It is all about walking with God. When you look for men who have been lifted up by God—Abraham, Moses, David, the Apostle Paul, and especially the Son of God, Jesus Christ—all have a common denominator: they walked with God. God’s Spirit led them. They prayed about their hour and their upcoming hours. Paul will talk about the Spirit leading him and then later blocking him from going places. Many Prophets talk about the Spirit “taking them” somewhere. When you look back on your life, you can see that by the grace of God, and unconsciously, you have been moved and led by God. Praise Him for doing more for you than you could think or ask. One of the best proof-texts that God is leading you so that you might find Him is found in Acts 17:24-28:
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’”
What if this is right? What if the only thing in the world that matters is your personal relationship with God and Christ? This entails leaving the love of the world, and it entails embracing suffering as well as the blessings. Paul threw everything into knowing Jesus Christ and sharing in His sufferings. This suffering changes your life. If you are always preventing suffering, then you are spoiled, and you do not understand Christ and therefore mere Christianity. Christ suffered, and His example is to be followed. Read I Peter 2 and Hebrews 5. Do not rob yourself of suffering for Christ. Waiting for hunger is wrapped up in embracing suffering. Why deny yourself of suffering that will only bring you good in the end?
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