The Importance of Being Earnest

"Earnest" isn't often used anymore, yet it's a very fitting word for what our relationship with God should be. As King David said: "O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water." The definition of "earnest:" is resulting from or showing intense conviction.

If you combine Earnest with Faith than our actions will be the result of showing intense conviction of the truth. And that is perhaps where our search begins; with a desire for truth, and with an intense conviction to seek after God. If we do he will draw us to Him, and He will fill us until we are satisfied. I think that it is this intensity that Simon, the unlikely pilgrim feels.

However, as I mentioned in previous posts, before we begin our journey, we have to make sure that our heart is prepared. We have to humble ourselves before God and accept the full responsibility for our sins--we have to trust that He will cleanse us completely. Then, we have to completely forgive those who have sinned against us as God has forgiven us--And his forgiveness has been great. Unless we do both of these things we are hindering ourselves in the journey toward heaven. (We are also putting ourselves in a position for correction...God will bring us to where He wants us to be--but if we resist we are only making it more difficult on ourselves.)

Finally, we have to be prepared for God to show us things that take the Christian life out of the realm of theory and put it in our laps in a very practical way. This is often difficult, because if most of us were honest with ourselves, we are afraid where God is going to lead us? We are afraid He might lead us away from our traditions, our dreams, and that truthfully we might be convicted of something we'd rather not be convicted of.  Fear of the future, not trusting God, is often why we sometimes put our heads in the sand and choose to continue to live on a plane that we know and where we feel comfortable.

The antidote to fear is to know and understand the person of God. The more we hunger to know his character, the greater love we have for Him, and the greater will be our willingness to embrace where He leads us. When we do this we will find that following after God is an adventure into wisdom, grace, peace, and blessings in abundance.