Unique Spiritual Conditions

Once you've accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you're in a full-time relationship with Jesus, and by extension God (the Father). That's a fact of life.

Technically, all this curtails is that you repent of your sin, love the Lord your God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. After you choose to follow Jesus, and you've asked him to forgive your sins and come into your heart, you're good. You could drop dead that instant and you'd have your ticket to heaven stamped and pocketed.

Since people don't usually die the instant they're born again, there's a bit more to it than that. As far as I understand it, God wants us to have the opportunity to grow in our faith, to serve and trust God, and to love one another as He loved us.

Putting it loosely, that pretty much sums up all Christianity is supposed to be. But, the Bible has sixty-six books, so there's indubitably more to it than that.

In my daily bible readings, I've noticed there are occasions when believers can be closer to God in some way, or experience more of his love, power, and glory. I don't mean to imply these specific situations must be created in order to experience the Christian life; everything I explained above is literally all there is to it. All the stuff I'm going to list from here on is more like a spiritual bonus.

Jesus said that if two believers agree about anything they ask for, God gives it the go-ahead.

In a similar vein is the idea that wherever two or three gather in Jesus' name, there He is with them. It's like, whenever a group of believers gets together to learn about and worship God, the presence of God can be felt even more clearly and powerfully than before. Ideally, it's why people go to church (however, church culture in America has drifted away from this and become more of a religious practice than a spiritual recharging).

Interestingly, while praying with other believers is really helpful, one should not forget the importance of praying alone in a quiet place.

Another unusual circumstance God shows us is what happens when we persist in praying for help in desperate times; we receive an answer. After all,seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened.

What we ask for plays a role too. If we ask for wisdom and discernment concerning our situation, the Bible promises God will always grant it.

Tithing, is both a commandment and a way for us to see if God is the real-deal. We can tithe because God said we should, or we can tithe because we want to and then God will be so thrilled, he'll bless us big time.

I'm sure there are other unusual circumstances mentioned in the Bible, but I'm not familiar with all of them right now.

Have you had your break today?

This isn't an invitation to go out and get McFats, for those of you who remember the title of this post being their slogan.

I'm asking this as a serious question. Have you had your break today? Have you honestly given yourself the time to sit down, and be still--have you given God the chance to speak?

This isn't some religious ritual, some superstitious practice that claims to ward off bad luck or whatever.

I'm talking serious self-improvement here.

And yes, I will go as far as to say you could use improving.

I could too for that matter.

But that's the beauty of it. God didn't care how in-need-of-improvement we are. He loves us for who we are, and that was good enough for him to die in humiliation and disgrace for us.

More than that--as if there could ever be anything more than that--God chose those with obvious room for improvement to outdo those who had no need for as trivial a thing as improvement. In other words, God uses the bottom of the food chain to eat the top.

Sometimes the world is pressing in on all sides, I know, trust me, I've been jabbed in the ribs more than once. It's hard, but it's not the end of the world. You can get through it.

Don't bother with other people's opinions of you. It's not worth it.

Don't be anxious. Be grateful.

Instead, take a break. Sit down for a while, shut the door if you can, and marvel at the awesomeness that is the Lord God Almighty.