A Step Toward The Lord - Be Encouraged

This morning as I was waking up, my thoughts started down an interesting path, one that is not a common first waking thought pattern. I believe the Lord likes to speak to us in that time when our minds are awake, but our thoughts are still minimal. The theme this morning was encouragement for anyone moving forward in relationship with the Lord.

I felt like He wanted me to write briefly about the importance of relationships, but even more so, His desire for relationships with each of us, no matter where we are at, or how young we are in our relationship with Him. So often there is pressure, whether from external sources, or from ourselves, to perform at a level that is outside our abilities, and that includes the areas of relationships, even relationships with the Lord. I specifically felt His pleasure for anyone who makes any step towards Him, no matter how small! That is important to hear - the Lord is happy with even the smallest step we take towards Him.

So often religion can interfere and cause us to think our relationship needs to be a certain way, or involve certain things, and they are generally all external trappings. So much time in prayer, certain types of prayer, so many meetings attended, dressing a certain way, acting a certain way, speaking a certain way. Anyone can learn to do these things, but none of them is a true indicator of your heart's attitude toward or relationship with the Lord. For example, just because we dress like an adult doesn't mean we are an adult in our actions or thoughts.

The Lord is most concerned about our heart and our affections. The Lord sees past all the external stuff and looks at our hearts, our motivations and He is very pleased when we are moving towards Him in relationship. Relationships require communication with and knowledge of the other individual, not just facts about them, but how they think, how they act, their ways. It is impossible to have a relationship with someone we don't know or communicate with - those are the basic building blocks. We can know plenty about someone else, even feel like we know them, because of someone else's relationship, and our relationship with them. I know about several of my parents friends, even though I have never met them. In our faith this is often the case, we are introduced to the Lord by our parents and pastor or priest, but that does not constitute a relationship. It is very helpful to establish a level of understanding and comfort, but ultimately the Lord wants a relationship with us.

So again, I felt like the Lord wanted us to know that He is pleased with any step we make in His direction. He is desirous of a relationship with us and is always moving in our direction. We may not have much time to pray (converse with God) during our day, but if we make an effort to carve out even 5 minutes a few times a week, the Lord will meet us. Thinking back to my parents, they live a significant distance away and most of our communication these days is over the phone. They would love hearing more from me, even if it was a 2 minute call once every three days. In the same way, the Lord longs for us to reach out to Him and will never reject even the smallest gesture or step.

So the question for each of us is how can we move towards the Lord, in our life, with our schedules? For each of us that might look different, and that is just fine. The Lord understands and values our uniqueness, and will work with and interact with each of us individually. We might read the Bible and ask Him to direct our reading of it, we might listen to Christian music on the radio as we drive to work, we might encounter Him through music or movies, we might encounter Him and hear Him in those around us, in service, in quiet, in nature, in devotionals, in dreams, in day dreams, in our creative abilities, in kindness towards others, during long walks, or short coffee breaks. He doesn't care, He is just happy we are moving towards Him.

Our relationship with the Lord is meant to be the single greatest treasure in our life. It is meant to be the source of life, strength and power. The deeper our relationship with Him, the more we realize how infinite is His love for us, and how readily He will pour His love on us. Let us endeavor to take any step towards Him today. He will meet us!