Being Intentional in my pursuit of God

Intentional.

We hear this word often enough. Does it’s meaning impact us or does it’s meaning escape our every day life. To be intentional simply means to do something on purpose. We can do intentional wrong or intentional good…We can be intentional daily about choices that lead to a changed life….which simply means, we can think and choose a higher calling, rather than living life on the auto pilot of our own ways.

What in your life needs to practice that word intentional today?

As I reflect on the word and it’s meaning, I am desiring to be more intentional in my movement towards Christ. He invites me to come to him daily. He invites me to give him my burdens. He invites me to be set free by the Word of Truth, found in the Bible. He invites me to die to self made ways in favor of life in His power and under His influence. He invited me to lean into His direction and guidance. He calls me to lay myself down daily.

For years I just expected this would all happen if I waved the wand of a “bless me today, Lord” prayer. If I went about my day, after that “bless me ” prayer, being a generally good person, then God would do His thing in me. It was a nice fluffy thought and it kept me positive for awhile, but that nice thought of God blessing me, began to be my walk with Him. Rather than roots going deeper, my life was becoming more shallow and surface.

What I didn’t realize at the time is that walking with God for the sake of his blessings, is not the walk he invited me to join him in. Certainly God blesses his people…but often he blesses us with things that we do not consider blessings. He blesses us with hardship, struggle and angst. He blesses us with situational things that keep drawing us back to Him. He blesses us with discipline that is never fun in the moment, but always produces great things in our lives. And, yes…he richly blesses us with His provision, joy, peace and every good thing. In fact, the Word tells us that, God does not withold any good thing from those who seek Him!

Back to INTENTIONAL.

To believe that all things, even the hard things, will work together to shape me, is an intentional thought that I must pick up and choose to hang on to. My normal default would be to assume that the hard things are evil and terrible and must go away as fast as I can make them go away. Then…with this thinking…I begin a cycle of frustration, shame, frustration, depression, anxiety, fear, etc……

Do you ever feel like you can not make your life behave?

Back to INTENTIONAL.

As I prepare my heart for a celebration of Easter and Christ’s Work on the Cross….I am focusing on being intentional in my relationship with Him. Today I focus on the hard road he walked as he carried the cross…sacrificing his own comfort….to obey God.

Oswald Chambers said,

“stand firm in faith, believing that what Jesus said is true, although in the meantime you do not understand what God is doing. He has bigger issues at stake than the particular things you are asking of Him right now.”

God is INTENTIONAL.

There is a Kingdom Plan. God is always working. We can not see the behind the scenes work. We are called to trust that it is happening and that God is working. Could it be that the things we go through are accomplishing a bigger picture that we can not yet see?

The next 40 days I am going to be intentional. I am going to seek God on purpose. Setting alarms to remind me, having scripture near me ( be it cards, in my heart, on my hand, whatever it takes) I am encouraging you to pick up the word intentional and discover a “coming to Jesus” that is fresh and filled with His holy presence. The greatest blessing of all time is to have the joy of knowing what it is like to be in relationship with the God who created us, and to be moved by the Spirit of the living God rather than being motivated by our self.

Jesus Christ is INTENTIONAL.

“When Jesus called the twelve together he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons, and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick…” Luke 9:1-2

He called, He had a purpose in mind, He supplied the anointing, power and authority…all purposes led back to  His Kingdom.

Intentional…hmmm…pondering….thinking of the choices for this day.

choosing Christ on purpose,

Debbie