Draw Near


James 4:8
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

We are getting close to the half way mark of our field time, and as the end of the year approaches I’ve been looking back on my time here in Cambodia. I’ve realized that I have been kind of distant towards God. Yes, I’ve had a few times where I felt like He was speaking to my heart but over all I haven’t been super close with Him. Just today a friend of Anna’s took me out for coffee and I had a wonderful afternoon sharing my experiences since being here and hearing hers. At one point we started talking about feeling close to God. We have both gone through times in our lives where we felt isolated and ended up leaning on God and asking for big things from Him. We came to the conclusion that it is one thing to know He is there, it’s a whole other to believe it. Since being here I have started having a consistent time with God in the mornings but it quickly became a thing to check off my list of things to do each day and not a time where God could really speak to me. Anna’s friend (now my friend too) pointed out to me that it’s not always the action that means the most, it’s the heart behind it. For so long I’ve been doing things to be seen or out of necessity but today I really feel like I’m operating out of a place of fellowship with God, not because of anything I did. See that’s the key part, I didn’t do anything to deserve this closeness with God, I only obeyed and set my cares and my worries down at His feet and He has done the rest! Just as this verse says, I have drawn near to God and He has drawn near to me. I am asking Him to show me how to cleanse my hands and he is faithful to do it. I am asking Him to purify my heart and He is faithful in doing so. I have been blessed with a sense of peace about my future knowing that He has it in the palm of His hand and that there is no sense in my worrying about it since it only causes me strife. The Lord almighty is faithful and just to fulfill His promises to us. One of which is the hope of a good future. It is from this place of peace, contentment, and fulfillment that I am operating out of on a daily basis. The result being that I am truly joyful, quick to do what needs to be done, and ready to point the way back to Christ for anyone who has fallen by the wayside. I praise the Lord that He has brought me to this place, one interesting thing to note; however, is that He used people to do it. When I first got here I didn’t really open up to anyone and I felt extremely isolated, the devil used this to get in the way of my communion with God. God often uses the people around us to show us the way but if we are cutting ourselves off from people who want to speak into our lives then we are limiting ourselves from receiving the things God wants to speak to us. I pray God always brings me back into communion with Him when I falter and that I would be quick to recognize when I am feeling isolated from my teammates.
Application
This week I will continue to be faithful in my devotions with God each morning, and I will ask Him to show me how I can speak into my teammates lives, and encourage them in their walk with God.

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