Speaker 1: 0:03

Hello and welcome to Walk the Walk. I welcome you back. Last week, we talked about how sin is more a disconnection from God, and your homework for the week was to kind of analyze areas of your life where you felt disconnected and why have you become disconnected? So hopefully that was something that you did this week, and also we were hoping that you could maybe identify your sins and try to figure out. You know what's going on here. Is it because I'm drifting away? So hopefully you've gotten some things written down in your journal. Now here's the great thing is, last week I mentioned that the journal was not being has not been published, and then, after my podcast, a couple of hours later, I got notice from Amazon that it is published, and so I don't believe it's on there just yet, and maybe at the time of this podcast it's already been on there, so I will be sure to let you know when it's available for you to purchase.

Speaker 1: 1:13

So this week's question we're going to look at how does thinking about sin as being disconnected from God change your life, and was there a time when you ever felt connected? You know, I think the thing that we need to look at is it's not about well, it's not always about our actions, but more of just trying to stay close to God, and that's hard, that's hard sometimes. So it's not a performance, it's a presence. How close are you to God, the presence that you have with him? Is he close to you? Yes, he's close to you, but are you close to him? You know God doesn't keep a scorecard. Thank God, because if he did, if he kept a scorecard of all of my actions and my sins, I'm sure it would fill a room. He's inviting us to stay close to him and close to his heart. When I'm connected, my choices are better, my attitude's better, everything just seems to improve. It's not about striving, it's about staying close.

Speaker 1: 2:46

What action steps maybe you've already taken from last week, or maybe you're going to start this week? What action steps can you take? Well, the first thing is what you're probably already thinking is I need to pray, and some of you are like you know, once I get up, I do this, I do that and I forget about prayer. Well, don't get up, stay in bed, pray while you're laying in bed and hey, nothing wrong with that. Read your Bible. Some of us have a really hard time making the time to read our Bible. Well, listen, some people like they can download it onto their phone and you can still be in bed and listen to the Bible reading for that day. I am a paper kind of person. I have notes. I write notes in my Bible to help me remember. So I'm about having it, a book, right there in front of me.

Speaker 1: 3:38

You may be okay with listening online, if that, if that helps you do it. You know you're not earning God's love because you're already loved. He loves you as much as he possibly can. You're not saying, okay, god, this week I was so much better. Now I'm sure you love me more. That's not the case at all.

Speaker 1: 4:02

Make every day about him. First, when you wake up in the morning, think about God. Now, some of you if you're like me, I'm up at 4 or 5. Sometimes I'm up 3 o'clock in the morning. Take that opportunity to say prayers. Take that opportunity to talk to God. Talk to Him like he's your best friend, because he is. Tell Him how you feel, your frustrations, your anger. Let him know. Now, it's not going to be a surprise to God. He's not going to be like what he knows, but he wants you to recognize that in yourself Sit quietly, listen. I'm just telling you that because I think it's a good thing, but as far as me, sitting quietly is a hard thing. But sitting quietly means I'm listening, and I'm not so sure I'm the best listener, but I try, and maybe you're not either, but you need to try.

Speaker 1: 5:09

Choose a scripture, choose several scriptures. Some people have their favorites and some people say I can't remember scripture. Write them down. Here's a scripture that maybe you might want to consider John 15, 4. Remain in me as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

Speaker 1: 5:41

Now people have tried to bear fruit on their own, maybe wealthy people, maybe people who don't ever want to be part of God's family. They are I can do this on my own and some of them you think, gosh, how do they succeed so much they don't even believe. Well, maybe on earth they're succeeding, but you have to forget. We have a heavenly home coming up, but you have to forget. We have a heavenly home coming up, so don't forget that. Father, the Lord, has made a place for us, and maybe our heavenly earth is going to be so beautiful that nothing that we had on earth will make any difference.

Speaker 1: 6:29

Or listen to John 4, 8. Come near to me and he will come near to you. Now listen, he's near you, he's with us every day, but we're the ones that pull back, otherwise we would not be sinning. You would be feeling that conviction so much that you would not be sinning. Now I'm not saying we're not going to ever sin and we're going to be perfect, by no means, but I can bet you this some of your decisions will look much differently.

Speaker 1: 7:00

Ask God to come closer and, like I said, he is. Maybe you should ask yourself to get closer. Help me, god. Stay connected. Show me my weaknesses. Give me a hunger for you. Let my life naturally show your love, your patience and your peace. God, I want to stay closer to you, but I find it so hard. It's my own doing that keeps me away. It's my own doing that keeps me away. Ask God for forgiveness every single day, because you need to, every single day we all do, and give us a fresh start. Fix our connection, lord. Fix my eyes, my ears, my heart. Let me bear the fruit of being close to you. You know, the next part of this question was was there a time when you ever felt connected? And most of us will say yes to this.

Speaker 1: 8:00

Now, there are reasons why we have felt connected and sometimes it's the same reason we feel connected as the same reason we get disconnected. Let me share with you Times of feeling the most connected to Jesus are in seasons of your need. Maybe there's a medical issue, there's losses job losses, people losses, broken relationships but then again there's seasons of gratitude. Health issues are are you're cured, you have a new job, you have a baby, you have a mare, you get married. Those are times when you feel close to god as well. Maybe at your church during worship time, maybe sitting on your porch and just letting the birds chirp or whatever. I know that sounds pretty cliche, but there are people who just love doing that and feel that connection, see the beauty of God's work. For me it used to be when I worked. Driving to work, I used to always have a long commute and I took that time to listen to praise music and just pray. I prayed in the spirit. I prayed to God all the way to work.

Speaker 1: 9:20

Maybe your connection that you feel really close is during reading your Bible, helping the needy, visiting the sick. Maybe it was during times of surrender Of drugs, alcohol, pornography, pride. I mean there's so many of those things that you may have been in the valley of those and now have come out the other side. In Jeremiah 29, 13, it says you will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, you know it's not going to be enough just to say your heart. You know it's not going to be enough just to say God, I got to get closer, get closer, let's get closer. It's going to take effort on your part and if you've done it before, you know what that looks like. If you've never done it and you've never been close to God, it can be a little challenging sometimes because we don't have God physically right here beside us, but we have God right here in our hearts. If you are struggling to get close to God, if you're a new believer and you're thinking I'm not feeling it, I'm not feeling it.

Speaker 1: 10:37

Tina, talk to your pastor, talk to other Christians, pray. Have them pray with you, have them pray over you. Prayer is the language that we use to talk to God. You know, sometimes life forces us to hold on and other times God's just telling us hey, hey, hey, slow down. I'm right here, but you're moving so fast you don't even know. It's like driving your car on the freeway at 80 miles per hour. You don't even know what's going on around you. All you can focus on is what you're doing. I don't recommend that you drive 80 miles per hour on the freeway, or anywhere for that matter. Slow down, you know. I say this because when Jeff had a stroke, I think God had a message for me, and that was to slow down.

Speaker 1: 11:38

I worked, not a lot, but I really worked. I was always into something Do this, do that, do this, do that and my focus just became on my busyness. Now God has slowed me down. My busyness is about him. Make your business busyness, about God's pray.

Speaker 1: 12:05

Father, thank you that you are never far. Thank you that when we seek you, you're there. Show me when I where I've drifted and why I drifted, and draw me back to you. Make our connection deeper. Teach me to rest in your presence. Help me to trust your love. Bear the kind of fruit that points others to you. Open my eyes, open my ears To you, not to the world that's so hard to live in right now, but we draw closer to you because we know of your perfection and we don't want to focus on this unperfect world. Thank you, jesus, for calling me. Thank you for allowing me to listen to this podcast that says you know what. It's okay how we all feel, because we all obviously are feeling the same way, or there would be no need for a podcast. But, jesus, be right beside me and you know I'm going to fail. You know I'm going to stumble, but help me to stand up, wipe off my brow and look to fail. You know I'm going to stumble, but help me to stand up, wipe off my brow and look to you. Thank you for all your blessings. Cover each and every one of us in the precious blood of the Lamb. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.

Speaker 1: 13:41

Now, if you're following along in your journal, next week's podcast is going to be on what does Jesus' love and forgiveness mean to you, and have you truly ever experienced one or both of these? So make sure you come back next week as we talk about this. I think it's going to be a great podcast and it's always great because you're here listening and share this podcast with somebody else. Make sure you look to get the journal, and by the time this journal's out there's going to be other things that I will have published as well that I hope that you will consider Even the one new book that's called Christianity Made Simple, probably more of a resource for you as somebody who might be talking to others about Christ. It may be a great resource for you to give to them, but we'll talk more about that later. Thank you so much for joining me and I will talk to you next week. Have a blessed week.