Does your heart long to be closer to God? The good news is that He wants to be closer to you—He loves you so much!
In my own life, I’ve discovered that the way to get closer to Him is to spend time with Him. When I feel out of sorts and disconnected from God, I ask myself, “Are you spending time with Him?”
Because that’s how we avail ourselves to miracles, how we put ourselves in a position of peace and rest so we can clearly hear His perfect guidance for our life. Putting God first, sitting at His feet, reading His words and listening to His voice gets us closer and closer to Him, and it does us so much good!
But here’s the deal: God leaves it up to us.
He’s always available, but He’s waiting for us to draw near. He’s not going to come rudely barreling into our life, telling us what to do or how He can help—He’s a gentleman. It’s up to us how much time we spend—in His Word, in prayer, in meditating. It’s up to us how close we want to get. Isn’t that marvelous? We get to decide how close we want to be to God!
Who Moved?
It reminds me of a story I heard once. Once upon a time, a young man was dating a young woman. If you happened to be driving behind his pick-up truck when the two of them were on a date, you’d see the young lady sitting so close to her beloved on the seat that from your car behind they almost looked like one person.
Fast forward several years—the two got married, had a couple of children, and now if you drove behind them, you’d see the young woman sitting over on the passenger side of the pick-up next to the door and him sitting behind the wheel.
One day, she looks over at her husband and says, “Honey, I feel like we’ve grown apart.”
Her husband looks at her, then looks at the steering wheel—looks at her again and looks at the steering wheel again. Finally he says, “Who moved?”
It’s like that in your relationship with God. He is always the same—He never moves. He is always available, always loving you, always ready to help, always ready to draw near. You are the one who moved away. Most of the time it happens gradually—as it probably did for that young couple. You get busy with life, and other things take up your attention and time.
But one day you look around and realize you’re not as close to God as you used to be, or you want to be. He’s still in the same place, waiting for you, but you’ve scooted away. The good news is, you can scoot back! He’s not mad or even resentful toward you. He won’t say, “What took you so long?” or cast any disparaging looks at you.
No, He’s waiting with open arms to welcome you back to the closeness! Or maybe to welcome you to that kind of closeness for the first time. {eoa}
Karen Jensen Salisbury has been in ministry over 30 years. Formerly a lead pastor, then an instructor at Rhema Bible College, she is currently an itinerant minister and author of several books. Connect with her on her website, karenjensen.org; and on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
This article originally appeared at karenjensen.org and is an excerpt from her book, Closer Than You Ever Imagined: Experiencing the Deep Relationship With God You Always Wanted. You can read the first part FREE and/or order your own copy by clicking here.
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