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What is the greatest expectation or anticipation you can remember experiencing? What was the occasion or event? Were you going to meet someone, or were you on a trip or visit? Where was it and who was going to be there? Imagine a visit to the court of a king, the office of a president, or to the home of a dignitary. Or imagine one of these people coming to your home, and that he would be comfortable and unaffected in the ordinariness of your home, however plain or elaborate it may be. Now, imagine daybreak with Jesus. Think of the fact that He wants to be with you. Consider the possibility that a car would pull up to your home early each morning ... imagine you hear its door open and close, and then a quick knock sounds on your front door, announcing that Jesus is here to spend fifteen, twenty, even thirty minutes with you. This situation is not only credible; it actually happens every day wherever Christ can find someone who will draw near to Him. The Bible says: 'Give yourselves humbly to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. And when you draw close to God, God will draw close to you.'This verse shows us that, although God is willing to draw close to each of us, there is a scriptural condition before He can do this: we must draw close to Him first. He is fully ready, even warmly anxious, to respond to us — but He awaits invitation. It is not a matter of God needing some protocol to be observed, as though He were a cosmic prima donna or a hard-to-reach celebrity. He doesn’t have the temperament for such human, contrived games. But He does know the human heart, and He knows that only those who will take the first step of faith and surrender themselves to Him can really receive all He wants to give them. Note that the Scripture verses from James give us two directives on 'drawing near': submit and resist. Simply stated, the way to ensure an encounter with Jesus at daybreak — or at any other time, for that matter — is to submit yourself in obedient worship before the Father and to resist any distraction or discouragement that Satan may use to divert you. Both are necessary. We need to 'draw near' by waking up, lifting our praises to God, and countering any carnal or spiritual hindrance to these actions. I have found that the factors making up the outline in the preceding chapter can serve as a practical guide for drawing near to God. Let’s look at the elements of Step One more carefully. Step One: Present Yourself to Him In Mark 12:30, Jesus tells us, ‘You must love [God] with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.’ By these words, he helped us see that the total human personality is summoned in worship and devotion to God: the spirit (heart), the emotions and will (soul), the intellect (mind), and the body (strength). So approach the Lord in exactly that way — enter His presence with your total being! ‘Go through His open gates with great thanksgiving; enter His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His Name. For the Lord is always good. He is always loving and kind, and his faithfulness goes on and on to each succeeding generation.’ (Psalm 100:4, 5) Any approach to God involves worship. This psalm calls for thanksgiving and praise, but these actions sometimes have a way of dissolving into the repetition of meaningless phrases. Many of us too frequently just recite words, habitual if not humdrum statements that begin well but wear thin with overuse: ‘I thank You, Lord ... I praise Your Name, O God ... Hallelujah ... Glory to God,’ and so on. Neither God nor man can fault the words, but thanks or praise will not last long or mean much without a specific point. The Lord helped me in my renewal of a devotional habit by showing me a way to offer thanks and praise that keeps it current, expressive, and thoughtful. Find a new reason every day to thank him This is the first element in Step One. I decided to begin each day by thanking God for some specific way that He had shown Himself to me the day before. In other words, today’s entry into God’s presence becomes based on yesterday’s evidence of His faithfulness. For example: Father, as I come before You today, I want to thank You for the way You helped me during that difficult conversation yesterday. The wisdom You gave me and the way it was resolved were wonderful indicators of Your faithfulness. I thank You, Father. With this thanksgiving for what has just happened, you will also find new avenues of praise to God for what is about to happen. You can anticipate experiencing something of Himself and His ways today — with praise. I learned to do this by studying the different aspects of His personality revealed in the various names the Bible gives for God. Technically speaking, not all of the terms are actually names, but they are used to identify distinct traits and attributes of God’s personality. So each day I focused my praise on a specific feature of God’s own being. This was especially meaningful when I focused on a trait that met a need I had for that day: I praise You today, Father, for Your steadfastness, the fact that You never change! I feel so slippery in my soul, Lord, and incapable of sustaining the attention needed to finish the work I know I have to get done today. Lord, pour Your steadfastness into me and fill me so that I may stay firm until the work is done. I praise You, Lord, and lift my voice to exalt Your greatness and Your willingness to share Yourself with me, to pour Your fullness into my emptiness, Your steadiness into my shakiness. Present your body in worship to Him This second element in Step One is both scriptural and practical. The Bible indicates that worship is a physical act, as well as an intelligent and spiritual one: 'Give your bodies to God. Let them be a living sacrifice.' (Romans 12:1) David’s declaration that he would lift up his hands in God’s name (Psalm 63:3, 4) is but one of many such statements in the Word of God. The body is described in 1 Corinthians 6:19 as a living temple of God’s Holy Spirit, and as such it is obvious that it was never meant to be passive in worship. I have found it helpful to approach the Lord in various postures and with different physical expressions. If for no other reason (though this may not seem particularly noble), I do this because it helps me stay alert and awake on those mornings when drowsiness could hinder my daybreak appointment with the Lord. Oswald J. Smith, the great missionary-statesman of the past generation, admitted that he walked back and forth during most of his daily quiet time with God, and that a hidden benefit of doing this was the defeat of lost concentration or dozing off. Other physical worship expressions found in Scripture include kneeling before Christ as your Lord, lifting your hands unto God as your source, standing in praise before your King, clapping your hands with rejoicing, dancing with childlike joy, bowing your head in humility, lifting your head with expectancy, and prostrating yourself in dependency. Each of these postures expresses a stance of the soul. You should take the time to do each of them (though not all in one day, of course) and consider what each physical position is reflecting in a spiritual sense. For example, upraised hands may express adoration, thankfulness, surrender, hunger, or receptiveness. Kneeling may express submission, obedience, and devotion. Each day, you will find that the physical stance you use will reflect a different feeling of your heart and express in a different manner the hunger you have for God. Sing a new song to the Lord Shouldn’t every creature take part in this third element of Step One, and sing at daybreak? Of course. Yet, most of mankind is intimidated into silence. Many of us compare our voices to those more gifted in this area and conclude that our voices aren’t worthy to be lifted in song. But God is not conducting a talent contest at our private devotions! The same Creator who delights in the singing of birds or the lowing of cattle on the hillside waits to hear your song and mine. But the Bible says to make it a 'new song' (Psalm 96:1, 2). How do we do that? To begin, it can be encouraging to learn new hymns and choruses as a part of your growth in Christ. There is something to be said for expanding the number of worship songs you know. Learning new music can help you avoid becoming stale in your soul. There is also a certain wisdom to be found in an historic custom of each church member carrying his own hymnal to and from church gatherings, just as he did his Bible. This practice contributed to the learning and understanding of the enriching content of the lyrics. In fact, the Bible directs you to ‘... let [Christ’s] words enrich your lives and make you wise: teach them to each sing them out in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing to the Lord with thankful hearts.' (Colossians 3:16) The Bible may also be used for singing. In William Law’s Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, that eighteenth-century saint instructed every believer to open each morning by spontaneously singing or chanting one of the psalms. It’s still a good idea and, of course, other Scripture may be sung as well. You may sing your own tunes or tunes that you’ve learned, but be sure of this: whatever effort we make to sing praise to God in a ‘new song', He will hear and receive as a sweet sound to His ear. ‘I will sing and give praise. Allow the Holy Spirit to assist your praise Worshipful singing often leads to the beautiful experience of Holy Spirit-assisted praise. Whether sung or spoken, this element is an appropriate part of our daily approach to the Lord. 'Don‘t drink too much wine, for many evils lie along that path; be filled instead with the Holy Spirit, and controlled by Him. Talk with each other much about the Lord, quoting psalms and hymns and singing sacred songs, making music in your hearts to the Lord. Always give thanks for everything to our God and Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.' (Ephesians 5:18-20) Giving ourselves anew to the Spirit of God, inviting Him to assist our worship in its energy and expression, is the quickest pathway to obeying the command to constantly keep filled with the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 14:15, the Apostle Paul makes it clear that worship, praise, and thanksgiving are appropriate both in languages that are understood by the worshiper and in unknown languages that the Holy Spirit helps the worshiper speak. In that same chapter of Corinthians, Paul also gives careful controls concerning the use of such spiritual gifts in public services. But in our private devotions, we can take great freedom for practical, spiritual reasons. There is an edifying quality to prayer and worship in the Holy Spirit. Paul found this to be so true that he was moved to gratefully acknowledge the fact that he had been able to use this form of prayer more than anyone else (see 1 Corinthians 14:18). What a powerful example he was for us to follow in our own daily devotional lives! In 1 Corinthians 14:15, Paul points the way to prayer empowered by the Holy Spirit, while setting forth a beautiful balance: 'I will pray in unknown tongues and also in ordinary language that everyone understands. I will sing in unknown tongues and also in ordinary language, so that I can understand the praise I am giving.' Praying with the Spirit 'in unknown tongues' is not to be used to the exclusion of our praying 'in ordinary language that everyone understands.' It is not a substitute form of prayer but a complementing form. In fact, the Bible seems to suggest that Holy Spirit-assisted prayer often can help us pray better, more effective prayers in our known language. It is as if our minds are washed and cleared, aided to think and pray more clearly in line with God’s will and purpose (see Romans 8:26, 27). So we are wise to heed Paul’s words of balance as we come to God, with our singing and our praying being expanded by the Holy Spirit as He enlarges our expressions of love to the Lord Jesus and of worship to the eternal Father. These, then, are the four elements of entering the Lord’s presence and drawing near to Him: • Thanksgiving and prayer are offered thoughtfully • The temple of your body is presented physically • Your voice is lifted in a new song creatively • Praise is assisted by the Holy Spirit beautifully. This first set of stepping-stones marks the beginning of a pathway to a daily devotional habit — a regular meeting with Jesus at daybreak. This beginning doesn’t need to take a lot of time, it could be completed in a matter of three or four minutes. But there will be times when you find the moments flying by and you will linger in worship, singing, and presenting your total self to Him. It’s important to realize that the amount of time you take for this exercise probably will be different each day. Don’t let the beauty of an openhearted spontaneity be spoiled by a self-imposed time schedule. God isn’t calling you to punch in on a heavenly time clock. He simply calls you to draw near to Him, assuring you that when you do so, He’ll be there. |