In life we often get so caught up in the things that have no real importance but yet we have all our priorities mixed up. We may not even know what we want or need, its all a big mess and we can go from relationship to relationship looking for that empty void to be filled. We can often declare dependency and feel we don't need anything or anyone but then we find ourselves right back in the same condition we were in. Empty, lonely, abandoned and hopeless. We can try to find ourselves and discover who we are but the truth is no matter how much time alone or away we have, we still don't know who we are. Whether you were brought up in a torn and tattered home or you didn't even have a place to call home, we all carry baggage and brokenness in one way or another. I have met so many people who are so lost searching for truth and meaning in life, they want to travel and get away from it all but when they return, its still there. Some things you just cant get away from, but yet when you bring up God they brush it off. It's sad because if they would only take it serious they would see so much clearly. God's love is so universal no matter what degree of damage and loss you have had in your life, God can repair and restore that which the enemy has used to destroy. All the things taken by the enemy can be reclaimed by God, but that's only if you let Him.Today is much like the city of Corinth 2000 years ago. During that time, Corinth was a new growing and thriving community. There were people of all walks of life, looking to rise to social status and gain much material success. Prostitution was common and the pleasures of the flesh were no stranger to the lonely people of the time. Nowadays we are not as open to prostitution but we still live in a pleasure seeking motivated society. We live in a highly dynamic and unique culture and yet so many people are lost and looking for their identity and purpose. You see we are no different from the times of the old, we have come so far technologically and scientifically yet we have remained stumped when it comes to true freedom and bondage. We are hopeless in so many ways. Growing up I was always looking for attention, I was the class clown, loud, rowdy, the one always getting in trouble. I remember that although among my friends I appeared confident and happy, I was in fact self conscious and very shy. I grew up feeling lonely, empty and not until I began to search for God, I discovered who I really was.You see all my life I felt like a failure, a troublemaker, so I had to put other people down and beat on them to comfort myself. I was the biggest bully,beat up older schoolmates, bigger schoolmates and multiple classmates at the same time. Friends knew not to mess with me, they rather join me, this was throughout much of my childhood, even up to high school. I wasn't scared of anything and I didn't care about anyone. It wasn't until I discovered who God said I was that changed me inside out. God said that "I am a child of God "(John 1:12), "I am more than a conqueror" (Romans 8:17", "I am the light of the world" (Mathew 5:14) and most important to me, that "I am accepted in Him" (Eph. 1:6) Why wouldn't anyone want that acceptance? Why wouldn't anyone want the wonderful thing that God promises and offers us, His children? I felt like one of the lowest people around but yet God had offered this to me, freely? He died for me, for the wrongs I had done, to save my soul. "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends" John 15:13Although I thought I had found God, it was really Him who found me, because I was the one who was lost. I came across this powerful story that relates to today's devotional and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have. "He Will Find You" By John PowellSome twelve years ago, I stood watching my university students file into the classroom for our first session in the Theology of Faith. That was the first day I first saw Tommy. My eyes and my mind both blinked. He was combing his long flaxen hair, which hung six inches below his shoulders. It was the first time I had ever seen a boy with hair that long. I guess it was just coming into fashion then.I know in my mind that it isn't what's on your head, but what's in it that counts; but on that day I was unprepared and my emotions flipped. I immediately filed Tommy under "S" for strange... very strange.Tommy turned out to be the "atheist in residence" in my Theology of Faith course. He constantly objected to, smirked at, or whined about the possibility of an unconditionally loving Father-God. We lived with each other in relative peace for one semester, although I admit, he was for me at times a serious pain in the back pew.When he came up at the end of the course to turn in his final exam, he asked in a slightly cynical tone: "Do you think I'll ever find God?"I decided instantly on a little shock therapy. "No!" I said very emphatically."Oh," he responded, "I thought that was the product you were pushing."I felt slightly disappointed at the thought that he had missed my clever line: "He will find you!" At least I thought it was clever. Later I heard that Tommy had graduated and I was duly grateful.Then a sad report, I heard that Tommy had terminal cancer. Before I could search him out, he came to see me. When he walked into my office, his body was very badly wasted, and the long hair had all fallen out as a result of chemotherapy. But his eyes were bright and his voice was firm, for the first time, I believe."Tommy, I've thought about you so often. I hear you are sick!" I blurted out."Oh, yes, very sick. I have cancer in both lungs. It's a matter of weeks.""Can you talk about it, Tom?""Sure, what would you like to know?""What's it like to be only twenty-four and dying?""Well, it could be worse.""Like what?""Well, like being fifty and having no values or ideals, like being fifty and thinking that booze, seducing women, and making money are the real 'biggies' in life."I began to look through my mental file cabinet under "S" where I had filed Tommy as strange. (It seems as though everybody I try to reject by classification God sends back into my life to educate me.)But what I really came to see you about," Tom said, "is something you said to me on the last day of class."(He remembered!)He continued, "I asked you if you thought I would ever find God and you said, 'No!' which surprised me. Then you said, 'But he will find you.' I thought about that a lot, even though my search for God was hardly intense at that time.(My "clever" line. He thought about that a lot!)But when the doctors removed a lump from my groin and told me that it was malignant, then I got serious about locating God. And when the malignancy spread into my vital organs, I really began banging bloody fists against the bronze doors of heaven. But God did not come out. In fact, nothing happened.Did you ever try anything for a long time with great effort and with no success? You get psychologically glutted, fed up with trying. And then you quit. Well, one day I woke up, and instead of throwing a few more futile appeals over that high brick wall to a God who may be or may not be there, I just quit. I decided that I didn't really care...about God, about an afterlife, or anything like that. I decided to spend what time I had left doing something more profitable. I thought about you and your class and I remembered something else you had said: 'The essential sadness is to go through life without loving. But it would be almost equally sad to go through life and leave this world without ever telling those you loved that you had loved them.' "So I began with the hardest one: my Dad. He was reading the newspaper when I approached him.""Dad"... "Yes, what?" he asked without lowering the newspaper. "Dad, I would like to talk with you. Well, talk.""I mean.... It's really important." The newspaper came down three slow inches. "What is it? Dad, I love you. I just wanted you to know that."Tom smiled at me and said with obvious satisfaction, as though he felt a warm and secret joy flowing inside of him.The newspaper fluttered to the floor. "Then my father did two things I could never remember him ever doing before. He cried and he hugged me. And we talked all night, even though he had to go to work the next morning. It felt so good to be close to my father, to see his tears, to feel his hug, to hear him say that he loved me. It was easier with my mother and little brother. They cried with me, too, and we hugged each other, and started saying real nice things to each other. We shared the things we had been keeping secret for so many years. I was only sorry about one thing, that I had waited so long. Here I was just beginning to open up to all the people I had actually been close to.Then, one day I turned around and God was there.He didn't come to me when I pleaded with him. I guess I was like an animal trainer holding out a hoop, 'C'mon, jump through. C'mon, I'll give you three days... three weeks.' Apparently God does things in his own way and at his own hour. But the important thing is that he was there. He found me. You were right. He found me even after I stopped looking for him.""Tommy," I practically gasped, "I think you are saying something very important and much more universal than you realize. To me, at least, you are saying that the surest way to find God is not to make him a private possession, a problem solver, or an instant consolation in time of need, but rather by opening to love. You know, the Apostle John said that. He said God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God and God is living in him.'Tom, could I ask you a favor? You know, when I had you in class you were a real pain. But (laughingly) you can make it all up to me now. Would you come into my present Theology of Faith course and tell them what you have just told me? If I told them the same thing it wouldn't be half as effective as if you were to tell them.""Oooh... I was ready for you, but I don't know if I'm ready for your class.""Tom, think about it. If and when you are ready, give me a call."In a few days Tommy called, said he was ready for the class, that he wanted to do that for God and for me. So we scheduled a date. However, he never made it. He had another appointment, far more important than the one with me and my class. Of course, his life was not really ended by his death, only changed. He made the great step from faith into vision. He found a life far more beautiful than the eye of man has ever seen or the ear of man has ever heard or the mind of man has ever imagined.Before he died, we talked one last time. "I'm not going to make it to your class," he said."I know, Tom.""Will you tell them for me? Will you... tell the whole world for me?""I will, Tom. I'll tell them. I'll do my best." So, to all of you who have been kind enough to read this simple statement about love, thank you for reading. And to you, Tommy, somewhere in the sunlit, verdant hills of heaven: "I told them, Tommy.... as best I could."A true story and is not enhanced for publicity purposes.
Reference: spellscasting.blogspot.com
