When you meet\u00a0someone for the first time, what do you see?\u00a0\u00a0Certain physical characteristics about them such\u00a0as hair color, body type,\u00a0or gender may stand out to you, but could you say at this point\u00a0that you know this person?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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That is because\u00a0the heart of a person is the\u00a0center of who they are, and you must\u00a0be willing to spend the time it will take to experience them on a more personal level in order to really know them.\u00a0 Its called relationship.\u00a0 That is what God wants\u00a0to have with you.\u00a0 Its the reason He sent Jesus, His son, to earth.\u00a0\u00a0Our sin is what keeps us from having this relationship with God the Father, but Jesus came to\u00a0take our sin and shame upon Himself.\u00a0 He paid the price\u00a0we could not pay and to\u00a0make a way for us\u00a0to know, (<\/em>not just be acquainted with) Him.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some people do not have a problem with the reality\u00a0of sin.\u00a0 They know deep down and agree with God’s word, that “the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick: <\/em>who can understand it?” Jeramiah 17:9 (NAS).\u00a0 They may have trouble believing that a Holy God would even want <\/em>to have a relationship with them,\u00a0though they deeply desire for it to happen.\u00a0 Well, if this describes your struggle, then please listen carefully.\u00a0 There is NO sin that was not covered by the Savior’s shed blood on the cross.\u00a0 “For Christ\u00a0also died for sins, once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.”(1Peter3:18).\u00a0\u00a0 It doesn’t matter what others think they see in you.\u00a0 If you want to walk closely with God, He knows your heart, and He wants to make it happen. When you come to Him, He won’t be meeting you for the first time.\u00a0There will be no\u00a0surprises.\u00a0 He made you, remember?\u00a0 He’s been waiting to show you\u00a0how much He has always loved you.\u00a0 He desires<\/em> for you to walk closely with Him.\u00a0<\/p>\n Just as\u00a0in Samual 16:6-7 (NAS), when the prophet Samuel came to Jesse the Bethlehemite to pick from his sons a new king\u00a0for Israel;\u00a0and when\u00a0Samual saw\u00a0Jesse’s son Elaib he thought, “Surely the Lord’s annointed is before Him”.\u00a0 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” God had not chosen the man who looked most suited for the job, He chose instead, the youngest son of Jesse, a brave shepherd boy who was not the most highly esteemed of all his siblings.\u00a0 But God would later call this boy who walked closely with Him a “man after God’s own heart.” (Acts 13;22).\u00a0 By faith, this boy saved the nation of Israel by slaying a giant with just a slingshot.\u00a0This boy\u00a0was to become\u00a0King David. If you look into the life of King David, he wasn’t\u00a0perfect, but\u00a0 David returned to the Lord when he sinned, and the Lord knew his heart and received him back, and blessed him.\u00a0<\/p>\n God wants to make Himself known to every heart that will accept His love through the sacrafice of His own son.\u00a0 You can walk closely to God, if only you make it your heart’s desire, and only God knows the heart that desires Him in this way.\u00a0 If you have not taken the first step, why not tell Jesus you are turning away from\u00a0the sin that has kept you from walking closely with God?\u00a0 Accept Jesus’ death on the cross as the payment in full for your sin and begin your walk with Him right now.\u00a0 If you are a believer already, and struggle with believing that God could love or desire you, decide to believe what the God who made you says; “For God so loved<\/em>\u00a0the world that He gave His only begotton son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16 (NAS)\u00a0\u00a0You have everything to gain\u00a0in\u00a0doing so.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When you meet\u00a0someone for the first time, what do you see?\u00a0\u00a0Certain physical characteristics about them such\u00a0as hair color, body type,\u00a0or gender may stand out to you, but could you say at this point\u00a0that you know this person?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cathy-hicks-thinks-out-loud","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}