Colossians 1:9,10
9 For this reason we also, since
the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with
the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy
of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being
fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
I
remember the childish desires I had when I was a kid. I was so obsessed with
sugar that I said to myself, "When I become an adult, I'll make sugar
syrup and use it instead of plain water". To me, heaven was a place where
ice-cream keeps falling from above and there's glitter all around. As Paul says
in I Corinthians 13: 11 - When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I
understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put
away childish things. Looking back at all those silly childish thoughts and behaviors,
I know I lacked sense and maturity as a kid. And now, I appreciate the taste of
plain water and am amazed at how I could drink lots of it without ever feeling
sick. And I know that an excess of sweetness does not lead to more sweetness,
but rather to bitterness. The change in my desires and needs indicates the
growth and maturity I've had through life's varying experiences.
As a baby in Christ, we might be obsessed with little things, and might be always asking our Heavenly Father for materialistic blessings. It is perfectly okay to bring our needs to God (for God wants us to rely on Him for everything), but if all we ever do when we come to Him, is ask for something we need – that is an indicator that we need to grow spiritually. As we grow in the knowledge of God through the Holy Spirit, we begin to understand the bigger picture. We begin to realize that God didn't design our lives to be lived according to our whims in cushiony comforts, but rather to carry out His perfect will on earth, glorifying His Holy Name. Once we begin to spend time with God, knowing His awesome character and His amazing ways, our focus in prayer starts shifting from "my needs" to "God's will". We sense God's heart and we begin to know through the Spirit's revelation that we are called to live a deeper life, with godly standards, as a "light" and a "salt" in this dark world. Knowing God and loving Him is the ultimate reason for our existence. The more we know God, the more we can love Him. The more we love Him, the more we desire to please Him. So it all starts with knowing God through His Holy Spirit. Let's not allow life's busyness and self-obsessions to make us blind to the godly purposes of life. Life itself has meaning because of just one thing - GOD. There's no meaningful purpose of life apart from the Creator. Let's grow in the knowledge of Who God is, not just what He can do.
Philippians 3:8
8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ
Once
you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God,
most of life's problems fall into place of their own accord. - J.I. Packer
