For my quiet time the last month or two I’ve been going through the Psalms. Psalms 22:1 says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far form saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?”.
David is pouring out all his frustrations on God and he doesn’t hold back.
I wrote this in my journal, “In some weird way this shows me that we can and need to go to the Lord during every season of our life. Even the ‘daily season’. This month, so far has been pretty easy for me, which isn’t or hasn’t been, drawing me closer to God. Like most people I seem to call out to God when I’m struggling, or I thank Him when something really cool happens. But I don’t go to Him during those times that are just normal. I’m not currently ‘struggling’ or ‘celebrating’ so how do I connect with God?”
So how do we draw nearer to Him when we think we’re perfectly fine?
I’m learning that this, still maintaining an intimate relationship with Him, is done by simply staying in contact with Him. Praying, staying in the Word, worshiping. And worship doesn’t always look like singing worship songs. Painting, running, journaling, or even just standing outside in awe of His creation. One of the biggest ways I see and feel the Lord is when I am standing outside, and I feel a gentle breeze blow through my hair.
I, also, have an issue with getting distracted during my prayer time. My mind runs a mile a minute and I can’t seem to stay focused… I go off onto a thousand different rabbit trails. So, I’ve started writing down my prayers. Sometimes they’re a paragraph and sometimes they’re three pages. It’s usually about what I’m going through, but He also likes to hear about our day. Obviously, He knows exactly what’s happening, but I like to believe that He genuinely likes to hear about it directly from us. Like when I used to teach preschool, I knew what those kids’ days looked like every single day because I saw it happen. But when they would come to me and were excited to tell me everything, I absolutely loved it, because I loved them. The Lord is the same way.
Essentially, the Lord is teaching me ways to grow into deeper intimacy with Him in those times that we may consider ‘mundane’. By prayer, worship, and literally, by just asking Him to grow me. Psalm 21:2 says, “You have granted him his heart’s desire and have not withheld the request of his lips.”.
Part of my prayer from last night goes, “God, help me to draw nearer to you even during the easy times. Give me a desire to know more of you – reveal more of your character to me. I pray that I don’t become complacent just because I’m comfortable…”
