Can you believe this is the last Sunday of
July? Summer always goes too fast for me, but with the coronavirus
concerns, it seems like time is just really messed up for me.
I think at least part of it is that we have not had the
events that mark the passage of time for us. We did not have the
basketball tournaments in March. We did not have baseball opening day in
April. We had Easter--you really cannot stop Easter--but we did not celebrate
it the way we usually do. We did not have the spring concerts at the
school. Mothers’ Day and Father’s Day celebrations had to be scaled
back. The same with graduation. Birthday celebrations, anniversary
celebrations, even weddings and funerals have either been postponed or scaled
way back.
All these things that we
usually count on to mark the passage of time have simply not been there.
We talk about things getting back to normal, but we don’t know when or even if
that will happen. If it does not happen, then what? What is normal
going to look like in the future? No one knows.
No one except God, of
course. God knows exactly how this is all going to turn out. And in
an uncertain world, God is the one we can always count on. God was there
before the world began, and God will be there after the world ends. The
letter to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and
forever. God never changes.
In a rapidly-changing world,
it’s comforting to know that. In fact, it’s one of the most important
things for us to know. When we feel like the ground is constantly
shifting under our feet, when the things we’ve counted on to always be there
are not there anymore, we need to stay close to God. We need God to be
our anchor, to be our refuge, to be the one we can always hold onto, no matter
what. That’s what James is telling us in our bible reading for
today. He says, “Come near to God, and He will come near to you.”
Do you feel that you are near to God right now? I
hope some of you do. But I suspect there are some who don’t. Maybe
you’ve never really thought about it much. Or maybe you’ve tried to come
near to God, but it just does not seem to have worked. A lot of us have
had times like that. Maybe you’re having one now.
How do we get close to God? Well, I’m going to give
the answer you probably expect: we need to pray. But there’s more
to it than just that. It’s important that we pray, but what we pray and
how we pray and just as important as that we pray, especially if we’re talking
about trying to get closer to God.
A lot of times, when
we pray, what we do is give God a list of things we’d like God to do. Now
that’s not necessarily a selfish thing or a bad thing. It might be, but
it might not. Sometimes that list includes things like praying for God’s
protection over a loved one. Or it might include praying that God will
bring healing to someone we care about who needs healing. Or it might
include praying that God will restore a relationships that’s been
broken.
And even if we pray for
ourselves, that’s not necessarily a bad or selfish thing. There’s nothing
wrong with praying that God will help us with our health, or will help us in
our work, or will give us safe travels, or will help us in a relationship, or a
lot of other things we might pray about. After all, it was just a couple
of weeks ago we read from Paul’s letter to the Philippians where he says, “in
every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your
requests to God.” It’s okay for us to ask God to do things.
It’s okay, but it’s not
necessarily something that’s going to help us get closer to God. It
might, but it might not, too. In fact, there’s a chance it will move us
farther away from God. After all, if we ask God to do something, and God
does not do it, we may start to doubt God or to think God does not care about
us.
So if our goal is to get closer
to God, we need to pray in a different way. What way? Well, let’s
think about it.
You and I are God’s children,
right? I mean, we say that all the time. So, what are the things
that make children feel close to their parents?
It’s probably not the things
the parents do for their children. It could be, or at least that could be
part of it. But you know, we can think of parents who’ve given their
children all kinds of things, and yet the parents don’t seem to be particularly
close to the children.
If you were ever a young
child--and I think a lot of us were--think about some of your favorite times
with your parents. There may have been some events, some family vacations
and so forth, that you remember fondly. But I suspect, if you really
think about it, some of your favorite times with your parents were when you
were just kind of hanging out together. You may not have even been doing
something together--you might have been, but you might not. But you were
together. You were there with your dad, or your mom, or both.
Do you remember how you
felt? You felt safe, right? You felt protected. You felt
loved. You felt like you did not have to worry about anything, because
Dad and Mom were there. You knew they’d take care of things, and
everything would be all right.
That’s our guide for getting
closer to God in prayer. We need to just be with God. We
need to hang out with God. We need to just feel that God is with
us. We need to be in God’s presence.
And so, we pray
differently. We can still present our requests to God. But after we
do that, we need to keep praying. And we need to pray that God will allow
us to be with God. We need to pray that God will allow us into God’s
presence. We need to pray that God’s Holy Spirit will be with us.
To lead us. To guide us. To encourage us. To inspire
us. To give us courage, to give us strength, to give us enthusiasm, to
give us whatever it is we may need. But most of all, we need to just pray
that we can feel God with us. We need to pray that God will be close to
us, and that we can be close to Him. That’s how can get that feeling of
safety and protection and love from God. That’s how we can come near to God.
Now think of it from the other
way. Many of you have been parents of young children. When your
young children were with you, and you were just kind of hanging out together,
how did that make you feel? You felt pretty good, right? You
enjoyed that time. In fact, you cherished that time. You probably
wish you could go back in time and have some of those times again, because they
meant that much to you.
That’s how God feels when we
come near to Him. God feels good when we come near to Him. God
enjoys that time. God cherishes that time. God wants to be there
with us. God wants to help us feel safe and protected and loved.
That’s why it says that when we come near to God, God will come near to us.
There is nothing God wants more than for us to rely on Him. There is
nothing God wants more than for us to come near to Him. You and I mean
that much to God.
God understands how hard life
can be for us. It’s never been easy, at least not since Adam and Eve got
kicked out of the Garden of Eden. And if you remember God’s words to Adam
and Eve in Genesis Chapter Three, it’s not supposed to be easy. Life on
earth is supposed to have its problems. That’s just the way it is.
But God is always there to help
us. God never abandons us. Even when we turn away from God, even
when we turn our backs on God, God is still there for us. We may go away
from God, but God will never go away from us. God still stands ready to
help us. And any time we’re ready to turn back to God again, God will be
there. Again, when we come near to God, God will come near to us.
It’s okay for us to ask God to
do things for us. But we also need to ask God to just help us be close to
God and allow us to be close to God. And when life is so uncertain, and so
confusing, we need to be even closer to God. We need to rely on God even
more. When you feel like there’s nothing to rely on anymore, when it
feels there’s nothing to hold onto, hold onto God. Come near to
God. God will come near to you. When you do, God will take care of
things. And you’ll know that everything will turn out all right.
Because you’ll feel the love that comes from being close to God.
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