Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “A life that matters”
Our Bible verse for today: “Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Cultivate a deep relationship with God.”
As we continue to consider the best investment of our time and energy in 2017 I want to remind you that the single most important thing you can do with your time is to take the steps necessary to cultivate a deep and meaningful relationship with God. Nothing you do will have a greater positive impact on your life than that.
Yesterday I encouraged you to consider the truth that many times in life “less is more”. By that I mean that sometimes the best thing we can do to improve the quality of our lives is to take things out rather than adding more in. But I also made the point that the purpose of creating that space in our lives is so we have quiet time to spend with God.
In that devotional message I encouraged you to go to my website at www.JimMersereauBooks.com and read the article entitled “Room for the Singing of Angels.” In that article you will read about the concept I refer to as “buffer zones of quiet inactivity”. The idea is that we are to pare back the sheer volume of people, activities, and noise that crowd into our lives, and thereby create buffer zones of quietness where we can meet with God.
Today I want to ask you to read another article I wrote some years ago, one that goes along with “Room for the Singing of Angels”. This one is called “Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times”. It teaches of how Christians down through the ages have been able to cultivate a deep and intimate relationship with God by developing what is often called a “contemplative lifestyle”.
To be a contemplative means first of all that you have the regular habit of sitting quietly before God and simply listening. During this time there is no Bible reading, no talking to God, or in any other way attempting to interact with Him other than to sit quietly before Him and let Him talk to you. It involves listening, thinking deeply about Him, and simply savoring His presence. But this takes times. It takes set-aside time specifically for this purpose.
In time, and with practice, you will develop a contemplative mind-set that carries over into all of life. At that point you will find that you are able to go through your regular daily routine while maintaining a God-consciousness, an awareness of the continuous presence of God. This is sometimes referred to as active contemplation or, the with-God life. I encourage you to read the article.
Cultivating a deep and intimate relationship with God takes time, but there is no better way you could use your time.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 