-Not by seeing or saying how good I am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-Not by the greatest show on church stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-Not by seeking happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-Not by material blessings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-Not by getting comfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– – –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Am I experiencing goodness?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Am I experiencing trouble?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can I get close to God?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do I want to get close to God?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– – –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First of all, it’s all about Him, not me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, what does He have to say about getting close to Him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What does He have to say about pleasing Him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What can I give God, what can I sacrifice, that could impress Him, and get us close?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– – –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How can I get close to God?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
+”The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit—a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
+”The goodness of God is supposed to lead you to repentance.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
+”Call upon Me in the day of trouble—I will deliver you—and you will glorify me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
+”Call on Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things you don’t know.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
+”Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Getting close to God is not about what I think would do it, but yielding to His way to get us close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– – –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And now the big one, to get really close to God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Christians around the world, right now, the most guaranteed way to experience the best, the sweetest closeness with God, is through persecution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not my idea of fun, but again, what does God say about getting close to Him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
+”Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
+Blessed are you, when men will revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
+Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
-Not by seeing or saying how good I am. -Not by the greatest show on church stage. -Not by seeking happiness. -Not by material blessings. -Not by getting comfortable. – – – Am I experiencing goodness? Am I experiencing trouble? Can I get close to God? Do I want to get close to God? – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational","category-faith_based","category-inspire_lifter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4890"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4890"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4893,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4890\/revisions\/4893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}