Going Deeper (part 1)

  What prevents you from going deeper in Christ?
  What is stopping you from developing a stronger relationship with Jesus?
  What is holding you back from sharing what Jesus has done for you?

  Maybe the questions should read.....

  How do I go deeper in Christ?
  How do I get a stronger relationship with Jesus?
  How do I share Jesus and what He has done for me?

  The best way to answer these questions is taking them on one at a time. Starting with "going deeper in Christ"

  The reasons for not going deeper are almost as many as there are people in the world. "Life is just so busy right now"," I will start when my life slows down","Just too much stress, I don't want more"," I'm as deep as the next person"," I would have to stop doing some of the things I'm doing now". The list continues on and on.
  What we tend to not understand is that going deeper in Jesus, solves many of these problems. I can honestly say this because I am a living testimony of what He has done for me in the last year alone. A life that was spinning out of control, stress coming from every direction and me not wanting to give up some of the things that I knew were wrong. All it took was a little bit of commitment from me and support from my wife. I had to let Him inside my heart before the outside would change.

  How did I start on the path to going deeper? It started with one simple request lifted up in prayer......Jesus I want to go deeper, show me what I need to do..amen
  Sounds almost laughable, so simple and so short. The difference was I wanted it. My prayer was sincere and honest, I did want it. I wanted my life to change and I wanted to live for Him.

  Next I made a few other life changes. I found a person I could trust to hold me accountable. Someone I could talk honestly to about what I was going thru. I even changed the music I was listening to. I had to forgive myself to experience God's love.

  Those were the easy steps, the next one was a little tougher. I committed time. Time to be in church, time to be in a Bible study and time for ministry. In the past, time was a commodity that was in short supply in my life. Work, hobbies and time to rest. Add in the everyday things like upkeep on the house and vehicles, there wasn't anything left. The secret to getting the time I needed to keep to my commitment was........prioritizing. I put God first. I started spending more time with other believers in church and out. I committed to spend time in our ministry. Surprisingly there was enough time for all the changes.

 The past year has been an amazing ride and I thank Jesus for everything, most importantly for not giving up on me.

  Today I have the time. Today all the stresses that I had before are still there but I'm not worried about them now, Jesus has them covered.

  Have i gone deeper...well let's just say I'm not in the wading pool anymore and I headed to deep waters and loving it all the way.