God helps, heals, and restores. He gives us hope, peace and love. All the icky things lose their power when we see that God is in it with us. God is painting a grand landscape of great beauty. We are only a dot on that canvas. But the painting needs that one dot to be complete.

“God is enough.” There, I said it, the key concept, the defining point that describes my spiritual beliefs and my life. Everything I believe dove-tails back to a central belief that God is enough for every trial, sad event, hopeless moment, frustration, and personal loss.

When you have Christ on the throne of your life, no longer is your Christianity a form or a charade where spiritual life is lived out of duty or from performance-based expectations. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory. You have vitality that comes from within.

Christians who minister to the street people often minister with a humble Christ-like attitude–which is something to be desired and something I wish for in my life.

I know for a fact that God meets us where we’re at. He understands the biggies that trip us up, our unhealed hurts, unmet needs, unresolved issues, our anger, disappointments, and unbelief. God asks us to trust Him, to surrender our ‘stuff’ to His care. A response is required if we want God to to help us overcome and move forward through the occurrences in our lives.

This way of life doesn’t just happen by osmosis. No. It can’t. Not possible. God waits for us. He keeps drawing us to Himself as the object of His affection. He begins a work in our hearts. It becomes up to us with an act of the will to turn ourself towards God. At times, a restlessness sets in, a hunger for something more. Other times, it stems from our human neediness and deep-seated pain.

My life as a Christ-follower gained depth when I changed my approach to spiritual matters. My perception altered when I let go of my routines and traditions and let God begin a new work in me. I gave God the reigns of my life. It became His way, not my way.

This choice to put God first was a decision I made in response to neediness. Life had dished out a lot of hurt. I didn’t want to live that way any longer. I wrote my intentions in a journal and gave the list to God. An honest search began that day which continues to this day. That is when I discovered that God is enough to meet the obstacles of every day.

We put it out there. We take a risk. Not much happens in our spiritual journey until there is a reaching out with a ‘want-to’ in our attitudes and ‘wish-for’ in our desires. Seeking of God is initiated in your mind and heart. It takes both. God may allow circumstances or pressure points to draw us toward Himself. God even allows painful situations to grab our attention, but He never forces you to come closer or to follow Him.

God is a good Father, the very best. God is patient and long-suffering. The prodigal son story is an apt illustration depicting the patient, loving-kindness of the Father for His wayward and self-righteous children. We find both personalities in the prodigal’s story. (Both types are often in a family.)

Christ’s death on the cross and God’s perfect will accomplished in the redemption story demonstrate God’s sacrificial love to the world. God’s love for you was worth a Son. His love is great, compelling, and true.

I suggest you surrender whatever God shows you that needs surrendering. You will need His help, but He is up to the task. He is able and willing. Let God lead. Trust Him. Embrace new life in Christ. Let your joy abound as God revolutionizes your life.

I promise you, it won’t be boring.

God is at work in the big middle of it all. He sees the whole picture, from the beginning to the end. We only see the here and now. Sometimes I go to a mountain precipice overlooking a canyon. Almost always, hawks and bird-kind are flying in the canyon. From the canyon rim, I look down on them. If I were standing on the canyon floor, I would barely see them when looking up.

Perspective differs according to where you are viewing the thing. God views our lives from His perspective. He sees what we cannot see. He knows what we shall be when we have completed our journey and have become a trophy of His grace. It is hard to comprehend this during troubling moments. When discouraged with it all, we might think God is absent or not all that active. Frankly, though, we have no idea of what God is doing behind the scenes.

Yet, miracles are all around us if we look for them.

My writing is from a spiritual perspective. What I write is written from the viewpoint of a life hid close to its source. God is that Life Source for me. He is my closest companion. He is why I write this type of message. I desire to offer what I know to others, so they can access what I know, have learned, and experienced.

My innermost desire is to point you to God. A life hidden in God takes on meaning and purpose. It experiences beauty and wonderment as it redeems and restores. I want to live out the immediacy of how God is refining my nature and shaping me that He might use me through my life and writings.

Spiritual life transforms through a refreshing, invigorating process.

My spiritual journey reflects the heart of the matter. What God is doing in me is humbling, yet fulfilling, hard, yet freeing, uncertain, yet centered. God is changing me into a selfless created-being who shouldn’t need human praise and recognition, whose ultimate fulfillment is the joy and satisfaction of living in close relationship with Father God.

However, it doesn’t happen without trouble and struggle.

I began seeking God in my twenties. I have learned a lot during the intervening years, between then and now. The path of spiritual discovery is a process of learning and applying. The more I study and apprehend the content, the more I find layers of truth. The more I consider God, the more I realize that He wants me to live in intimate fellowship with Him. While the love of God is formulating in my heart, my spiritual relationship is being cultivated. This dynamic becomes something so alive that it has a great need to be shared.

God is eager to love on us.

Taking time to ‘be at one’ with God, to read His Word, pray openly, seek His heart, and to know Him with a degree of intimacy, comes with an ongoing pursuit to know Him. Frequent meditating and considering of spiritual truth and godly thought are necessities for this journey of faith. And, we begin to love Him back.

Each area applied in our spiritual development is expedient when a relationship with God is sought, found, and actualized. 

As a result of all this seeking, my spiritual life experienced a reversal. It morphed from doing to being. This reversal happened long before I read spiritual Greats who have come to this same conclusion (that validated my perceptions).

When ‘being’ comes first, with ‘doing’ as its outworking of faith, we live out of love for our Creator and love for His creation. His life of love is transfusing a change within our inner self into one of Christ-likeness born from Christ-love and God-awareness. (It is a beautiful way to live life–the best way, in my opinion.)

The joy becomes ours.

Living out of love for God causes spiritual living to become organic and fluid. Your life is not your own any more, though you have your daily responsibilities and future plans. You now know that that’s a given. Your plans will be interrupted at a moment’s notice sometimes as you listen to the Spirit and act upon what He says.

It’s not about us, it’s about Him. This truth will set you free from trying to control the circumstances in your life.

Get your trust on.