Experiencing God's Presence #6

. . . and God will come close to you.

James 4:8

It’s a familiar refrain: “If God seems far away, who moved?” The implication is that He’s always there, and we’re the ones who created the distance. And while that’s true in terms of His omnipresence—He’s everywhere all the time—it isn’t necessarily true with regard to His available or manifest Presence. In experience, He’s closer to us at some times than He is at others. And it isn’t always because we drifted in the opposite direction.

We can make ourselves more aware of the ways God is moving and working all around us, but we can also attract Him to move toward us. As potential marriage partners instinctively know the rules of attraction, we can know what appeals to Him and invite Him into deeper intimacy. We don’t earn His favor or His Presence—that’s not even an option—but relational closeness isn’t a matter of “earning” anyway. It’s a matter of desire, commitment, and level of interaction. When we know the attitudes that warm God’s heart, we can clothe ourselves in them. And when we draw close to Him, He draws close to us.

Notice what appeals to God: faith, humility, hunger for Him, honesty and authenticity, obedience from the heart, and many more attitudes you can find in Scripture. Granted, fallen human beings can’t manufacture spiritual characteristics without His help. But we are clearly told to put on the right attitudes, so we bear a certain responsibility and initiative to do so. Seek Him in such ways, and you will find Him seeking you out too.

Lord, I know we can’t come to You unless You draw us. But You also don’t come to us unless we draw near to You. However that mutual attraction works, I want more of it. Please come close.

From the book