ELEVATION NORTH has NEWS for YOU!

BEING INTENTIONAL.  SEEING & HEARING WITH INTENTIONALITY.  FOLLOWING CHRIST & WALKING WITH HIM INTENTIONALLY.  LIVING & LOVING INTENTIONALLY!!!  Is there any other way?  Most definitely, but none that can compare to living life out like God intended for us to!  Yes, God Himself was also intentional and still is.  If the God of the universe thinks it’s a good idea to live intentionally, then probably we should, too!  A few weeks ago when visiting our son and his wife and their family in Michigan, they had tickets to a marriage conference at their church on Sunday evening, and knowing we were coming, they purchased two extra tickets for us!  It is quite an amazing thing to sit in a marriage conference with three generations of your family!  The presentation and content was delightful and powerful … yes, even life-changing (relationship-changing) when you make the decision to love your spouse intentionally. 

So what does this one word I keep using really mean and why should we integrate it into every aspect of our lives?  I believe that anything we do gets done because we used some level of intentionality … but nothing gets accomplished without it.  That goes for everything in our lives!  It especially needs to be implemented in these days, when with the dawning of each new day we discover life is crazier than it was the day before!  Without living an intentional faith in the living God, we have nothing to anchor ourselves to.  Nothing at all.  Other than God, who always has been, who is, and who will always be . . . everything and everyone else will someday fail us.  He in the only “everlasting” there is in an ever-changing world!  Who of us doesn’t want to feel safe and secure, peaceful and assured?  And who of us does not long for simpler days and more time with our family and friends? 

There’s one place and one way we can experience those genuine longings of the heart.  The place is found when sitting at the feet of Jesus … and the way is opened up when we communicate with our Father in heaven.  But instead of running to Him only for the purpose of asking – even demanding (which gets us no where!), how about following the example Jesus set out for us to follow?  The heart of God loves hearing us come with words of praise and affirmation on our lips.  When we acknowledge who He is, according to His Word, a new level of relationship is set into motion.  We recognize and understand His character and traits more than we did, and the longings of His heart become more real to us as He reveals them to us.  What if instead of asking for what we want, we would take time to listen to the heart of God and actually ask HIM what is on His heart?  What matters to Him?  He would love to tell us … when we really want to know.  Secondly, God loves a grateful heart!  Coming before our God with expressions of gratitude for all He has already accomplished for us and provided for us opens up the gateway to heaven and back to us again!  Being thankful activates an open conduit from our heart to God’s ~ and from His heart to ours.  We send our thanksgiving upward, and blessings begin to pour downward through this passageway and right into our lives.  Which is as it should be, right?  Any healthy and vibrant relationship is nurtured when both people involved communicate with each other in love and respect, and with gratitude and gifts of the heart.  So, each of us in our human state and God in His divine nature are no different.  So why settle for a scaled-back, meager, survival-only type of relationship with our Lord and Savior when we can have the most rewarding, intimate, amazing connection possible?  After all, we are in Him – and He is in us!  Would you rather have a lackluster and distant connection to God … or would you prefer a passionate relationship that causes you to be engaged in conversation and a shared life of daily experiences with the One who loves you more than anyone on earth or heaven – can or ever will?  Want to hear His voice?  See Him in action?  Learn at His feet?  Feel the closeness of His very presence?  Experience His gifts beyond measure?  Then wait no longer.  You need to make an intentional decision right now to begin living in the very presence of God!  Oh yes, it takes practice for all of us – we are so easily distracted by so much.  Soon we’ve drifted far from the presence of God.  But dear ones, He is waiting, and drawing us back again … and in His presence every longing and desire of our heart that glorifies Him will be found!  Make your intentional decision today to practice the presence of God!

REMEMBER . . .

“Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; 

let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise!” 
~ Psalm 95:2

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise!

Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name!

For the Lord is good; His mercy and loving-kindness and truth endure to all generations.” 
~ Psalm 100:4-5

“Seek, inquire of and for the Lord, and crave Him and His strength 
(His might and inflexibility to temptation);

seek and require His face and His presence (continually) evermore.” 
~ Psalm 105:4

Joyfully Serving Christ . . .

Pastor Doug and Debbie