Close to God in 2009 - Mike Baker

Mike Baker is a great member of our team.

He did this inspirational chat last Sunday AM during the prayer time - we were all inspired - I hope that you are too.

Over to you, Mike


Today I’d like to share with you a bit of what God has been speaking into my life the last few weeks. So we’ll start with some song lyrics and go from there.

In 2003 the Band Linkin Park had a top 10 hit with these words

I'm tired of being what you want me to be,
Feeling so faithless lost under the surface
Don't know what you’re expecting of me
Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes
Every step that I take is another mistake to you

I've become so numb I can't feel you there
Become so tired so much more aware,
I'm becoming this all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you

(Linin Park – Numb lyrics are property and copyright of their respective authors, artists and labels)

We’ll stop there because it gets really depressing after that.

This sounds to me like the cry of a heart that’s had enough and ready to give up. Now imagine that one day you stopped to take a look at your relationship with God and found that those were the words that accurately described where you are. Then consider - How could you have gotten there, what could, what would you do about it?

I personally don’t have to look hard to know there have been times my life where this has been the case – and looking back at those times I can see exactly how I got there. The reason is always the same - I was too busy, too tired, too preoccupied with doing other things – even church things - and in turn my personal relationship with God got ignored.

In “Too Busy Not To Pray” Bill Hybels makes this statement

Our spirits like our bodies, have requirements for health and growth. Some people don’t want to pay the price of developing good spiritual habits. Sadly, they end up paying the much higher price of spiritual disease, even death.

So why have I chosen to share these things today?

Well, over the last few weeks I started looking to God for his word for me for the year – sort of a “Ok Lord, you want to give me a heads up on what you want to mess with in my life this year?” There’s probably a more spiritual way of putting that, but you get the idea. As I spent time seeking God what I kept coming back to is that underpinning everything I do this year needs to be a new level of personal closeness to and listening to the voice of God.

Now, as a church we have a big theme for this year UNLEASHED.
At a personal level it is going to mean different things to each of us as God reveals the areas he wishes to Unleash in our lives. But if we don’t have that closeness with God happening we can totally miss the call. Then what happens is God wants to unleash us in one direction, but we miss the message, or we don’t act on it. We end up over somewhere else feeling a bit Linkin Park’ish and wondering what happened.

Later in “Too Busy Not To Pray” Bill Hybels goes on to say

The heart and soul of the Christian life is learning to hear God’s voice and then developing the courage to do what he asks us to do

“The heart and soul of the Christian life” - sounds fairly important doesn’t it?

I’d now like to share another set of song lyrics. These were written by an early pioneer of church music whose songs have inspired millions. To me these describe the extreme opposite relationship from that shown by Linkin Park. So imagine that one day you stopped to take a look at your relationship with God and found that those are the words that accurately described where you are – how would you feel then?

Psalm 23
1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,] I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

So we have two songs, two extremes of relationship with God.

Now I’d like each of us too take a couple of minutes privately to consider 3 questions
1. Where between these two extremes is my personal relationship with God today?
2. Where do I want my personal relationship with God to go this year?
3. What am I going to do, even starting today to move that relationship along?

How about you do the 3 questions.

Which question was most difficult for you to answer?