Have you been feeling the ‘tug’ at your spiritual heart to draw close to God, to deepen your intimate relationship with Him as of late? I know I sure have. And oh! How the enemy of my soul hates when I answer that call. Satan knows that a child of God who stays close to their Father God through intimate times of prayer and quiet times will always be a threat. Therefore, he will do his best to take as much of our time as he can.
Be forewarned. When you determine to deepen your relationship with God, distractions will pop out left, right, and centre. Worries will try to steal your peace, blur your vision, and make it difficult to see the goal. Remind yourself, the Lord is your source of peace, and you must draw near that source to get that peace. Peace is not the absence of difficult circumstances but the inner core strength that stays unshakable amid a storm.
The Lord challenges us to beware of counterfeit intimacy, such as an over-involvement in shallow social media friendships, gossip, and binge-watching television or reading books to the point that you feel you have an emotional connection to your favourite characters. Am I saying all social media friendships are shallow? By no means. But we must not allow shallow interaction to take the place of heart communication.
Counterfeit intimacy will not fill that God-shaped void in our hearts. Anything we turn to fill that void will not give us lasting fulfilment outside of God himself. As Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You.”
Something inside of me tries to fill that void with anything but intimacy with God. I suspect I am not the only one who struggles with this, Working for Him, doing good works, fellowship with other believers – these all sound good – and they are good. But they are shoddy imitations of God’s best if we use these as diversions from pressing in to KNOW God.
We will find no real heart comfort outside of God; none but he can meet our deepest needs. Of course, he often brings earthly vessels to bring us happiness and support, but we should always remember that he is our source.
Then there are our cellphones, TV, the Internet, books, the birds outside of our windows, an annoying drip of a leaky faucet – all trying to distract us from His call. “Come away with me. Recklessly use your time by spending it in my presence!”
In our own strength, it’s hopeless. By Christ’s grace, it is not. When we cry out to Him, “I can’t do this on my own. I can’t draw near to you without you drawing near to me; I am helpless without your touch,” he reminds us of this truth. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. But we must confess our weakness first.
Personal Application
When the enemy comes against us, trying to rob us of our precious time, never forget. He is a defeated foe. Press on through. Determine to know the Lord and push aside distractions. Deliberately and intentionally set side aside time to be alone with Him, one on one. You can’t develop an intimate relationship with anyone just by wishing it might happen one day. You get such a relationship by pursuing it. Remember time is NOT your master.
Don’t settle for a by-proxy relationship with God, living on the testimonies of others. Enter into a personal one-on-one relationship with our Lord and King, given to us freely through the death of Jesus Christ and his resurrection power. If you give him your time, He will reveal His heart! I promise!
Don’t forget to join me on YouTube. It costs nothing to subscribe to my channel, and it is simple to do. Click on the red subscribe button, then on the bell that appears. That easy! You will receive a notification every time I post a new video. I am posting daily short devotional messages there as well as random thoughts and casual “What’s up, Katherine?” segments.
Follow me on Facebook. You do not need to send me a friend request to follow me. However, I welcome friend requests if you message me first to say you know me from the website or email list! Here is the Facebook link.
Sign up for my weekly email that not only includes a devotional but also seven quotes from prominent authors, speakers, and heroes of our faith. I do not use this mailing list for any other purpose!
All Bible verses attributed to the ESV version unless otherwise indicated.
Like what you read? You can help keep this ministry in several ways. Find out more HERE
Until Next Week,
©2019 Katherine Walden
Sign up to receive a weekly emailed devotional by Katherine by using the following form.