In Christ

Drawing Close to God – Did you know that you (yes you!) can draw close to God? It's available to anyone and to everyone! The bible is full of examples of people drawing close to God and even being a friend of God.

God is not a mean old Judge up in heaven ready to smack you whenever you do something wrong! No! He wants to have a close, loving relationship with each one of us. The relationship He wants to have with us, is as a Loving Father has, with His children. I always like to remind people that God is not an abusive Father either! He does not cause you hardship or sickness to teach you something. Jesus healed every time. He never left anyone who asked for healing sick- period.

Now, we can't have a close relationship with Him if we are always running the other direction. God has given us a free will, it is our choice what we do with it. Even back when the children of Israel were about to enter the promised land, Moses told them they could choose life or death, blessing or cursing. God was leaving it up to them to make the choice. (see Deuteronomy 30:15, 19) It is the same for us today. We have a choice to choose the Kingdom of God (choosing life), or the kingdom of darkness (choosing death and cursing). Moses even gave them a hint. He said to choose life! Why? Because just like a computer has default settings, and we choose if we don't want the default settings, so does this life we live. We must choose life or we automatically default to death!

James 4:7-8a shows us that the first step is up to us. "So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you.” Why is the first step up to us? Because God is a Gentleman. He will not force Himself on us!

It may seem easier for us if we didn't have to make the choice to pursue our Heavenly Father. It would be easy to just sit back and enjoy the benefits! But that isn't His way. We make choices every day, several times in the day, to go after Him and His ways, or to slide back into the world's ways.

You may ask, "How do we draw close to God?” Like I've already shown you, it is making the choice to draw close to Him. We need to choose Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. This is the first way that we get to choose life. Jesus said that He was "the bread of life.” John 1:4 states, "In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men.”

Also, we get to know Him through His Word, by daily reading the bible to let Holy Spirit teach us and point things out to us.

Another great way to draw close to Him is by praising our Heavenly Father for all the good He does for us! I love Psalm 100:4 "Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Gives thanks to him and praise his name.” True thanksgiving, worship and praise does so much to bring us into His presence!

This is not a religious formula that we must do to draw near to God, it is simply some ways that I have found in scripture. Let Holy Spirit lead you in your search for drawing near to the Lord.

Give thanks to Him and praise Him continually for the victory He has already given us, through Jesus!

Submission by Pastor Rena Mae