by Pastor Janice Sutter

Are you ready to go deeper?
 
This is one of the exciting things about being part of a church community: sensing the Spirit prompting someone to go deeper in their faith.
 
I’ve heard this and seen this in numerous ways among us in just the last few weeks. I’ve seen it among people of a wide variety of ages and life situations. Yet, it seems to be the same Spirit prompting each to go deeper in their faith experience, to go deeper in their commitment to God.
 
And each responds in his or her own way, choosing something that will help them go deeper with God:

• deciding to try fasting as a spiritual discipline she has never tried before
• committing to read through the Bible this year
• praying at a specific time each day
• planning to be baptized
• responding to a new sense of God’s call to take action in face of injustice
• deciding to deliberately seek and keep open to the new way in which God’s Spirit seems to be leading
• paying attention to dreams as a way God speaks
• forming a spiritual friendship, in which two people go beyond a surface relationship in talking with and praying for each other

Sometimes God calls us to take the next step and go deeper in our faith. Maybe God is prompting you to that kind of commitment right now. It often helps to tell someone about the prompting and commitment as a way to hold oneself accountable in taking action.
 
And something we can count on even more than our friends, is the steady and sure action of God in our lives. God’s Spirit is the One who prompts us to go deeper. And God is also the One who gives us the strength and fuel to do this.
 
Are you ready to go deeper?
 
I had been reading, thinking and praying, in preparation for writing this note. Finally, that question about “going deeper” came into my mind. I began to write. Later, when I walked into the church building, LeeAndra greeted me. In the course of conversation, she told me she was excited about a new release of a familiar song, “Ocean (Where Feet May Fail)”. I listened to the song and smiled as I heard these lyrics:
 
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior
           
Lyrics by Joel Houston/Matt Crocker/Salomon Lighthelm

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