Rick really put a challenge out to us tonight. He is doing a series on Sunday to Sunday, and the topic this week was One Day. He talked about Christ's promise to be with us always. All we need to access this promise is to meet him. In order to meet him Rick 's plan was to take it one day at a time. In the Bible a day begins in the evening. Gen 1:5 loosely paraphrased is " ..it was evening and then the morning.. the first day. So to begin this journey before we go to bed we tell God that we are looking forward to being with him all day. When we wake in the morning spend the first few minutes with God, go over the calender of the days events, anything that brings anxiety... turn over to God. As we shower in the morning removing the impurities from the outside of our bodies, ask God to cleanse and remove the impurities from the inside of our bodies. We are to eat in Jesus' name. Ecc 9:7 says "Eat your bread with joy"... thank God for what he provides for you, and for being with you. We need to slow down and walk with God, no where in the bible does it say that we are to run, sprint, trot, speed with God. We need to slow down and meet God. We need to ask for his attitude. At the end of the day we need to thank God for the day.
I know that I didn't present this nearly as fluidly or eloquently as what Rick did, but it really spoke to me. I have been struggling lately to become intimate with God. I feel like I am so far away from God at times. What I pulled out of tonight was that if I want to be intimate with God I need to be intentional about it. (There is that word again Phil). What Rick was challenging us to do was to try and do this on Monday, or our next work day. I want to try this for tomorrow, and Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday....
So let us be intentional about being intimate with God.