21. Call out to Him

“Call out to Him!”

“Call on His name”...? 

I was thinking about this concept and I believe there is one key element we can overlook: Jesus is not like a vending machine. We cannot stand in front of Him, looking at all our options and decide to buy into which one we are in the mood for that day. We cannot cry out His name and expect Him to “fix” everything by making the financial struggle selection (or anything else we may face) as we watch the solution fall into our laps. We cannot call on Him ONLY when times are hard or when we are struggling. 

But I do believe that for many of us (myself included) many journeys started with that cry...it is not a cry for things to magically disappear but instead it is a cry when we come to the end of ourselves: When we recognize we cannot possibly do it anymore on our own and we realize that with every effort we make, we cannot control our life, we cannot fix what is broken, we cannot do what God can do. He doesn’t want you to wait til you hit that spot, but often that is where many find themselves before they can see their weakness in comparison to His strength. 

(and by the way that “cry” can look like many different things. Maybe it’s listening to a serman for the first time. Maybe it’s opening your Bible after years of never pulling it off the shelves. Maybe it is the actual act of yelling out ”Jesus help me!”. Maybe you already know Him, but have never completely surrendered to Him so it’s a cry to invite Him deeper into your life.) 

One of my favorite things I’ve heard my pastor say is “God is not hiding from you.” He wants to have a relationship with you. He wants you to call to Him. He wants to reveal himself to you-it is our hearts that need softened, not His. He wants you to open the door when He knocks...But it is YOU who must open the door because He will not do it for you. (and if you are reading this, HE IS KNOCKING!!!! If you have ever heard anything about the Bible, Jesus, God, prayer, the Holy Spirit, church, Easter, Christmas, the list goes on HE IS KNOCKING! )

But here’s the thing: once you take that first step, once you cry out to Him, once you open that door, what you do next matters just as much. No matter what that cry looks like, don’t let it end there. Dive into the word; continue to go to (virtual) church; begin praying daily (even if it starts just as a few words); Reach out to others who already walk their life with Jesus...Take one step after one step. As much as you may want it to be a quick fix, crying out to Him is only one step of many to build a true relationship with Christ where you give all you are to Him and He saturates your life with beauty you can’t even imagine. But it must start somewhere. Whether you are at your low or at your high (and anywhere in between) start today. Take that first step to allow Him in where you have kept Him out.