Knowing God

Desire God

Dr. Mike Knowing God ,

Psalm 42:1

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. 

How strong is your desire for God? Is it the strongest desire of everything you want?

When temptation comes, do you immediately lean on God or is it the second or third tactical move on your list of priority?

Is God our weekly desire or our minutely thirst?

Intellectually we all know that prayer is our immediate contact with the Almighty. But how often do we pray?

Or have you lived such a comfortable life as a Believer you now take God for granted?

You state you love God, but yet you continually do ungodly acts of spiritual terrorism.

Mentally you know God is your life source, full of grace and unconditional love, but you selfishly take advantage of His compassion.

You deliberately make unwise decisions to please your fleshly desires rather than deny yourself for God’s glory. You spiritually rape your sister or brother in the Lord to please your insecurities.

Instead of battling temptation with spiritual weapons, you deliberately succumb to your Biblical ignorance knowing God has already forgiven you.

Your passion for capitalistic rewards, the American dream, and personal fanfare is more important than maintaining an honest and open conversation with the living God. We quickly turn our head away from God because we want to please our eyes. Like a child stealing a cookie from the cupboard before dinner, we behave in the same fashion with God.

Yet our Triune God knows our weaknesses. He pours his grace upon us knowing we will eventually come to a place in life where our eyes are open, and we realize our attitude or behavior until then doesn’t successfully work, and therefore we need to change.

Repentance is changing our thinking and mental habits as we refocus our relationship with God. The decision to earnestly make God the center of our life – whether in the sinful pit of repeating temptation failures or recurring successes of victory – is the motivation to seek God. To love him more and more which means we come to know more about him today than yesterday.

Like a deer seeks to quench her thirst from a running stream of water, our soul needs to learn to thirst for God every day, every hour, every minute. Our heart needs to lay on the bosom of God as we come to know him in every detail of life.

So, the next time you seek to satisfy your inner desires with physical comfort, cry out to God and ask Him to intervene so He becomes your #1 satisfaction for living life.

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Founder of
Vocational Leadership 360
Author of e-Books:

 *  Dancing With God: Life-Giving Theology Explained
 *  Great Business Emulates a Good God
 *  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
 *  Simply The Messenger
 *  Unequally Married

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Copyright 2013-2019 Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved

Lonely Hearts

Dr. Mike Knowing God, Life in Christ , ,

Exodus 20:3

“You shall have no other gods before Me.

Ever sat in a room with hundreds of people and felt alone? Ever spent an evening with a person who you enjoyed being with yet still felt disconnected? Ever wonder how come the person you’ve been married too for over ten years doesn’t quite fill the empty hole which still remains in your heart?

What’s missing?

Most of us look for love and fulfillment on a vertical sphere. If not satisfied, we change partners, careers, locations, and even cloths, thinking a change will fill up our inner cup.

Yet each may satisfy for the short term, eventually the feeling disappears and we look for something else to change. These typically are the “gods” in our life. They are generally good things, but by themselves they are incomplete.

So if this is you, maybe it is time to change one’s perspective. Instead of chasing vertical relationships and material consumption, how about refocusing and adding horizontal connections into your life.

In hindsight, with our married life and with many of my associates, when one made the Triune God the center of their domain, reaching upward before stretching vertically, the satisfaction, meaning, and fulfillment we failed to find from other people and things, found their home through Christ Jesus.

Today, He via the Holy Spirit fills our inner longings without us even realizing or many times not even asking. God knows what we need and what tickles our fancy and fills our joy with cups overflowing; for us to enjoy and to share with others. He creates in us everything we lack. He lives in community with himself and enjoys sharing His experiences with us all. When he is the center of everything, everything becomes more satisfying and fulfilling.

He created everything for our long-term enjoyment. Yet without him, the same people, things, and events are empty. With Him, life adds more color, deeper meaning, and emotional connection with all people. Until you experience life with God, you never know what you are truly missing. You are never lonely again, for He lives in you and will be with you, your entire life. 

With Him, you may find yourself alone, but you are never lonely. He is always with you; and you know that you know which allows you to live out what you know. You know what I mean? Probably not, unless you know.

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Founder of
Vocational Leadership 360
Author of e-Books:

 *  Dancing With God: Life-Giving Theology Explained
 *  Great Business Emulates a Good God
 *  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
 *  Simply The Messenger
 *  Unequally Married

Encourage a Friend…Share Today’s Message!

Copyright 2013-2019 Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved

God Is Working Everything for Your Good

Dr. Mike Knowing God, Life in Christ

Romans 8:28 

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

god work

How do you define good? When do you determine something is either good or bad?

If life throws a curve ball at you when you were expecting a fast ball, was that a good pitch or not? Don’t our shortsighted expectations sometimes blind us to reality?

Generally, we believe something is good almost immediately after its impact. For example, when we slam on our brakes at the last second to avoid a serious head-on-accident by inches. Or when we been looking for a job and an offer comes our way with a higher salary and responsibilities than you ever imagined. Or when you feel a lump on your breast and receive that phone call from your doctor acknowledging it is benign.

All these events end with immediate good news.

Yes, the news is good. And for the minute we celebrate. Yet what about those times when the events stink.

When your fiancée breaks up with you one week before the wedding.

When your tire goes flat ten minutes away from an important interview for the job of your dreams.

When the candidate you lobbied for and voted for fails to win the election.

At times like this you feel your world has come to an end. You are disappointed and maybe even angry at God for not protecting you from such “harm.” But are these events necessary “bad.” Or are they temporary, eye-opening moments to refocus our attention on the God of the universe who is constantly working for every person’s best; even when they don’t want it.

Your trust in God will be constantly challenged by the unpleasant events in your life. You will come to know him more intimately and personally as you place your undivided trust in Him. Whether you are thrown into a fiery pit, stand before a large army attacking your front while a large lake blocks your retreat in the rear, or your nine-foot goliath stands in front of you with heavy military armor and you only have a sling shot. Your immediate response may be “this isn’t good,” Yet, you will recall all the times your God intervene and the outcome was better than you could ever expect. Or the times you may have suffered for years. But in hindsight you realize those were the best years of spiritual growth and interpersonal relationship time with our Heavenly Father.

When you come to realize that no matter what happens in this journey through life on planet earth, God is constantly at work for your good and mine. Sometimes we have to wait longer than desired, but other times He delivers before we even know what happened.

God is good. All the time. Just sometimes it takes time to realize the goodness of the situation.

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Founder of
Vocational Leadership 360
Author of e-Books:

*  Dancing With God: Life-Giving Theology Explained
*  Great Business Emulates a Good God
*  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
*  Simply The Messenger
*  Unequally Married

Encourage a Friend…Share Today’s Message!

Copyright 2013-2019 Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved