Do You Want To Draw Closer To God?

DO YOU WANT TO DRAW CLOSER TO GOD?

By Eric C. Wheeler (9/10/18)

Do you want to become closer to God? Below are some biblical instructions for doing so:

Put God first in your life in everything you do!

• Don’t leave your house in the morning to start your day until you have FIRST spent time with Him in prayer and in reading His Word (the Bible). Start your day by CONVERSING with God. Prayer is you talking to God; and reading God’s Word is God talking to you.

• Give God the firstfruits of ALL your increase. “Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase”(Prov. 3:9). Jesus told us that wherever your treasure is – WHAT YOU VALUE THE MOST – is where your heart will be. In other words, where your treasure is there is where your concerns and interest, your focus and attention, and affection will be. Consequently, the opposite is true as well: wherever your heart is, there you will put your treasure (your money, your resources, your time, and your energy). What’s most important to you is what you will invest in. If you want to know what is most important to a person just look and see how and where they spend their time, their money, their energy, and their resources. Even little children understand this concept when they notice how mommy or daddy choose other things such as working, watching tv, playing sports, shopping, drinking, etc., instead of spending time with them – that is, instead of INVESTING in them! God is the same way.  He notices what you are putting FIRST in your life, and where you are spending your time, your money, your energy, and your focus!

• Fellowship with like-minded brethren. Jesus said that wherever two or three believers are gathered together in His name – THERE HE WILL BE (Matt. 18:20)! If this is the case, (and it is!) then why in the world would anyone want to be anywhere else rather than WITH God and WHERE He is?! I don’t understand it.  People travel all over the world each day making dangerous pilgrimages and treks to see the Holy Land or some other “holy” relic – seemingly trying to get “closer to God” or to have some heightened spiritual experience or come to some supernatural “awareness” – when all they really need do is go down the street to their brother or sister in the Lord’s house and have a simple get-together and/or Bible study or prayer meeting IN HIS NAME – and Jesus promised that HE WOULD SHOW UP THERE! Why do we make things so hard?  Why do we not believe Him?  The Bible strongly warns us against forsaking fellowshipping among ourselves and being cut off from the Body of Christ (Heb. 10:24-25). We need each other; and especially when we get together IN HIS NAME – because then Christ Himself shows up and ministers to all of us directly – both collectively and individually! The Bible says that meeting together as brothers and sisters in the Lord is specifically designed by God “to stir us up unto love and good works”by coming together, and by encouraging and strengthening each other in and through Him. When Christ shows up and leads the meetings, we ALL are thereby ministered to – BY HIM. And that is the VERY THING that unites all of us and makes us all ONE in Him (John 17:21-26).

• Fasting is a means whereby we shun and deny what WE want – that is, our bodies, our flesh, our natural cravings and lustings – in order to seek after what God wants for us instead! It is the simple illustration of denying yourself food and water for a specific period of time in order to demonstrate to God and to yourself that you are willing to put Him first – NOT yourself or YOUR desires, and that you are truly looking to Him to be your sustenance and strength in life. It is a physical means whereby you are humbling yourself and demonstrating that you are NOT seeking to sustain yourself by physical things or your own natural human wants and desires. This is what “bread” spiritually pictures and symbolizes in the Bible. The word “bread” represents everything that a man or woman physically looks to in order to sustain them – to give them life or existence. But God says that man must learnthat “he does not live by bread alone; but by every word that proceeds out of God’s mouth does man live”(Deut. 8:3; Matt. 4:4).  And Jesus told us that whoever eats of Him – the true Bread of Life – and not physical bread, will live forever (John 6:47-58). Fasting therefore reminds us to NOT look to the physical, but rather to the spiritual – that is, TO GOD – for our answers, for our deliverance, for our sustenance, and for our healing.

Rather than making God the LAST resort in your life, start making Him the FIRST (and ONLY) resort of your life!

Please feel free to reproduce, reprint and/or forward as desired. Altering or editing is strictly prohibited. To contact us, send a request to [email protected] or  call us at 720-346-4033. Using an article for any form of advertising is strictly prohibited.