My best mornings begin with a special time alone with God. When my children were small, desperation had me setting my alarm early enough to fortify my spirit before facing the breakfast chaos.
In the shelter of my bed (sitting up to keep awake) I’d enjoy a quiet time with the Lord. It was like a spiritual snuggle with my Divine Parent before I faced my own parenting role.
The Bible has so many images of the parental aspects of God’s heart. One particular morning, I was thinking about Him as “Father to the fatherless.”
I’d grown up in a loving home and my parents lived nearby. By this point I was in my mid-thirties (a few years ago now!) with a husband and children of my own. I had grown up.
But part of me often felt like an orphaned child. That morning I poured out my fears and loneliness to Him in prayer. Abba… Papa… help me to stay in the shelter of Your care. Grow me under Your watchful eye.
After a while, I felt in my heart that it was time to get up. Lord, I sense our time together is over now….
I meant it as clarification: was I really supposed to get up? I hadn’t opened my Bible or paused to listen for His leading. I’d done all the talking. Again.
A gentle reassurance interrupted me: Oh, no… we’ve just begun.
His message, inaudible but understood, resonated in my soul.
What followed was the mental equivalent of that little scoot a parent gives a toddler to send her out to play after a hug. Warmed by His love, I scooted.
Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Romans 1:21, NLT*
Knowing God but not worshipping Him or being thankful leads to terrible depths. God lets us find out the hard way, and what’s saddest is that some never see and turn back.
The context here is people who turn away from God. They know about Him but don’t care. I wonder how many start out with that intent and how many drift away because they aren’t paying attention to God.
That troubles me, because I know plenty of good people who believe in God but don’t seem to think about Him. Sure, He’s there to turn to in a crunch, but what if their spirits harden and they won’t call out to Him for help? What if they believe the enemy’s lies about God and decide there’s no point?
And what about those of us who know and love God? This is a warning for us too, not to take God for granted and let our relationship stagnate. It takes discipline and intentional effort to keep a strong, daily connection with our God. There are so many distractions and drains on our time.
Father, I don’t want to slide away from You even a little distance. You are life itself. There’s so much more of You to know; draw me deeper into relationship with You. Let me know You better so I can more fully trust and obey You. And please, by Your grace, draw back the ones who are slipping away. Help them see, help them choose Your life. Our whole world needs You, Lord. We’re no good on our own. Open eyes, soften hearts, draw many to Yourself.
Why do we get so caught up in wanting it both ways? We long for closeness with God, but at the same time we want to be powerful enough to handle things on our own.
We’re not God, we can’t do it all, and in the grand scheme of things we’re pretty insignificant. But He loves us. And He cares for us. And He works His strength through us for far greater impact than if it came from us.
Dependence on Him doesn’t diminish us. It completes us and lets us live in close relationship with the One who embraces us as His sons and daughters.
Father God, help me quiet myself in Your care. Help me remember to live in confidence in You instead of wanting to put confidence in myself. Help me delight in what You’re doing.
How lovely is your dwelling place,
LORD Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God. Psalm 84:1-2, NIV*
This psalm opens with a progression: it’s not just the Temple courts the writer craves, it’s the Presence in that sacred space.
A few of the late April readings in Oswald Chambers’ classic My Utmost for His Highest touch on the danger of desiring the experience of God or the blessings from God instead of desiring God Himself.
A holy hush in the sanctuary, a strong spiritual experience, God’s tangible touch on our lives—these are wonderful gifts we need to receive with praise. But they’re evidence of His glory, they’re not the ultimate desire of our spirits.
If you make a god out of your best moments, you will find that God will fade out of your life… until you have learned not to be obsessed with those exceptional moments He has given you. Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, April 25
Holy and loving God, because of Jesus Christ our Saviour we can come into Your presence, and Your Holy Spirit dwells in us and makes us His Temple. Give us a thirst for closer relationship with You, a hunger for more than Your blessings—a hunger for You alone.
“Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits”
Psalm 103:2, NIV*
I was thinking in last week’s post, “Missing the Inheritance,” about how as Christians we often don’t realize what we have in God’s Kingdom. Peter says we have everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), and sometimes we live like miserable creatures with little hope and less resources or joy.
That’s a sad truth, and we do need to learn to appreciate and accept all that our Father lavishes on us when He adopts us as His own, but as Jenny from Captured by Godcommented last week, that’s not the ultimate focus.
The best gift God gives us is relationship with Himself. If we can’t delight in Him, we won’t gain much from the other benefits of being His children. We probably won’t even notice many of them.
God… the God of the universe, Creator, Sustainer, Rescuer… loves us and longs to spend time with us. And we come asking for endless lists of things, or complaining, or fretting. Or we’re like the prodigal son’s elder brother, too busy working for his father to spend time with him.
Father God, I’m so thankful You’ve made a way for us to be reconciled to You, to be Your children. Thank You for caring for us and inviting us to bring You our concerns and needs. Please forgive us for the times we stop there, or we don’t leave our work long enough to talk with You. Please quiet our spirits and teach us the delight of abiding in You. Help us learn to recognize and rest in Your presence as we go about our days. Help us delight in You.
Our song for the week is “Divine Romance,” by Phil Wickham.
“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
” ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ “
Luke 15:25-32, NIV*
This is the tail end of the Prodigal Son story. The stray son has come home repentant, and the father has thrown a party. Enter the older brother, wondering what the commotion is about. When he finds out, he’s angry. It’s not fair.
And it isn’t.
It’s merciful, extravagant… love. It’s a perfect picture of the God who shatters the boundaries we like to put up, who doesn’t write people off the way we do. The God of second chances.
Over the years I’ve come to appreciate grace enough to delight in the younger son’s reconciliation with his father. But I still felt the responsible son hadn’t been treated well. Not even one measly goat for a pot-luck with his buddies!
It hit me the other day – did he ever ask?
Listen to him: “All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.” Is that what the father truly wanted?
Hard work, sure, but how about partnership? Working for the good of the family farm (and fortune). It would be his someday, as firstborn, but he wasn’t seeing his inheritance. Only his obligation.
Maybe I ought to give the black sheep son more credit. Sure, he made stupid choices, but at least he understood he had an inheritance.
I hear great sadness in the father’s response to his elder son’s anger. Maybe it’s not only sadness that his firstborn can’t see the joy of restoration. Maybe it’s also for a young man who’s missed the joy of sonship and settled for a servant’s role.
“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10a, NIV*
I’ve been feeling a bit frazzled this week, anxious about a few things even though I’m sure God will work them out. I’ve been praying about them, but the waiting to see God work them out has stressed me.
Monday’s post on the Captured by God blog, “Seek God First,” reminded me how we can slip into desiring what God will do more than desiring Him for who He is. Praying about it this morning, my thoughts kept circling. How can I come back to that intimacy with God as God, and leave my concerns in His hands?
The harder I try, the harder it gets. But as I was telling Him how helpless I am to do this, a verse from the other day came to mind: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him.” (1 John 5:14-15, NIV)
That stopped me. Lots of times I’m not sure if what I want to ask is His will, but this is a no-brainer. He wants me to come to Him like a child, in trust and confidence, just to be with Him. That’s what the Gospel is about: restoring relationship with God.
So I’ve asked, and I can be confident it’s His will. And I can trust that the Holy Spirit is interceding where my words aren’t enough.
My spirit is still, hope has returned, and I feel better already just from the stillness and the promise that God will draw me back to Himself.
Yesterday I was praying to see glimpses of God taking care of me, so I wouldn’t feel overwhelmed. Today I just want to see glimpses of Him – just to know He’s near.
Father, I love You. Thank You for Your grace, Your love and Your mercy to your scatter-brained and easily-distracted child. Draw me close to You.
This week’s song (and my prayer) is Draw Me Close, by the group Kutless:
“But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.
“He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8 (New International Version) (NIV)
Jeremiah means both men and women, of course. We’re planted alright, but the busyness of life can leach our focus off of God. Sunday morning worship ….
In North American society, it feels like we go to church for a serving of spiritual teaching but then head back into daily life. Life which, no matter how wonderful, can wear us down. I don’t know about you, but before too long I’m battle-weary and drained. I’d love to spend hours alone with God, or immersed in a Bible study or inspirational book, but the time isn’t there.
Most days, I crawl into wakefulness early so I can have time with God before the world starts its demands. I love my sleep, but it’s a necessary sacrifice. Still, I long for more. I miss the close times with the LORD. My hope with this blog is to share a little encouragement once or twice a week, a spiritual snippet to re-energize us.
