Isaiah 60: Arise [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you-rise to a new life]! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

Arise from the depression and your circumstances for the glory of the lord is upon you - excellent, that’s what it says. What a promise, whatever our circumstances God will improve them. Shine, be radiant with the glory of the Lord - that’s what we should be, all of us, and this scripture leaves us no leeway. Whatever we do it says we should be radiant with the Glory of the Lord!

Now through many many sessions of thinking (its harder than it looks) I have made what is not much of a discovery, that is that lot of Christians have this annoying habit of doing everything backwards, and by backwards I mean Backwards! This way of thinking I have found is very common in Christians, ‘I will sort my life out and then get in touch with God’. Wrong - totally and utterly completely trash, you make a connection with God and He will sort your life out, He will!

I’m not saying that with a ten minute prayer and a bippety boppity boo your going to be living in the Ritz, no. I’m not going to go into the whole ‘what to do to get in touch with God’ cause the truth is most of you already know. That’s right, you all know what you should be doing or you wouldn’t even be thinking I am going to get in touch with God; And if you already are that is great by the way, that is more than great 'cause that scripture at the top should be you, a person that is a shining example of Christianity; But, I am writing for the people who fall into the, I need to get God in my life category, but back to my earlier point, if you are thinking 'I need to get in touch with God' then you must know what getting in touch with Him is and what you need to do to get in touch with Him. If not you wouldn’t be thinking it cause you would be in touch with Him. There is always a reason why you are not in touch with God, and that doesn’t mean you have daily visions or conversations with him in the afternoons, it just means that - (and try and follow me here), what you know will make you connected with God, but then there is also the people who are saying to themselves I am completely In touch with God, if you are as I said before fine, but there is one simple test you can take to find this out, ask yourself when was the last time you sat to listen and pray to God, and before that when was the last time, if it’s a two month gap, there's a problem! Would you have a friend with out communicating with them? Here is a hint just as you cant learn an instrument over night one prayer doesn’t make you Billy Graham. It takes a bit of time to do, but why not give the time, you give time to reading the morning paper, and hint - praying will be a lot more fun and I am positive will not make you want to kill yourself after you’ve read the front page. You give time to reading the paper, watching tv, listening to music and everything else you do in you life.

There are 525 948 minutes in an average year, how many do you spend praying, and how many do you give to God? You don’t change all the problems in your life then get in touch with God. He is the first thing you do 'cause when you have Him there are no more problems you have to sort out alone. Because when you have Him you are never alone! Now I am not being ridiculous here, I am not saying you should say be doing drugs and praying and not planning on stopping but the praying bit means it’s all right - but if you are doing drugs (I hope this analogy doesn’t apply to any of you by the way) then you will need to pray for God to help you stop doing them, and he will. (You kind of have to believe he will as well, cause He does know what you’re thinking!)

Lets find an example shall we, I’m going for an old favourite and to be quite honest one of my personal ones. (And its not cause we both have the same first name!) David, all through his life any problem he came across, and he had a fair few of those, was sorted out in the end by God. This guy was attacked by animals, fought a giant, got a spear chucked at him was hunted in the desert, yet even in the desert he became a high up guy with the Philistines, and he ended up king of Israel. Then he had armies thrown at him, his son Absalom took his throne, and God helped him. Think of that, think of those problems he had, don’t your problems seem relatively small compared to his?

Just remember you get Him then change your life, not the other way around, and when you get Him in your life, it’s going to be a success. I’m not saying there isn’t going to be rough times, what I’m saying is God will help you through them.