How is your relationship with God?

Do not let your adorning be external?the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear? but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God?s sight is very precious. This Scripture from 1 Peter 3:3-4 is a very good reminder to each one of us. It is not about our makeup, hair style, bling or skinny jeans that make us a follower of Christ. You can have a WWJD bracelet for every day of the week and an overtly or flamboyantly Christian T-shirt for every occasion, but that still does not mean that you know Christ. Many times in our own attempt to follow Christ, we get focused on the exterior. When we do that, we miss the true transformation. It is what is in our hearts and minds that truly matters to Christ.

I remember house-hunting several years ago. Each day I would drive by this beautiful house with a well manicured lawn and fresh vinyl siding. It looked fantastic. I looked it up on the realtor site and found that it was well below my price range. So, I set up an appointment and went to do a walk through. The lawn was still beautiful, but when I pulled into the drive, the concrete was broken and cracked. I thought to myself ?I guess that I will need a new drive up.? The realtor arrived and I was expecting to see bright lights and angel choirs singing when she opened the door. She twisted the key and the door opened and fell of the hinges and landed on the floor. As you may have guessed, the house was a total disaster. The interior was absolutely destroyed. Thankfully, I didn?t rely on curb appeal only before making a decision.

The sad thing is, we spend so much time trying to make our outside look good that we neglect the part that really needs the work. We adjust our speech, come to church occasionally, attempt to look better, and even volunteer occasionally. All those are good things but none of them address the the deeper issue. How is your relationship with God? When was the last time you truly felt connected to him? Have you talked to him in prayer more than just asking him to give you stuff or take bad things away? There is so much more to connecting to God than those things. That is what he is desiring from you. He wants more access. God will not force access into your heart and life. His desire is to know you and for you to know him.

As you draw closer to God in prayer, focusing on hearing him, and worship, you will find that God will let you know things that need to change. When you allow God to do the work internally, your outside will follow suit. God will show you and teach you what needs to be changed to make you the best Christ follower. Your quest in life is not to become Super Church Member able to leap 10 pews in a single bound but rather Christian able to be used completely by God because you know him and he knows you. For some, you may have been a victim of the legalistic and uncaring, You may have found yourself becoming disgruntled with God because someone represented him poorly in a time when you really needed him. He still has not forgotten you. Your past is not your potential and if you have failed, welcome to the club. Even the most righteous person fails. God is still desiring a connection with you. He still wants to be the savior of your life and the friend that sticks closer than a brother.

We would like to invite you to Washington First Assembly of God located at 1602 East Washington Street here in Washington. Our service times are Sundays at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. and Wednesdays at 7 p.m.. Feel free to find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. We believe that your best years have yet to be lived. We look forward to meeting you.