A closer walk with God

“So, how’s your weekly mentoring programme with Mike going?”, Vince asked.

“I’d say it’s going on well…. just that…. never mind”, Jim replied with a shrug.

“What’s the matter? C’mon, let it out”, Vince encouraged his friend.

“Well, I noticed Mike was not opening up to me initially, so, I studied him for a while. I discovered he was passionate about a healthy lifestyle – going to the gym, taking long walks, cycling to work, and eating organic foods”, Jim explained.

“Don’t tell me – you go to the gym now?”, Vince asked.

“No way, I’m too lazy for that. But I’m now cutting back on sugar especially when I have coffee with Mike”, Jim explained.

“Well, that must be tough for you. I know how much you love a good cup of toasted marshmallow latte”, Vince said.

“I’d say it’s a lot of sacrifice for me, but Mike now connects with me on a deeper level whenever we have our weekly breakfast meeting, and I’m really loving the experience”, Jim explained.

When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it (Mark 8:34-35).

Having a closer walk with God and following Him involve sacrifice. Sometimes, God might be asking us to let go of something that we seem to love dearly. Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me”.  But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions (Mark 10:21-22).

Apostle Paul understood this pursuit of God when he wrote… But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 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 (Philippians 3:7-8). Indeed, our pursuit of God will lead us to a deeper level of spiritual growth, draw us closer to fellowship with God, sharpen our spiritual sensitivity and bring us into a deeper understanding of God’s word and Who He is. 

When we make God’s passion our passion, when we pursue God’s interest, we get to experience a closer walk with Him. But then, we need to get rid of distractions so we can focus our attention on this walk. No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24).

What could God be asking us to let go? A seemingly harmless relationship, a habit that keeps getting in the way between us and God, too much time on social media so we can focus more on His word, our love for the things of this world, etc?