Getting Closer to God- Praise God, Amen and Amen

 


It is often the case where I don't feel close to God.  Yeah, big admission, isn't it? People might see me as holy, holy yet here it is:  I struggle too.  I'm human. Sometimes my attention in prayer or meditation upon His word and His will for my life, just won't stay in focus..  My heart and mind drifts off to my list of "things to do" or something else much less important than communion with God.  My mind drifts off into my world, not His.

This was my plight some time back when I found a prayer spot out in the woods and settled down in the quiet to try to find God.  I prayed.  Nothing. I prayed more, still nothing.  I prayed more, harder and not even close.

I sat back in my chair there in the quiet, still and hot woods felt the frustration of not being able to take attention off myself and reach God. For long moments I just sat there sweating in the stillness with no agenda. 

It might have been the "no agenda" that began to break the ice.  Out of nowhere I remembered the first few words of a scripture.  "If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face then----." 

It was an Ah-hah moment. "Humble themselves" reverberated in my mind provoking the body out of the comfortable chair onto kneeling on the ground.  My face went into the leafy forest floor.  I humbled myself and sought His face and prayed and prayed.  "Oh Holy Spirit blow down upon me and bring me close."  I prayed again and again.  I was getting through to God.  I felt His peace upon me. My eyes raised opened and raised into the heavens, as my arms extended overhead in worship, thanking God for those moments, His presence, His peace, and His love.

Almost at the same time a strange, strong, and cool breeze moved like a wave through the once still forest and then it was gone.  With the wind I felt that peace and gratitude that only being close to God can bring. All that seemed left to say, all that I felt like praying was praise God, Amen and Amen.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Coming to Yourself

Have noticed in reading the story of the prodigal son that the change occurred in the wayward son when he was at his lowest ebb, feeding pigs; trying to keep from starving by eating their food. The scripture says, "he came to himself." From that point, his life takes a different direction, a new road, a new perspective on himself, his place in the world, and his father.   But, he had to come to himself. That suggests that the capability to be who he could be was in him all the time. He had drifted from who he really was. Sometimes we might drift from the person God sees in us; the person that through Christ we can be; the person we really are; close to our Father's love.
Read more

Hoeing Weeds

I have had a substantial garden for over 30 years. You might say at one time we practically had a truck farm, here. It is a lot of work but there is something about taking an area of brush and weeds and through care and cultivation, make the land say vegetables. This is not my concept. Henry David Thoreau in his book Walden tells of the experience of taking a weed patch near his cabin and making it say beans. And one thing that I have found is that the same moist, fertile, and loamy soil that can grow great vegetables, is an equally great medium to grow weeds. So, a part of gardening is hoeing and pulling weeds, to relieve the competition for space, light, and nutrients from the purposed plants I want to grow and bear fruit. Life can be like that. We can turn areas of brush and weeds into fertile areas of our lives through cultivation, hoeing and pulling out the competing weeds. Once pulled or hoed, the weeds will try to come back. “The price of freedom is eternal...
Read more

"Let Him Have the Things That Hold You"

A couple weeks ago I did a triathlon and had to wear a wetsuit for the swim portion. There was no assistance for getting us out of those tight-full body things, and trying to remove the wetsuit and get onto the bike was a real chore. It was a wrestling match with that thing. And, it reminded me of a line from "The Spirit Song" which goes something like: "Let Him have the things which hold you ----." Well, I certainly was ready to give up the thing which was "holding me." I would have given that wetsuit to anyone who would have helped me out of it. And oh how liberating it was to finally be free of that which held me; to throw it down on the ground, put on the new things to get me on my journey on the bike. Putting off the "old man," so to speak. I thank God for the wetsuits in life He has taken from me, helped me out of, and ask Him to continue to help me in my transitions, to be on the path He would have me on.
Read more