DAILY DEVOTION No. 31

                           TO KNOW GOD'S NEARNESS                                      

Ps 73:26-28 “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion 

forever.” For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are 

unfaithful to You. but as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my 

refuge, that I may tell of all Your works.”

I believe God is calling His church to become more intimate with Him. But with intimacy comes 

exposure. 

In Ex 20:18-19 we read 18 "And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. 19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die." The children of Israel had been brought out of Egypt and God had brought them by grace and power to where they were now at the base of Mt Sinai. God was calling His people to come close to Him but they were uncomfortable with it. The people saw the lightning and heard the thunder and they withdrew from His presence. There is something scary about the presence of God. It brings about a discomfort in us. Why? Is it perhaps because our hearts are not right! God has to deal with us.

God has saved us from our sinful life and started a sanctifying work within us, and God is now calling us up the mountain. In Exodus 33:18, Moses said “I pray You, show me Your glory!” God said to him in verse 20, “You cannot see My face and live.” If you and I want to be near God, then we have to die. Die to things in our lives that disappoint God and separate us from His presence. We can be content with the state of our lives and to others we can seem clean. But like sunlight that exposes dust and dirt when it shines, when we let Him shine on our heart, His Spirit exposes all the flesh in our lives. We become slaves to what we obey. If I obey the urge to do my thing - anger, gossip, steal, get drunk, sexual immorality, I become a slave to that thing and it will control me and rule my life. If I obey God’s call to righteousness, to seek Him, read His word and draw near to Him, I will become a slave to righteousness that leads to life eternal. Satan holds us legally in prison when we give ourselves to sin. For us, we have to die to sin.

So, what about Mt Sinai? You and I are at its base. Do you want God’s nearness? Do you desire God and His glory? Like Moses we can say "Lord, show me Your glory, but it will cost us our life! The more we die to the flesh and live to the Spirit, the closer God can get. The children of Israel could not touch the Mountain less they die. There was too much flesh involved. God’s glory would burn them up. Will you go up the mountain? The thunder and lightning speaks to us of God’s dealings. He wants our heart right and every sin removed. He is looking for repentance, brokenness & humility before we come to Him.  

Challenge  

David said “But as for me, the nearness of God does me good. I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of His works.” God is calling us to be near Him. If you dare to draw near, He will want changes in your life. When we start to get close, He looks into our hearts at stuff that’s been there for years and says’ “If you want to get closer to Me it will cost you.” It all comes down to how desperate we are to know God and experience His glory.

Prayer

Father, I want to draw near to You. Help me to die to everything that is a blockage to Your presence. Lord, I want to come up the mountain to be close to You. Like David, my heart's cry is "Lord create in me a clean heart".