I WROTE THESE WORDS IN 2018 – THEY’RE WORTH REPEATING!

Good morning, world. Things are looking pretty good from the front porch of my farm in Virginia today. The sun won’t rise for a while yet, and I’ve been up for a long time. Sometimes I surrender to fatigue, and I look for my rest well before midnight, and when I do I’m up to face the world in what most would consider to be the middle of the night. So, with a rested body and a lot of darkness to go, I set out to work on my heart in the presence of a God who never sleeps. When I opened my eyes in the “middle of the night” I was inclined to stay in bed for a little while longer, but as surely as I breathe I heard Him say “COME MEET WITH ME!”. The God of all things, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End was eager to meet with His child. Who could ever resist an Invitation like that straight from the Throne of the Living God? Isn’t that how you feel when He wants to meet with you too?

It can be so easy for people to trade time to spend with the Living God for many things. Sometimes it’s a busy schedule and sometimes it’s a little self-indulgence, but most of the time it’s because He’s “out of sight” in their Lives, and therefore He’s “out of mind” too. As surely as I hunger for time with family in this empty-nest phase of my life, He “hungers” for time with me too. We have a Relationship…not just an obligation to meet every once in a while, and as the years pass by we draw closer and closer. Relationships are “give and take” and in genuine relationships there is transparency. In relationships of any kind, there is never enough time, and we always seem to hunger for more. Whether it’s our children or someone else we love when we have a good relationship, we have the DESIRE to be in their presence as much as is humanly possible…and we never seem to get enough time. The very second my loved ones leave my presence, I begin to miss them all over again. Relationships take work, time, and a willingness to “sacrifice” our own needs for the needs of the other. It’s the Relationship part that makes me Hunger for God and it’s the Relationship part that prompts Him to say “COME MEET WITH ME” in the middle of the night.

I can understand why so many people miss out on what their Relationship with the Living God could (and should) be like because there are a whole lot more broken relationships in the world than there are “healthy” ones. Parents with no time for their own children, or parents scrambling for ways to keep their children entertained by something other than themselves. People that spend a whole lot more time looking at a Smartphone than in the eyes of the ones they’re with and those they claim to love. Couples that would rather tune in to television than to each other, and that have convinced themselves that merely learning to exist in the same house year after year without killing each other is some sort of accomplishment to be proud of. As surely as any one of these scenarios will take its toll in the long run because there is no genuine attempt to have a “healthy” relationship, a Relationship with the Living God will too. It’s when we trade Him in for other things that our Relationship begins to suffer, and with each day that passes by we grow farther apart. But a Relationship with the Living God is the ONLY ONE that we’ll ever have that can be mended in a split second with no long-term damage at all. His Word says “Draw near to Me, and I’ll draw near to you”…and He does…every single time. God will always welcome us with open Arms, no matter how long He’s been waiting, and no matter how long we’ve ignored Him, and He’s always eager to “pick up where you left off” to build a stronger Relationship with His Child.

There are countless things that I fall short on in Life…I’ll always be a Work in Progress. But one thing I know how to do, and I do it well; I know how to love and I know how to have good relationships. My family will always have my time, my attention, my love, and my forgiveness and if we ever hit a rough spot in the road, it won’t be allowed to fester. I give my loved ones UNDIVIDED attention, and they know that they’re a priority for me. But the One I give the most to, my biggest Priority of all, the best Relationship I’ll ever have, is my Relationship with the Living God. He deserves ALL of me. He wants my time and my attention. He wants me to be genuine and transparent with Him. He can see right through my attempts to “fool” Him, and He doesn’t let me get by with it because He loves me. Once in a while, He makes Himself known in a Mighty way when He says “COME MEET WITH ME”, and when He does I come running into the arms of the One that loves me the Most.

How about you?