Our family so enjoys getting together to watch Alabama football; and everybody knows that the ultimate goal is to win the game. Nick Saban, the coach of the University of Alabama, often shares his success due to one important thing: the players giving themselves to or pursuing the process.
If we want to win in life, we need to know the end game. What is the goal of the Christian life? The ultimate goal is to be in never-ending intimacy with God in a place prepared for us called heaven. Our LOVE relationship with Him is the ultimate purpose (1 John 3:1-3). Our universal purpose is to be holy because it is how we were originally created and it is the only place where we will be happy, fulfilled and free (Eph.1:4). And then, we each have a personal purpose that God placed in us before the creation of the world that only we can do (Eph. 2:10). This is a Christian’s win: walking in such intimacy with the Father that we live wholly devoted to Him and fulfill the purposes for which we were created until we are with Him forever in heaven.
Why is that so vitally important to know? Because if you don’t know where you are going, you can never reach your destination. To not know where you are going is to wander aimlessly. You must know your end game so that you can develop a process to reach it.
Process: a methodical series of actions directed to a specific end.
With your end game in sight, you can now set yourself up for success by aligning yourself to the actions that help you reach that specific end. As you give yourself solely to those things, you begin to see progress.
Progress: to advance in growth and development with continuous improvement toward a specific goal.
The more you give yourself to the process, the more progress you make. The more you forsake the things that don’t get you toward your goal, and hewn in on the things that do, the greater progress you make.
Why do I take the time to write all of this out for us? Because as followers of Jesus, we are often not making progress in our walks with God because we don’t know the win, don’t keep ourselves aimed and focused on the win, and don’t give ourselves to the process the Lord has laid out for us!
What is that process? His Presence. God is constantly pursuing us just to stay in His Presence. In John 15, Jesus days, “Remain in Me”. That word “remain” is “meno” and means “to make yourself at home with”. It is a constant awareness, acknowledgment and pursuit of God’s Presence that propels us along the process to where we see progress being made in us fulfilling our purpose. It is to this we must give ourselves completely to.
A constant awareness, acknowledgment and pursuit of God’s Presence propels us along the process to where we see progress being made in us fulfilling our purpose.
God is pursuing you so intentionally. He made you for Himself. He made you for intimacy with Him. The question becomes are you pursuing Him? Are you pursuing the same end game that He has for you? Intimacy? Christlikeness? Holiness? Purpose?
May we each evaluate and eliminate all that hinders our pursuit of our purpose for deep intimacy with God, transformation into His likeness, and fulfilling our purpose. May we give ourselves wholly to that process and as we practice His presence, see great progression towards the ultimate end game of eternity with Him.
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