I read my devotional today; it went like this:

“The Lord is with you while you are with Him.  If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.” 2 Chron. 15:2

“Our response to God greatly determines His presence in our lives.  If we seek God with all of our hearts, then we will find Him (Jer. 29:13-14).  The Lord wants to have fellowship with us, but He will not force a relationship upon us.  We cannot reject relationship with God and expect Him to remain near.  He doesn’t merely follow us throughout our day in case we need His assistance.  If we continue to forsake Him, a time will come when we desperately need Him and He will not be near (Isa. 59:1-2).”

“It is an affront to sovereign God to treat Him like a servant who should wait upon us.  God will relate to us on His terms, not ours.  God desires a close walk with us.  He will make His presence real and personal if that is our desire.  If we repent of our sin and seek God on His terms, we can look forward to intimate fellowship with Him (James 4:8-10).  We are to continually seek Him, not content to enter a new day without the assurance that God is walking beside us.”  (Out of Experiencing God, Day by Day by Henry T. Blackaby & Richard Blackaby.)

Whack!  Right up the side of the head.  Shocking.  I’m guilty of what this devotional is saying, sometimes believing that God will always be available exactly when I need Him.  Yet that goes against this scripture.  I must do something.  I must participate with Him.  I must choose Him and His ways and what the Word tells us to be truth.  I want to be in fellowship with God, but sometimes my life is so busy that I forget Him or I just don’t have time.  So what will my reaction be one day when I need Him and He is silent?  Chances are I’ll be devastated.  So what do I need to do?

I have to slow down, waaaay down, in order to insure that I have time to spend with the One who is most important to me.  If I don’t spend time laying my requests at His feet and then time listening for His response, I’m out of order.  If I’m not reading His Word and allowing it to change me, I’m out of order.  If I’m not worshipping and praising Him for what He’s done in my life, I’m out of order.  The definition of the word order means  “the disposition of things following one after another, as in space or time; succession or sequence; proper, satisfactory, or working condition; conformity or obedience to law or established authority; absence of disturbance, riot, revolt, unruliness, etc.”.  So if I’ve made the decision to make Christ the established authority in my life yet I’m not taking time to spend with Him, then I’m in riot or revolt, or just being unruly.  Life has a proper order to it and it’s simply too easy to push the limits of that order.  I do not please God when I do this.  We take orders or direction from our bosses, why not God?

I’m beginning to see a theme developing here in my last posts.  It seems that God is helping me re-order my life.  The “stripping out” I mentioned on my home page follows this line of thinking.  God is removing things so I might add some things.  I’m beginning to see and understand His logic.  I have, for a very long time, declared that I want to follow God with all my heart and yet, there are still areas that continue to “take me around the mountain”.  I hate that!  You’d think after knowing God for 34 years (I think it was about September, 1976 that I asked Jesus into my life — wow, happy anniversary to me!) that I might have this a little more together.  It’s all process, nothing but process.

I do not want to grieve God and I certainly don’t want Him to not be around when I need Him.  So, in the words of a worship song that goes something like, “I’m taking time to listen, to your voice; I’m taking time to hear you, your soft speech, as I reach,” I’m pulling in the reins of my life, with God’s help, and I’m going to slow down.  I want to hear every word He has for me.  I want to be able to distinguish His voice from all the others that sometimes roar around in my mind.  I want more of Him in my life.  So I’m going to seek Him…