Thursday, December 14, 2006

Draw Me Deeper, Lord

I've had three memory verses for myself this past week, and the main one has been James 4:7-8. I always focused on the first part of those verses. "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." But I was starting to think that that idea was ridiculous. Satan is everywhere we turn in this world. At school, at work, in the community, he is very active. And "bad company corrupts good morals," so all of the sin around me was weighing me down. I found all of these horrible thoughts just sticking in my mind. And I resisted, and I resisted, and I resisted, and satan didn't seem to be running for the hills. What is the problem with this picture?
Well, if you continue on past "and he will flee from you," you get to what I think James meant by "resist." It's not just to "avoid" it, "fight" it, or "get away" from it. Alongside resisting, James says to "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." Do you see the contrast?
I'm sick of what is going on in the world today! I'm sick of its influence on my own mind and on my own life! And I don't want to be any part of it! But if something is going to be done about it, and if my life is going to be changed, then I don't just need to resist what is bad; I need to seek what is good.
I took a drive the other day. Just drove. Didn't care where. I eventually made it to the middle of nowhere and stopped, one hundred miles or so from where I started. And I found God there. There have been times when I have gone out into the woods, and found God there. Sometimes I paint images of Jesus, and I find Him there. But what aggrivates me is that when I come back, where is He then? When I go somewhere, I find Him; when I come back, when "the music fades," God seems far from me once again.
I think I know why now. It's not the going to a special place. It's not doing some special activity. It's not doing something or going somewhere out of the ordinary that I find God. It's the fact that I'm trying to draw near to Him in those moments, and He responds by drawing near to me. So I don't have to take long drives or paint pictures (though they still are refreshing); I just have to open up my heart to God and seek Him with all of it, and there I will find Him.
"And I pour out my soul deep within me. From deep within me, I pour out my soul. Draw me deeper, Lord, deeper, Lord, in You. Draw me deeper, Lord, deeper, Lord, in You."

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