Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Only a few more days until I start my senior year of high school! Between four Honors classes, two AP classes, learning how to drive, trying to pass Discrete Math (whatever that even is), working toward a better SAT score, and getting ready to graduate... I'm going to be busy. Like, out of my mind busy.
I'm sure many of you can relate. Being busy is a pretty common affliction in our culture, and it's not always as bad of a problem as we think it is. You see, when you're busy, it's easy to tell what's important to you, by looking at what you manage to make time for in spite of how busy you are.
When you have a quiet moment in your busy life, brothers and sisters, what do you make time for? Friends? Family? Facebook? Current events? Celebrity gossip? That YouTube video of the pug that can say Batman? Whatever it is that you manage to pencil in, no matter how crazy your life gets, that's what's important to you.
Brothers and sisters, is God important to you?
If you're a Christian, chances are you said yes to that. (If you consider yourself a Christian and you said no, please take a moment to smack yourself in the face with the nearest phonebook.) Christians will almost invariably tell you that God is their priority.
But talk is cheap. (Unless you have to pay your teenage daughter's phone bill...but I digress.) It's easy to say that God is number one in our lives. If you're a regular BYR reader, you may remember this brief but powerful post, in which I told you that allowing anything else to take God's number-one spot constitutes idolatry.
I know you know that God needs to be first in your life. But putting Him there is- like most things- easier said than done.
Remember what I said about how the true measure of your priorities is how you choose to spend your time? Well, if you want to truly be able to say "God is the most important thing in my life" (bearing in mind that the alternative is whacking yourself with the Yellow Pages again), wouldn't it make sense to spend some time with Him?
In fact, it doesn't just make sense; it's a commandment! God tells us over and over in the Bible that He wants to spend time with us, and He promises to make it worth our while.
II Chronicles 7:14 urges God's people, called by His name (they don't call us CHRISTians for nothing), to "humble themselves and pray".
Let's stop here for a moment, so I can clarify something. There's a big difference between "saying a prayer" and "humbling yourself and praying". It's one thing to half-heartedly mutter "God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food," before a meal, just out of habit. If you just rattle off some words without even really thinking about them, you might as well be saying "In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue".
It's something entirely different, however, to truly humble your heart and mind to a place or real worship. Or, in other words, to really spend time with God.
Brothers and sisters, God isn't interested in meeting you at Starbucks for a cup of coffee, or watching the Clemson/Carolina game and eating Doritos with you and the guys. He wants to spend real, meaningful quality time with you. And He wants you to take it as seriously as He does.
Back to II Chronicles... "If My people, who are called by my Name, will humble themselves and pray, if they seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land".
Seeking to truly know Him is something the Bible talks about over and over and over. John 17:3 says that eternal life comes from knowing God. Philippians 3:10 starts out with Paul's bold proclamation of "I want to know Christ." II Peter 1:2 tells us that if we want to be blessed by God, we must first know Him.
Praying is one way we can spend time with God. Those quiet moments we spend pouring our hearts out before Him are often the times we feel closest to Him. It's also important to seek His face all that He has created. One of the great God moments in my life- as silly as this may sound- was the first time I heard my friend Kim sing. I had never heard anything so incredible in my life, and as she was singing, this realization hit me: "God made that voice."
He created every sunrise you've ever watched, every singer's voice that makes your heart do flips, every majestic ocean and quiet stream you've ever seen. I see God when I go hiking and take time to notice the beauty around me. I see Him in the faces of the congregation as I look down from the choir loft on Sunday morning, and in the voices of those around me as we lead worship. I see Him in my best friend's beautiful brown eyes. When we see the world and everything in it as His creation, it's hard not to feel closer to Him.
Oh Lord my God
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all
The works Thine hands hath made
I see the stars
I hear the mighty thunder
Thy power throughout
The universe displayed
Then sings my soul
My Savior, God, to Thee
"How great Thou art;
How great Thou art!"
Then sings my soul
My Savior, God, to Thee
"How great Thou art;
How great Thou art!"
That's one of my favorite hymns. I love the lyrics, especially the line "Thy power throughout the universe displayed". All of creation declares God's majesty, if we're listening.
And it's not just the sunsets and the Grand Canyon and the things everyone can see. There are things in your own life that you should reflect on, where He has revealed His glory to you. Was there a time you prayed for something and received it? Or perhaps you didn't get what you asked for, but something even better? What chains have you been set free from? What has your soul been healed from? What has the Lord Jesus Christ done for you? Reflecting on what He has done in your life, and giving thanks to Him for His grace, is another way you can spend time with God.
And how about the Scriptures? I know we've mentioned several Bible verses, but what about the Bible itself? If you want to get to know God, you need to spend time in His word, reading what He has to say about Himself, about you, and about life.
Brothers and sisters, the Bible commands us to spend time with God. But it's not just a commandment. It's not just something you do because the Bible says you should. And while there are manifold blessings promised to those who seek the Lord, isn't it a privilege in and of itself?
God is perfect. We're sinners. Sin smells really, really bad to God, and He wants nothing to do with it. He doesn't have to have anything to do with us. He could just create us, turn us loose, and say "okay, have fun, see y'all on Judgement Day." But He doesn't. He actually invites us to come into His presence and hang out with Him whenever we want.
There's a song (yeah, go ahead and roll your eyes, you knew one was coming) that I want you to hear. It's called The Mercy Seat. You can just click the play button on the video below, and you can watch it without leaving this page.
In the darkness
Where everything is unknown
I face the power
Of sin on my own
I did not know
Of a place I could go
Where I could find a way
To heal my wounded soul
He said that I could come into His presence without fear
Into the holy place
Where His mercy hovers near
I'm runnin'
I'm runnin'
I'm runnin' to the Mercy Seat
Where Jesus
Is callin'
He said His grace would cover me
His blood will
Flow freely
It will provide my healing
I'm runnin' to the Mercy Seat
I'm runnin' to the Mercy Seat
Are you living
Where hope has not been
Lost in the curse
Of a lifetime of sin
Lovely illusions
You know they never come true
I know where there's a place
Of mercy just for you
He said that You could come into His presence without fear
Into the holy place
Where His mercy hovers near
Come runnin'
Come runnin'
Come runnin' to the Mercy Seat
Where Jesus
Is calling
He said His grace would cover me
His blood will
Flow freely
It will provide the healing
I'm runnin' to the Mercy Seat
I'm runnin' to the Mercy Seat
I'm runnin' to the Mercy Seat
That's right, He didn't just say we could come into His presence. He said we could come into His presence without fear! And what a statement of His love, that we- wretched sinners deserving of Hell- can not only enter His holy presence, but do so without fear, without shame, without anything but a meek heart and a spirit of worship... can enter BOLDLY into His holy place and partake of His mercy! Amen! Praise Jesus!
So, my brothers and sisters in the faith, there's an invitation with your name on it. You're invited to enter boldly, freely, and fearlessly into the presence of the Lord and spend time with Him. You might want to hurry up and RSVP to that. If He's really important to you, and you're really serious about wanting to get to know Him, your answer had better be yes.
Unless, of course, you'd rather smack yourself with a phonebook. :)
Grace and peace to you all, and may your time with Jesus be well-spent.
~BYR
