Monday's Inspiration

Morning Inspiration with Pastor Merritt

You must take time to draw near to God.

That shouldn’t surprise you, because there is one thing that is absolutely true of your closest relationships. The people you are closest to you spend the most time with. It takes time to develop closeness. It takes time to develop intimacy.

Listen to this verse from James,

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” (James 4:8)

This is not something you do once in a lifetime. This is something you do every day. This is why spiritual intimacy is more than religion or being religious. You can be diligent in your religion and yet distant in your relationship.

The person that I am closest to on this planet is my wife, Teresa, and I ought to be, because I have spent more time with her in 38 years then anyone else on this planet. We have in every way physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually the closest relationship of all. If I had only seen her on Sundays for 38 years and even then, not every Sunday, I wouldn’t be nearly that close. This intimacy we have has been developed on a daily basis. If you are going to develop spiritual intimacy you have to do it every day.

There is a little boy who returned home from his very first day in kindergarten. His mom said, “Chase, how did you like school today?” He thought for a moment and said, “Mom, it was fine, but is not something you would want to do every day.”

If you want to have an intimate, close, deep, passionate relationship with God it is something you have to do every day. It takes time. If you are going to be close to God you’ve got to take time for God. If you are going to take time for God you’ve got to make time for God.

We have a term we use for that kind of time. It is a churchy term I’ll admit and it is called “a quiet time.” If you are going to have a quiet time, you’ve got to set a time to be quiet.

King David said in Psalm 5:3,

“O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.”

David had a daily appointment with God every morning. You may not be a morning person and I’m not legalistic about when you develop your intimacy with God, but if you do not set an appointment with God on a daily basis to develop your relationship with Him it won’t happen. Don’t make any excuses. If you can set an appointment with a client or set an appointment with your doctor or set an appointment to do your grocery shopping you can set an appointment with God. There is nothing more important or more vital if you want to be more for God and if you want God to be more to you, than to have this time on a daily basis.

Jan Paderewski was a famous Polish pianist who lived in the first half of the 20th century. His country was involved in World War II and desperately needed to raise money for the war effort. They asked him to play concerts in order to help raise money. Being the patriot that he was he said, “I will help the war effort under one condition. You must allow me every day to continue playing scales three hours a day. You are going to pay me for 8 hours, but I am going to play scales for 3.” They agreed to his offer, but the question is, “Why would someone with his enormous talent insist that he had to play scales for 3 hours every day?”

Here was his answer. He said, “If I skip one day of scales when I play in concert I notice it. If I skip two days of scales my coach will notice it. If I skip three days, the world will notice it.”

If you have ever played the piano you know why. Regularly playing scales develops and maintains the dexterity of a pianist’s fingers. It gives the pianist the ability to move through the most difficult pieces with speed and accuracy. With practice, he can play any score with confidence and skill, but without a regular diet of scales, a difficult score can leave him hesitant and unsure and cause him to miss a key or a note.

If you want to be ready to play the game of life at your best, if you want to be ready to meet any challenge that comes your way with faith, and confidence, and trust, you had better take time every day to deepen and strengthen your walk with God.