I don't really have a formal "journal." If something is on my mind or consuming my heart, I just open up a Word document and start typing until I am done. I found this one, and I think it is pertinent. It is from January 12th, 2008, so it's been almost a year. This really gets me excited, and I hope it inspires and ignites you as well. It is lengthy, but it is worth the read.
Check it out:
1-12-08
Too often we focus on God knocking on the door of our heart and our response of letting Him into our lives; however, what God wants for us is after we have accepted the sacrifice of His Son and received salvation, He wants us to get out of our lives, our rooms, our homes and run out the door of our hearts and go knocking at the door of His heart. See, God made a way to us through Jesus, and He has been knocking at our door ever since. Some of us have answered the door and let Him in, but guys, that is just the beginning. From there, what God desires is us coming to His door, seeking His heart, His purposes, and His will. We will never experience the fullness of God in our lives until we stop consuming and start pursuing.
So are you knocking at God’s door? Are you getting comfortably uncomfortable for Him? God wants us to come after Him and stand outside the door of His heart with the mindset that we will keep asking, keep seeking, and keep knocking until He opens the door. He wants us to have a heart that says, “I am not leaving this place because in order to live I need what You alone can give, and I am not satisfied by anything else. I am in it for the long haul. Every day I will get up and get out of my life and come after Your heart. I will seek. I will knock, and I will not go away. Nothing can pull me away from You. I am firmly planted right here outside Your door. Jesus, I know You came to my door, but now I am knocking at Yours. It’s the least that I can do. It’s such a small thing compared to Your sacrifice, but I give to You my whole heart, my whole life, completely abandoned, no strings attached, asking for nothing but giving everything. I offer my wholehearted devotion to You.”
Do you have that? Because you can. It’s not about being super-spiritual. It’s not about being called to ministry and preaching from a pulpit; it’s about a life offered to God because He gave His Son’s for you. How can we give anything less than all that we are? It’s not a fantasy; it’s a reality. You can have heaven on earth; you can experience God in a real and tangible way in your life, whether you feel it or not, whether you see it or not, you can know that you and God are inseparable. If you choose to cling to Him and never let go, you can be fully assured that He will never let you go. Guys, if you’re wondering why God seems distant or why you are stagnant in your walk with Him, I can tell you with all confidence that the problem lies with you. God is waiting and wanting, yet we get caught in our sin and our struggles and our situations and what we want rather than a passionate pursuit of all that God is. It’s bigger than coming to church. It’s bigger than singing songs. It’s bigger than what we can see. It’s more glorious than we can imagine. It’s our lives in His hands. It’s saying “no” to myself and “yes” to God daily.
Let me tell you what happens when you pursue God with an unrivaled passion. That sin that once had a grip on you, it falls away. The things that once seemed so overwhelming now seem so small. A life that once felt to be without purpose or promise now has joy and peace and provision and direction and fullness and prosperity and complete satisfaction! Don’t seek anything else but Him and you will find what your heart has been longing for because only God can complete You; only He can fill that which you’re trying to fill with other things. Relationships won’t satisfy you, drugs won’t satisfy you, sex won’t satisfy you, drinking won’t satisfy you, popularity won’t satisfy you, achievement won’t satisfy you, and money won’t satisfy you. Only God can. He is the only one. Nothing else matters. Everything else passes away, but He remains. He never fails. His promises are true for all eternity. Stop swimming with your floaties on and dive deep. Choose to go deep. Choose to spend time with Him. Not just reading a chapter or so in your Bible each night, but choosing to know Him. Choosing to have relational time with Him. If you do that, I guarantee you will never be the same. I guarantee if you honestly determine to love Him more than anything else, God will honor that and bring about dramatic change in your life. He has promised us abundant life on this earth. Lay hold of it. Go after God. Not tomorrow. Not a month from now. Not once I feel like it. Do it in the rotten, broken, and desolate now and see Him move. God said if we seek Him, we will find Him when we seek Him with all of our hearts. The only thing keeping you from intimacy with God is you. Choose intimacy with God. Choose to know Him.
James left, otherwise he would be in this...
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