I was struck with a verse the other day in my Sunday school class. And no, I don’t mean physically. ☺
“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” – James 4:8.
I guess I’ve never really thought about the action implied in this verse. Sometimes, it’s very easy for me to get into the mode of couch Christianity – just kick back and let others do everything for my spiritual growth. So, I go to Bible studies and Sunday schools and forget that I have a responsibility in this too.
To draw near.
It’s such a weird phrase, really. “Draw near”. Aside from sounding like a technical term for 3-D art class, it sounds hard. Especially when what we’re drawing near to is not in human form.
So how do we do it, really?
First step is the action. Get up off the couch, move away from where our walk with God is stagnant. Second step? We need to work as hard on this relationship as we would on the relationship with our dads or our boyfriends. It’s hard to try to get to know someone if we’re not doing anything to move in that direction. Third, let God communicate with us. We can’t do that if we’re not in the Word daily and intentionally.
“Draw near.” I hope you’ll join me in this life-long quest of knowing God and knowing Him better each and every day.
Have a great week everyone! ☺
1 comment:
It is something of a "weird phrase" and I suppose that may be why the KJV use the word "nigh." There are probably some versions that use the word "approach" rather instead, but I like your thought about the art class because it brought another image to mind.
I thought of a sun lit room as the evening sun streams through a western window. A young child is lying on the floor with a crayon in hand. Next to the child, after a hard day at work, is the child's father, who also has a crayon in hand and they are working on drawing together. To me, it seems like God is telling us that we don't have to work as hard at this thing as we sometimes think we do. We don't have to convince him to spend time with us, if we show an interest in spending time with him then he is going to do more to make it possible for us to spend time with him.
It is a little like the kid in the ad on television. He goes to his Dad to offer his help and when his Dad tells him he can't he goes away disappointed, but then his Dad offers to let him hold the light. All the kid wanted to do was to spend time with his Dad. Sometimes I think that a lot of the stuff that God allows us to do in his service is like a kid holding the light for his Dad. God could do it without us, but he doesn't want to.
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