Opening Verse
"Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded." (James 4:8, KJV)
The Message
We live in a world that is full of noise. Phones buzz, schedules fill up, and the pressure to keep running never lets up. It is easy to go days, even weeks, living on fumes and calling it normal. But God never designed us to live that way. He designed us to come close to Him, again and again, and to be filled up in His presence.
The good news is that the door is open. We do not come in on our own goodness, our good health, or our ability to get up and go to work. We come in by the blood of Jesus.
"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." (Hebrews 10:19-22, KJV)
That is the invitation. Draw near. Not someday, not when life slows down, but now and every day.
Start with thanks
Waking up this morning was not luck. It was not a reflection of how strong we are or how well we planned. It was His mercy. We do not know what today will bring, but we know for certain that He is good, and that is enough.
"It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22-23, KJV)
He was not elected into His throne, and He cannot be voted out. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. When everything else shifts, He does not. So before we ask for anything, we lift Him up.
Come clean
Because He is holy, we come to Him honestly. That means owning the wrong thoughts, the careless words, the things we did that were outside His will, and the things He told us to do that we never did. Maybe it was a word we should have spoken or a gift we should have given. Bring all of it.
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9, KJV)
Confession is not about shame. It is about removing the distance. We want nothing standing between us and Him.
Come as priests
Every believer has a place at the altar. When we pray, we are offering something to God, and He receives it like sweet incense.
"Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." (Psalm 141:2, KJV)
And when brothers gather to pray together, He promises to be right there.
"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20, KJV)
Seek His face, not just His hand
More than anything we could ask for, what we need most is Him. Not a blessing, not a quick answer, but His presence resting on us. When He calls, our hearts should answer right away.
"When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek." (Psalm 27:8, KJV)
Seeking Him means opening our hearts to be shaped, corrected, healed, and focused. It also means learning to see Him in the small details of life instead of writing them off as coincidence. God is intentional about us, even more intentional than we are about our own children. Our part is to be intentional back.
"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:" (Ephesians 1:17, KJV)
Make room to hear Him
The noise of this world comes at us from every direction. His voice usually comes from the inside, and it is quiet. If we want to hear it, we have to make time for stillness.
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:" (John 10:27, KJV)
"Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." (Psalm 46:10, KJV)
Sometimes what He says will be completely different from what we were thinking. That is when trust gets real. We have to be flexible enough to follow Him even when it does not line up with our plans.
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9, KJV)
Do not let fear dress up as wisdom
Fear is sneaky. It does not always look like panic. Sometimes it looks like being careful, being logical, or waiting for the perfect time. But God sometimes calls us to things that go past our logic. Fear that keeps us from obeying is still fear, no matter how wise it sounds.
"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7, KJV)
Nothing is impossible for Him. He knew all things before the world was made. We can trust Him to lead us down the best path.
Bring your home to the altar
A man's most important ministry is his own household. Our marriages and our children are under constant pressure, so we cannot leave them to chance. We can build altars in our homes: praying and studying with our wives, sitting with our children after we have sat with God, and worshiping together as a family. When His kingdom is set up in our hearts, it can be set up in our homes.
"…but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15, KJV)
Our children are a gift. They belong to Him first. Our job is to steward them well and offer them back to Him, so they can fulfill what He called them to do.
"Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward." (Psalm 127:3, KJV)
Wait on Him and be renewed
Here is the heart of it all. Life was not designed to be a rat race. It was designed for us to come back to Him daily so our strength can be renewed. Think about your phone. No matter how good it is, it dies if you never plug it in. We are the same. We have to plug into Him every day.
"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." (Isaiah 40:28-31, KJV)
The enemy knows this. That is why the world works so hard to pull us away from daily time with God. He knows that if we wait on the Lord every day, we will have the strength we need, and there will be no crash and no burnout. We cannot do this alone, and we were never meant to.
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." (John 15:4-5, KJV)
Do not drift from the gathering
There are brothers we have not seen in a while. God has not stopped speaking to them, and He has not stopped reaching for them. The times are too serious for any of us to drift. We need each other, and we need to keep showing up.
"Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." (Hebrews 10:23-25, KJV)
What This Means
The way into God's presence is wide open through the blood of Jesus, and He wants us to use it every day. Start with thanks. Come clean. Seek His face more than His hand. Make quiet room to hear His voice, and trust Him when His way is different from yours. Do not let fear pass itself off as wisdom. Build an altar in your marriage and with your children. Most of all, wait on the Lord daily, because that is where your strength gets renewed. And do not drift away from the brothers who are seeking Him with you.
Think About This
- When was the last time I came into God's presence with no agenda other than being with Him?
- Is there anything I need to confess so there is no distance between me and God?
- Where in my day can I make real quiet time to hear His voice?
- Is there an area where fear is posing as wisdom and keeping me from obeying?
- What would a regular altar look like in my marriage and with my children?
- Am I running on empty? What would it look like to plug into Him every day?
- Is there a brother I have not seen in a while that I can reach out to this week?
Prayer
Father, thank You for the gift of another morning and for mercies that are new every day. We come to You boldly, not because of anything we have done, but by the blood of Jesus. Forgive us for every sin and every shortcoming, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness so there is no distance between us. We seek Your face. Give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of You. Help us make time to be still, to hear Your voice, and to trust You when Your ways are higher than ours. Take away every spirit of fear, even the fear that hides behind our logic. Help us build altars in our homes, with our wives and our children, and help us steward the people You have given us. Teach us to wait on You every day so You can renew our strength. Draw back every brother who has drifted, and let the gathering of Your people grow. In Jesus' name, amen.
Closing Verse
"Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." (Jude 1:24-25, KJV)