"Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world." James 4:8 (NLT)
I am one of those people who loves to have a ceiling fan running all the time. The only time it gets turned off is when the temperature outside is dropping therefore dropping the temperature inside enough that leaving it on makes my family members uncomfortable.
Tonight, as I was asking the Lord what to write about, I looked up at the unmoving fan. The blades are coated with the dust that they have collected from the air since the last time they were cleaned. As I was thinking about how desperately the fan needed tending to, the thought crossed my mind that relationships are that way too. When we don't spend time with our loved ones and friends, then a separation can begin. Kind of like the dust that collects on the blades, the happenings of life that occur to each of us build up and steal our attention from where it should be.
Whenever I am asked if I am religious, my answer is always the same. No. I don't have a "religion", I have a relationship. Our Lord is alive, active and personal. He communicates with us through His written Word, Jesus intercedes for us, and the Holy Spirit is dwelling within us. There is nothing that we do, think or say that He is unaware of.
Before our daughter was born, my husband and I worked different shifts. I went to work in the mornings and came home around six o'clock. He left for work in the afternoon and came in late at night when I was often already sleeping. We found that difficult because we didn't have time together to discuss our days or just to enjoy watching a movie together. By the weekend we sometimes had forgotten things that we had wanted to talk about earlier in the week. Because we weren't sharing with each other as often, we didn't feel as close to each other as we had.
That's the way it is with the Lord. We need to spend time with Him, to share our hearts and to seek His forgiveness and direction. We need to hear what He has to say to us by spending time reading our Bibles. When we get so caught up in life that we fail to take the time to be alone with Him, that relationship suffers. Time passes quickly and the enemy is only too happy to continue to provide obstacles that absorb our time and attention.
Today, we have the perfect chance to begin scheduling time to be alone with our Creator. As we look forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas, there is much to remind us of His great love and there will be plenty of opportunities to worship Him and say, "Thank you." The activities of our lives will always be there. Taking a few minutes out of our day for Him will only change things for the better. As we do so, our faith will grow, our joy will increase and our relationship with Him will become something we cherish.
May the Lord bless your week and may you spend precious time with Him. God bless.
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