Happy Monday Alan!,
What was your first thought when you woke up this morning?
Experts estimate that the mind thinks between 60,000 – 80,000 thoughts a day. That’s an average of 2500 – 3,300 thoughts per hour. Isn’t that amazing!
Did you know that God has many thoughts toward us? David has a beautiful way of reflecting on this:
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.
– Psalm 139:17-18
Today I pray you’ll capture one of God’s thoughts toward you and enjoy connecting with His heart that ravishes over you!
David wrote in Psalm 27:4 “One thing I ask of the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.”
One morning not too long ago I woke up singing a worship song with these words: “You satisfy my soul. You satisfy my soul, with Your love.” Later that same day, while driving by a beautiful, old church their front sign caught my eye, it said, “Only Jesus can satisfy the soul.”
Seeing that, made my heart come alive and burn with a longing for more of Him and an inexplainable joy of being known by Him. Don’t you just love when Holy Spirit speaks to us throughout the day to confirm and reaffirm truth, that anchors you deeper in the PERSON and PRESENCE of Christ?
As humans with longings, desires and need for connection, we can often look to others to satisfy our soul’s desires. We place a high expectation on them to meet those needs. Relationships can be glorious. Relationships can be messy. You can probably bring to mind, relationships that have brought great joy and were life giving and at the same time, you can probably bring to mind relationships that caused you heartache and sadness. (Often the good and the ugly are all wrapped up in the same relationships. It’s in me and it’s in you. It’s the perfect indication of how much we need a Savior!) There’s not one human being on the planet that is not in a relationship of some kind. That’s because we are all created for intimacy, connection and partnerships.
From the beginning of creation, God’s purpose, intention and desire was to establish and have uninterrupted fellowship with man. Because of the fall, that connection was broken and distorted. But God’s ultimate plan has always been redemption and unbroken union with man. He is a great Mastermind of connection.
Every discontentment of the heart, is an indication that we’re trying to fill that place with something or someone, other than Jesus Himself.
Only Jesus satisfies our souls and is the answer to every longing and desire for connection, significance and purpose. How do we stay in that place of no other agenda but Jesus? Come with me to the “Application” section of our lesson today, to probe deeper.
Psalm 73:28 is one of my most favorite scriptures, because David mentions a beautiful word: nearness. “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good…”
The word nearness can be defined as: closeness, inseparability, intimacy, fellowship, connection.
Deep connection with the Father has always been and will forever be, His desire. Have you ever felt that deep yearning for connection and a sadness and longing in your heart for genuine intimacy? That my beloved friend, is because we are wired for connection and intimacy with Jesus. Nothing and no one in this temporal world can ever satisfy our soul’s deepest aches and longings like He can.
From the beating of your heart, to the rhythm of your breath, to the sound of your laughter and the vibration in your very being, it is all a profound testimony of God’s highly precise and personal love story written in your tailor made DNA. When He knows us this intimately, it is an indication that God’s original desire has always been and continues to be for each human individual to experience close friendship and relationship with Him.
Scottish Theologian, William Barclay said: ”The true, the genuine worship is when man, through his spirit, attains to friendship and intimacy with God.”
To recognize and experience friendship and intimacy with Jesus, requires that we push away all distractions and come close to Him and give Him all of our attention. How is that possible in this crazy world of non stop digital overload?
I believe it’s in coming humbly like a child and simply asking His Spirit to reveal Jesus to us. It can’t be a mental effort or sheer discipline that will draw us closer in relationship with the Lord. It takes the Spirit to reveal the Spirit.
Just like a seedling doesn’t grow overnight into a gigantic oak tree, the more we allow Holy Spirit to work within us, He’ll take the small ‘seedling’ steps of obedience and willingness we take towards Him and He’ll breathe His supernatural power and grace even over the weakest ‘yes’ we offer Him.
Read what Apostle Paul was divinely inspired to say to the believers in Ephesus as well as us today in 2017:
Ephesians 3:17 “Then by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of His love will become the very source and root of your life, providing you with a secure foundation that grows and grows.”
Christ Jesus is our landing place, He is our source and the root of our lives. Being connected in and to Him, is the only foundation for our lives.
