How Do We Draw Near To God

Cartoon Near to God

As David draws near to God, the first thing we find near his approach is that he simply speaks to God.

What comes to listen when you hear someone mention cartoon about to God? Perhaps a sense of shame settles in your heart as you reflect on your past attempts in this pursuit. You've heard that Bible reading and prayer are key, merely after giving it an honest attempt, you still feel clumsy and confused. You might take come to the conclusion that at that place is something deficient in your spiritual abilities. If you have ever had these kinds of thoughts and frustrations, I want to assure you lot that y'all are non solitary. I besides desire to assure you that if yous have put your faith in Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit has made your trunk His temple, so you can draw near to God, because God has drawn virtually to you lot (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

If we pay attention to how the Spirit moved David and the other writers in the Psalter, we may be surprised to notice that one of our biggest issues in drawing near to God is the fact that we over complicate how it'south washed, and tend to fall into a performance-based mindset. It's like shooting fish in a barrel to forget that the place God has established for His children to draw near to Him is called the mercy seat (Exodus 25:22), or the throne of grace (Hebrews iv:16). God's mercy and grace open the door and are the footing for our communion with Him (Psalm v:7). Let's look together at Psalm 5, and encounter how David seeks to draw almost to God.

Speak

The first thing nosotros notice about David's approach is that he only speaks to God. When nosotros read Psalm v, information technology doesn't seem similar David is decorated trying to discover just the right words, or falling into a rote prayer that is his go-to safety net. When it's time to approach God, David just speaks the things that are on his heart. He wants God to listen to him, and then he asks Him to listen (vv. 1-3). He needs motivation to boldly approach God, so he meditates on how God's character relates to his demand (vv. four-7). He needs God's help, and so he asks for information technology (vv. eight-ten). Perchance his faith needs to be strengthened, so he speaks truth to himself, about the one who defends and protects him (vv. 11-12). Information technology is interesting to note that out of the twelve verses making upwardly Psalm 5, verse 8 is the but petition. To spend twelve verses on ane request seems inefficient, doesn't it, like a waste of time? It is never a waste of time to share the thoughts and burdens of our middle with our Begetter, who loves us, and is attentive to our words and thoughts (v. one).

Meditate

The second thing nosotros see is that David mediates on God's character. In verses 4-6, David speaks to God nearly His holiness. David knows the God he is praying to, and His character informs the way he prays. David understands that God is holy, and that He hates all workers of iniquity (v. 5). He doesn't only take that truth and use it to prove that he is theologically sound. David's theology is actively shaping the manner he speaks to God. He is about to ask God to destroy his enemies (v. 10), which can sound similar a self-righteous request…but it's not. David hates what God hates, and his enemies are God's enemies. David would never accept known this had he not spent time meditating on the graphic symbol of God, and the truth of who He has revealed Himself to exist. We will never speak to God the way we run into modeled in the Palms, if our agreement of the doctrine of God is shallow. David's disrespect comes from his understanding of God's character. Nosotros can learn to come to God boldly as well (Hebrews 4:16), equally we grow in our knowledge of who He is, and what He is similar.

Side by side, we detect that David has meditated on his own struggles and circumstances. One of the reasons we take such a hard fourth dimension in prayer is that we come to God with circumstances and struggles that we haven't seen or understood with very much clarity. We take a difficult time communing with our own center upon our own bed, and being nonetheless (Psalm 4:4).

Communing with ourselves is an active do. Nosotros are because, weighing, and interacting with our thoughts, motives and behavior. For example, based on what David prays in Psalm 5, we can speculate that he was struggling with fear, frustration, and anxiety. But notice that you don't discover a reference to any of those words in the Psalm. We find instead that David is communicating the specific fears, frustrations, and anxieties that are weighing on his eye.

Why exercise y'all suppose David spends two verses (1-2) request God to hear him? It is likely that this is not David's first time to pray almost these things, and out of frustration (due to impatience) or fear (due to a sense of urgency), he asks God to hear him. Notice in poesy viii, equally David sheds light on his request—Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies—David's request that the Lord would lead him seems to be out of fear that he will somehow be influenced to go astray because of his enemies. David knew himself, and his struggle plenty to know that he needed the Lord to lead him in righteousness. If nosotros would draw near to God, we must have the time to commune with our own hearts.

Fight

David is actively fighting to trust and rejoice in the Lord. David knows that God hears him (Psalm 65:ii, Psalm 69:33), and yet it seems that he is having to fight in club to comprehend this reality. In the commencement two verses, David asks God to hear him three different times, and in three different ways. In verse 7 he reminds himself that he is coming to God in the multitude of His mercies, and in verse 12 he reminds himself that God will bless and surround the righteous every bit a shield of protection. David is rehearing things that he knows to exist true, in an attempt to embrace the joy and condolement that comes with trusting these realities. Friends, nosotros must follow David'due south example. More often than not, we are going to accept to actively fight, reminding ourselves and rehearsing to ourselves the precious truths of God and Scripture.

I hope you are able to meet that drawing near to God takes place in the context of existent life. It doesn't happen through some kind of formulaic language or being caught up in an ecstatic heavenly experience. Information technology happens as we approach the God of the Bible, with the bug of our hearts, in a way that is informed by His Word. At present the God of hope fill you lot with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may grow in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost (Romans fifteen:13)