‘…You will fill me with joy in Your presence…’ Psalm 16:11 NIV
To build and maintain intimacy in a relationship you must schedule time with the other person, otherwise it won’t happen. There’s a reason the Bible likens your relationship with Christ to that of a bride and groom. For a marriage to be strong, two people must pay attention to one another. And that happens only when they’re willing to set aside things like work, financial concerns, and even children. Likewise, your devotional life should involve simply enjoying the presence of the Lord. The Psalmist puts it this way: ‘You will fill me with joy in Your presence.’ And: ‘Delight yourself…in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.’ (Psalm 37:4 NKJV) ‘As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.’ (Psalm 42:1 NKJV) ‘…You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.’ (Psalms 63:1 NKJV) Many of us lead unhappy lives because we never spend time in God’s presence. Do you know the Lord, or do you merely know about Him? ‘Knowing Christ’ was Paul’s number–one priority: ‘But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ… For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him…having a righteousness of my own that comes from…faith in Christ.’ (Philippians 3:7–9 ESV) Have you reached the place where you can say that too?
SoulFood: 2 Ki 10-12, Luke 16:19-31, Ps 24, Prov 7:24-25
The Word for Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright 2015
