Come Near to God.

James 4:8
8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

As I wrap up the prayer series today, I think we've all learned some new lessons about prayer in the last month because of God's Word. I believe today's verse is a nice way to end the series.

Every bit of space is occupied by the Holy Lord. Is it hard to wrap your mind around that statement? I think sometimes we think that in order to pray, we must be a hero, live a perfect life, and know exactly what our future holds. Really, that's not true.

Then, there are those times that we pray when we need God's immediate rescue. Notice how when we need "help" we don't just leave God at that. We pray more than just that single word. However, when difficult times depart us, we soften up and our regular prayer tendencies shoot down because we believe that we can't possibly meet his standards. This means that we have sleepless nights as we try to put on our superman costume and deal with our sins and temptations, hurts and questions, stress and concerns, all while whispering just a few words in prayer to the Almighty.

Well, surprise surprise, there are no requirements nor expectations when it comes to our prayer life! We don't have to be forgiven by God before we pray. We don't have to be knocking on the door of heaven before we pray. The only things you should remember are: time, good intentions, and acknowledgment of the Lord as your forgiving Savior when you pray. You can whisper your prayer, you can say your prayer out loud, you can write it down. Either way, God is near.

Lord, let us breathe in your presence and call out your name at all times of the day no matter what's happening in our life: trials or joyfulness. Just think, if everyone prayed...

NOTE: There will be a special post tomorrow as it's Easter!

Listen to the song: "What If His People Prayed" by Casting Crowns.



P.S. If you have trouble with the video stopping and starting, keep the video paused, and let it "buffer" (load) as it's called for a while. You will see the red bar along the bottom advance (speed depends on your Internet connection). Wait until that bar gets pretty far along (I'd say more than halfway) before you play the video and it shouldn't pause.