see, such as angels, calling, curses, blessings, demons and the like. Our blindness to those things does not change them or diminish their effect.
So to truly become alive in the fulness of the life God gives us we need to get real with Him and allow Him to get real with us.
In my early school years I discovered I had a serious problem with embarrassment, yet I was keen to be up front in the spotlight. I tried to overcome embarrassment by a mask of bravado and confidence. Eventually, however, in my late teens, God wonderfully dealt with me. He challenged me that I was fake. I felt convicted about my plastic facade and sensed God warning me He could not deal with fake people. I felt God assure me, deep on the inside, that if I would just be who I really am, without pretence, He would transform me. He promised to make the real me much more impressive than my fake image could hope to be.
It took me time to work through that challenge. I even pushed it aside for a long time. The fruit has been wonderful, giving me freedom on the inside.
What greatly helped me to work through the challenge was the assurance that God truly loved miserable little me, the real me, just the way I am. I was blessed to hear a number of preachers press the point of God’s love until I could really grasp that God truly loved me.
The assurance and confidence that brought me nearly half a century ago has been wonderful to enjoy ever since.
Yet God has had to challenge me since then, about me being real with Him. I can drift back to routine and miss engagement with the reality of my faith and my walk with God. When I decide to truly connect with God again, not just doing the spiritual routines I am accustomed to, I always find a refreshing.
Consider what it might mean for you to be sure that;
God loves you with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3);
the Love of God casts out fear (1John 4:18);
God’s plans for you are good (Jeremiah 29:11);
God will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5);
God will crush Satan under your feet (Romans 16:20);
God binds up your broken heart (Psalm 147:3);
when Jesus sets you free you are truly free (John 8:36).
Maybe a starting point, if you find it hard to be real with God, is to pray something like this:
“Lord God, I want to know You and to be constantly blessed in my walk with You, but I find it hard to connect. I am probably filled with all sorts of distractions and issues the enemy has sown in my heart. I call on You to break through for me and to reach me at my deepest level, pouring Your love on me and assuring me that it is safe to abandon everything so I can know you better. You are my saviour and I cannot save myself, to I call on You to be my champion in this challenge and to draw me toward You as You reveal Yourself to me and in me. I ask this in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.”
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