Our God is near when we pray - Deu. 4:7

Some things just go together...we're not sure why, they just do.  My favorite new place in San Antonio is the Bird Bakery on Broadway.  Most of the time my focus is on the Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate Cupcake, but one day a few weeks ago I noticed a sign they have painted over the bathroom door:

Our Scripture today tells us God is near when we pray...that, my friends, is an amazing gift to us that the Creator of the universe would listen when we call out to him and be near to us.  It's a guaranteed combination.  It's as if He is sitting with us wherever we are...for in fact, He is...Immanuel, "God with us".  Listen to a verse of Fanny Crosby's "I am Thine, O Lord":

O the pure delight of a single hour that before Thy throne I spend;

when I kneel in prayer and with Thee, my God, I commune as friend to friend.

Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou has died;

Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord, To Thy precious bleeding side.

 

A.W. Tozer in THE PURSUIT OF GOD says when we sing that hymn:

 

                                     ...we are not thinking of the nearness of place,

                                     but of the nearness of relationship.  It is for increasing

                                     degrees of awareness that we pray, for a more perfect

                                     consciousness of the divine Presence.  We need never

                                     shout across the spaces to an absent God.  he is nearer

                                     than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts.

 

I waste too many hours trying to make things fit in my life which were never meant to fit.  God's nearness is what I was made to seek...that gift is available to us by means of prayer, study and worship.  He longs for us to spend less time with worldly pursuits and more time with Him.  If you knew He was there with you, would you spend more time in prayer?  If you knew He listened to hear you call His name, would you spend less time doing other things?

 

This will be my last post for 2013...the Wolfson House Craft Show is this next week....I am flooded with pillows...my husband would like to sit in one room of the house where there isn't a pile of pillows!  But after that, I plan to "give thanks to the Lord for He is good" and then to celebrate the marvelous birth of Jesus...Immanuel.  Blessings upon you and your loved ones as you celebrate! Thank you for spending a little time with me this year.

 

For further study:  Deu. 30:14, 2 Chron. 15:2,  Psalm 34:18, Psalm 73:28,  Psalm 91:1, Psalm 119:151,  Jer. 30:21, 1 Cor. 3:16, Col. 3:14-19, James 4:8

 

Be blessed in your understanding of God's word.

 

Love,

Holly