Devotional Thoughts for the Week of July 7, 2019 - Obsessed With Jesus
I am obsessed. I don’t really know when or how it happened. “Obsessed” is not a word I would have used, but my children are sure it fits. I didn’t realize it had gone that far until a few days ago. In youth group we have been working through a study based on Francis Chan’s book, Crazy Love. This week as I re-read chapter 8, Profile of the Obsessed, I realized that God has been teaching me to love Him at a far deeper level than I ever had before. A few years ago I had begun praying, and teaching students to pray, “Heavenly Father, please keep teaching me to know You more and love You more.” I don’t pray it as consistently as I had been, but this week I was somewhat astonished to discover how much God has been answering that prayer in my life. It has happened so gradually that I really did not see how different I was from just three or four years ago. Chan includes this definition, “Obsessed: To have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic.” Throughout the chapter he provides several examples of what it looks like to be obsessed with Jesus. My favorite is this one, “A person who is obsessed thinks about heaven frequently. Obsessed people orient their lives around eternity; they are not fixed only on what is here in front of them.” This fixation with heaven and longing to see my Savior is not anything I have chosen, but rather it is a gift from God, an answer to my prayer. He is teaching me to know Him more and love Him more. The more I know Him, the more I love Him. The more I love Him, the more I long to know Him more deeply and fully. It is a beautiful way to live and I long for all to experience it.
It is obvious to me and to those closest to me that I still need a great deal of transformational work in my life. I have only begun to scratch the surface of what it means to know God intimately, but I can tell you from what I have experienced so far that the journey is far richer and more delightful than anything this world has to offer. I am hesitant to share this discovery, lest it sound prideful. Some of you have progressed much further in this treasure-hunt life than I have. I want to clearly state that anything good in me is of the Spirit, not of Lynn. I just want to exhort you, as the Spirit is exhorting me, to seek the Lord with everything in you. I hope that hearing how much God has changed and ignited my heart in just a few short years, giving me exuberant joy, will be an encouragement that He can do the same and even more for you if you are seeking Him. Here are a few of the passages that have been blessing my heart, fueling the fire, and nourishing my soul over the past week (from The Passion Translation):
Lynn
1.Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God, 2008
2. Ibid, p 142
I am obsessed. I don’t really know when or how it happened. “Obsessed” is not a word I would have used, but my children are sure it fits. I didn’t realize it had gone that far until a few days ago. In youth group we have been working through a study based on Francis Chan’s book, Crazy Love. This week as I re-read chapter 8, Profile of the Obsessed, I realized that God has been teaching me to love Him at a far deeper level than I ever had before. A few years ago I had begun praying, and teaching students to pray, “Heavenly Father, please keep teaching me to know You more and love You more.” I don’t pray it as consistently as I had been, but this week I was somewhat astonished to discover how much God has been answering that prayer in my life. It has happened so gradually that I really did not see how different I was from just three or four years ago. Chan includes this definition, “Obsessed: To have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic.” Throughout the chapter he provides several examples of what it looks like to be obsessed with Jesus. My favorite is this one, “A person who is obsessed thinks about heaven frequently. Obsessed people orient their lives around eternity; they are not fixed only on what is here in front of them.” This fixation with heaven and longing to see my Savior is not anything I have chosen, but rather it is a gift from God, an answer to my prayer. He is teaching me to know Him more and love Him more. The more I know Him, the more I love Him. The more I love Him, the more I long to know Him more deeply and fully. It is a beautiful way to live and I long for all to experience it.
It is obvious to me and to those closest to me that I still need a great deal of transformational work in my life. I have only begun to scratch the surface of what it means to know God intimately, but I can tell you from what I have experienced so far that the journey is far richer and more delightful than anything this world has to offer. I am hesitant to share this discovery, lest it sound prideful. Some of you have progressed much further in this treasure-hunt life than I have. I want to clearly state that anything good in me is of the Spirit, not of Lynn. I just want to exhort you, as the Spirit is exhorting me, to seek the Lord with everything in you. I hope that hearing how much God has changed and ignited my heart in just a few short years, giving me exuberant joy, will be an encouragement that He can do the same and even more for you if you are seeking Him. Here are a few of the passages that have been blessing my heart, fueling the fire, and nourishing my soul over the past week (from The Passion Translation):
- “Fill your thoughts with My words until they penetrate deep into your spirit. Then as you unwrap My words, they will impart life and radiant health into the very core of your being.” (Proverbs 4:21,22)
- “So live the rest of your earthly life no longer concerned with human desires but consumed with what brings pleasure to God.” (1 Peter 4:2)
- “Since we are approaching the end of all things, be intentional, purposeful, and self-controlled so that you can be given to prayer.” (1 Peter 4:7)
- “So that in everything God alone will be glorified through Jesus Christ. For to Him belong the power and the glory forever throughout all ages! Amen” (1 Peter 4:11b).
- “Only You can satisfy our hearts, filling us with songs of joy to the end of our days.” (Psalm 90:14b)
Lynn
1.Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God, 2008
2. Ibid, p 142