What keeps you going?

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

What keeps you seeking God day after day?

This is something that I have thought about that seems to be a good question. I would like to say there are MANY different answers and that it would be unfair to God to try and put Him in a little box so I understand there are various ways one could answer this question. Everyone may have the same exact answer except worded differently or focusing on one factor more than the other, So I pray this doesn't really because a debate but simply Sharing from Personal experience and Testimony.

My purpose of this is to stir up encouraging discussion about things we look forward to or the things that encourage us to keep pressing in. I know many times I have read or listen to someone say what draws them to seek God and have been greatly encouraged by it because it wasn't really something I had ever thought of.

God Bless,
Matthew

Amen I do understand!

What keeps me going I think is His grace and mercy towards me, that though I'm not perfect I can have hope that He still wants me.

I wrote Romans 5:7-8 on my hand the other day (I do that to help memorize) I wrote it because I didn't ever really pay much attention to Verse 7 until yesterday and God blew me away all over again :). "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might dare to die. But God demonstrates His own Love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ dided for us."

If I didn't have confidence in His love for me and His grace and mercy He offers then there would really be no point in seeking Him because His justice would destroy me whether I sought Him or not so seeking would be quite futile.

Bro Matthew,

What keeps me going..... When I backslid and got out from under the Lord’s umbrella (I call it); I came a hair’s breadth of committing suicide. Since coming back to the Lord 5 or 6 yrs ago, I have been to the edge a couple times and it has only been the Holy Ghost that has brought me back so (me personally), I don’t believe that there is anything ‘I can do’ to keep me going.

The “one” thing that does keep me seeking God each day is that He has shown me to cultivate having conversations with Him from the time my eyes open each morning; we talk minute by minute or I do at least (b/c I do most of the talking!). (huge grin)

I ‘know’ that He left the 90 and 9 to find that 1 lost sheep that was me and I know that I am accepted by ‘my husband/my maker’ and that I’m not alone (and yes, He does answer all my questions and ponderings sometimes!).

God bless!
Lisa

That's awesome Lisa! God saved me in a similar fashion, and I can't help but love Him. I agree though its not my working or my pushing but God pushing into me placing His desires in me. Apart from Christ I would do whatever I wanted and love doing it, but Christ through the Holy Spirit just doesn't allow me to do that but softly and gently woos my heart (when I decide to listen).

I just recently started do the same actually I have a long drive home from work about 20 minutes( if you can consider that long) and I just talk away and God showed me a few of my quarks that I am guessing He finds silly. Like when we pray in public we have a tendency to quote tons of scripture almost as if God had forgotten what He wrote. I had to chuckle when He told me that last night. :)

by mguldner on 2010/12/18 14:33:22

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

What keeps you seeking God day after day?

Some time ago now, I had a dream that I had just been adopted by this fabulously rich couple. As I was standing there with them, my adopted mother with a big smile on her face turned to my adopted Father and said to Him...Oh don't wait, give it to Him right now. (I assumed it was some sort of a gift that she was talking about for being adopted by them.) My adopted Father reached out and gave me something that was wrapped in butcher paper with strings tied around it. He told me to take it home, their home, to their mansion which was in heaven, and that I was to make this gift ready.

I had to make my way home, which is this life's journey, and as I journeyed I became very curious and excited as to what was wrapped in the butcher paper, so I unwrapped it. When I unwrapped it, I found a raw uncooked beef roast. At first I was very puzzled by it and thought it very strange, not understanding why I was given a piece of meat as a gift from my Father as a gift for being adopted.

As I journeyed home, I began to rub the roast with fine oil, herbs and seasonings, to make it ready...I took great care in doing this, but I still did not understand what the roast was for or meant.

I finally arrived home at my adoptive parents Mansion in Heaven, where the roast was taken from me and given to the chef to prepare and add to the feast. My Parents had many adopted children, and their mansion had 7 floors, and on each floor, there was a feast.

On the first floor is where the h'orderves were, an impeccable, indescribable and immaculate feast!

On the second floor soups and salads, and again an impeccable and immaculate feast, none can complain. And so on and so forth until you got to the 7th floor where the Roast Beef is, and all manner of different meats are.

And here is the understanding and revelation of it given to me, that I did not understand until I arrived in heaven:

Some will get to the first floor, but will not all will get to the second floor, and those that get to the second floor will have access to the first floor as well, but not all of them get to go to the third floor, and so forth and likewise all the way up to the seventh floor. Those that have acess to the seventh floor will likewise have access to all of the floors beneath. None can complain at this feast, or place in this mansion, or be envious at all, for all are full to overflowing and are content.

Did you not know that to those to whom it is given...they receive the beef roast here in this life to prepare it, were we are to make it ready to give to the head of the feast when we arrive?

Imagine two cups if you will, one cup being a 32 ounce pitcher, and the other cup an 8 oz glass. Now the Lord fills both of these cups to continual overflowing... so is one less full then the other? Can any complain for not being full to overflowing?

The greater the capacity to hold water, the greater the reward in heaven. The reward in heaven is to be in the image of God (to be like Him and to love and worship Him), the greater the capacity/reward the more we are like Him, hence the size of the cups. Those who are most like Him (in His image) shine brighter. Revelation 2:28

again...The Lord gives us the roast here on earth where we are to prepare it, rub it with oil, season it (we do this while we journey to heaven), and when we arrive to the Mansion in heaven we present it to the master of the house who gives it to the chefs to prepare it, where those who are to share and partake of it shall partake of it.

~~~~~~~~

John Bunyan (a vision he had), writer of Pilgrims Progress wrote:

“As I was brought here, I saw among the saints some that appeared to shine with greater brightness than the others. Are there among the blessed different degrees of glory?”

“The happiness and glory which all the blessed here enjoy is the result of their communion with and love to the ever blessed God. The more we see Him, the more we love Him; and love changes our souls into His nature, and from this results our glory. This makes a difference in the degrees of glory. Nor is there any murmuring in one to see another’s glory much greater than his own. The ever blessed God is an unbounded ocean of light and life, and joy and happiness, still filling every vessel that is put therein, till it can hold no more.

And though the vessels are of several sizes, while each is filled there is none that can complain. My answer therefore to your question is that those who have the most enlarged capacity(which is the reward) do love God most, and are thereby changed most into His likeness. This is the highest glory heaven can give. Nor let this seem strange to you, for even among God’s flaming angels there are diversities of order and different degrees of glory.

```
I will say as the Apostle of my faith has said: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

Very interesting allegory, Would this consistute a motivation to be transformed into Christ's image? Or would the feast be the motivation and trying to get to the highest floor of feasting?

motivation? ...strive for the mastery

King James Bible
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. 2 Timothy 2:5 (King James Version)

Would this consistute a motivation to be transformed into Christ's image?

If being transformed means that I get to worship and love Him forever in my spirit, then yes! You cannot help but be transformed into the image of the object of your love; therefore, love not the world nor the things in the world. Hard to understand, if you have never been touched by Him.

I agree with both of your points, I just wanted clarification :) Thanks!

The more I study Christ and continue to walk with Him the more I find I need His help and transforming power.

I remember a quote but I know I am going to mess it up because I don't remember where I heard it but the main point was Either we will transform the World through Christ, or the World will transform us.

Words are inadequate to express what is in my heart, but what keeps me going primarily is my love for the Lord, and the KEEN AWARENESS of the battle going on in the heavenlies! When the enemy tries to knock me down, and I am tempted to quit and think that it is no use, the Lord reminds me that I am needed to stand in the gap...that the church is in a very sad state and so utterly watered down... if I give up and quit, as is true of so many of you, who will pray for revival? Who will stand against the enemy for my family? Why God chose me to be a part of the remnant is beyond me....In the natural, I am the weakest of the weak...my faith falters at every turn...but I KNOW that I KNOW that I KNOW that I have been called by God for a purpose in His kingdom, and I want to be found faithful. As I said, words are inadequate - I hope some of this makes sense.

This is a great subject to discuss, in my opinion, because it corners you with a dose of reality.

Why do we continue on with God? If you think about it -after all these years, all the failures, all the disappointments and hardships and the antagonistic swayings of life - how in the world can we find the strength and willpower to continue on with God each day? And yet we do! I have quit things in life that have given me a fraction of the emotional distress as serving God has. I have quit jobs, relationships for a fraction of the pain as compared to being a follower of Christ.

In the beginning, following Christ was new and exciting, fresh and vibrant with daily showers of glory. But now, I go whole months without a perceptible touch or thrill from God. Failure, disappointments, staleness...even abject despair at times run the show, and visceral visitations from the Lord seem to be as rare as finding a four-leafed clover in Antarctica. But, despite all this, we continue on. And not only continue on - we have inexpressible joy as a bedrock to our faith. Joy, even after failures; joy beneath our all our soul-despair. How is this possible?

"It is God who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). This verse, in my estimation, explains best of all why the New Birth is absolutely imperative and indespensible: we need God's Spirit within to miraculously enable us continue on with Christ. It is by God's workings and not my own, for if it were of my own, I would have thrown in the towel years ago on Christianity and walked away defeated.

But there always seems to be a reserve strap to pull when the main canopy fails to open. When Satan shoots you out of the sky and you're falling to the earth in a ball of flames, it can look pretty bad. Death is certain upon impact with the groud, and hellfire awaits. But a true child of God never seems to hit the ground and die, does he? He cries out to His Lord, and is scooped up moments before impact and saved, restored and put back in the sky to continue the voyage.

The intuition to cry out to God in peril is spiritually-intrinsic to a person indwelt by the Holy Spirit. In the same way a baby inheritantly cries out to his mother and father when hurt or in need or afraid, so the son or daughter of God cries to the Father who is able to "keep us from falling". What father or mother here would not immediately drop everything to tend to their child's endangered safety?

God does such a radical new work in us when we are initially born-again that it just keeps evolving and evolving despite all the setbacks we encounter. Even our failures and sin work together for good to those who are called by God, according to His purpose. A child who is of God cannot continue in sin, because to continue in sin while indwelt by the Holy Spirit is an impossibility. It is by the power and influence of God that we have come to loathe sin and seek His daily strength like beggars at the gate.

Jesus has become my best friend. If all else in the world forsake me He will never. He will finish the good work He started in me and will guide me, correct me and love me to the end.

In His Presence is where I long to be. What would I do every morning if it were not for Him in my life? He is my life and I love & long to be with Him in the morning. Quiet and all alone with Him.

And I can go to His Throne of grace and mercy any hour for others who are in need of His help knowing He has heard and is working on their behalf.

Most of all the knowledge I am saved, delivered and set free from the ugliest of a sinner. I am washed, clean and am His Bride. Unworthy and not deserving but forgiven for all. And now I can walk hand in hand with my best friend, my Savior, my Lord with peace and joy. I will know Him when He comes for me for we have been together here on earth. I love Him because He first loved me. Amen and Glory to our God.