Thursday's in His Tent: ?

Last Thursday I expressed how I wanted to know God more, how I wanted to meet with Him face to face. So when I was thinking about how to expound on that in today's post I wanted to share something new I had learned about God's character this week. However, I could not think of anything new I learned about God this week. In fact, because I am going through the Pauline epistles I have mostly been reading about how we should act as Christians. The rare references to God's character revolve around three characteristics; his saving grace, his power/strength, and his providence. All three are characteristics I know very well. So I was stumped, what was I supposed to write about?

Around 3 p.m. when I still had not figured it out, I decided to sit down and just write about the three characteristics above, but God had other plans. Before I could even get started our internet froze up. I prayed about it because I am working on doing that more, and when I still could not get it to work I saw that as a sign God did not want me blogging at that moment. So, I decided to work on a few of  the chores and cook dinner. All the while I was still thinking about what this post should be about...

Finally, it hit me. All week God has been speaking to me about praying, listening, and turning my concerns over to Him. In fact, the clearest lesson came this morning as I did my current Bible study. See, today's study was all about communicating with God; reading scripture, asking questions, confessing sins, sharing concerns and joys. If you are perceptive you might see where this is going.

That's right, last week I was expressing my desire to draw nearer to God, and this week he was expressing his desire to know me more. I know you are probably thinking because God is all knowing he already knows everything about me, and you are right. However, the idea is more that God wants me to be real with Him. Not because he already knows everything, but because it is the only way we can have a genuine relationship. If I want Him to let me draw nearer, than I must also let Him draw nearer.

Lets take a look at David, have you ever considered why it was that God refers to David and only David as a man after his (God's) own heart. I have a thought, maybe it was because David was so real with God, sometimes even brutally honest. Think about it the Psalms are full of David's cries to God. In Psalm 13 David asks God some hard question, questions that some of us would never dare ask God. Yet David did and he is referred to as a man after Gods own heart.

I guess what I learned this week is that God wants to know me intimately, even if it means sharing some raw feeling. See, not always but usually I hold back my frustrations out of respect, and keep trying to see Gods reasoning. What God showed me today is that he can handle whatever I have to say, in fact, he wants me to come to Him with it. Then and only then can he reveal Himself to me.

God wants to know the real you too. Do you have any emotions or questions you are holding back? Or do you just need to spend more time with Him? If so try it, you will be surprised.

MEL