Glory be to God, and thanks, for a new start with a new calendar month!
I got up sluggish and feeling empty because the world and my own faulty flesh had drawn me away from the depth of fellowship I’d been enjoying with my Savior.
So I cried to Him and called on Him and told Him quite frankly, “I miss You!”
And through His word, in psalms of praise…
through personal prayer that interspersed itself within their lines…
through reading 2 Corinthians 10-12, especially 2 Cor 10:3-4 and 2 Cor 12:6-10 …
and a bottom line in Laura Krokos’ blog post...
I re-entered the fullness of His presence, as far as it can happen in this mortal frame.
“Hearing,” Laura reminded me, is the means by which Faith comes. Not by my trying to work up more faith, or wishing and hoping for it. But by hearing.
And hearing comes from listening intently. And Listening is what L stands for in my acronym C-L-O-S-E-R. Listening to Him.
It occurs to me that five more months remain in this year for learning to follow my chosen year’s guide word, CLOSER, and my acronym has five more letters I haven’t pointed out specifically on this blog.
The point is… with equal numbers of months and letters left, I could focus on one letter each month till year’s end.
So, today being August first, I am setting my “New Month’s Resolution” as “Daily apply the C and the L of CLOSER, and write some posts about them, mostly about the L word Listen.”
First, today, let me recap the C, as I’ve applied it:
C, I decided, can stand for Call.
Call to Him (That I certainly did today!)
Call upon/on Him (an idiom for visiting someone, as “I called on my friend, with whom I needed to talk.” In this lies a sense of approach, from my end to the other person.
Cry to Him or cry out to Him, the need of my heart.
Confess I can’t accomplish my needed holiness or faith or wisdom or strength in my frail flesh, that I need Him to live and move and do in and through me, even this very day, what I cannot.
How appropriate these reasons to praise Him I found in Psalm 18! In the first group are names I can rightfully call Him, pictures of what He is to the believer. The last pair are reasons related to my calling out to Him…
COUNTING REASONS TO PRAISE HIM:
(From Psalm 18:1-6)
Because He is the One Whom I can call…
- 367 – “The LORD my Strength“
- 368 – “The LORD my Rock”
- 369 – “The LORD my Fortress”
- 370 – “… my Deliverer”
- 371 – “the One in Whom I can trust”
- 372 – “my Shield”
- 373 – “the Horn (representing strength) of my Salvation”
- 374 – “my Stronghold”
And here’s the thing related to my calling to Him:
- 375 – He hears from His holy temple when His own cry out to Him.
- 376 – The cry of His own comes before Him, even to His ears.
Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift of… Himself!
…..
Previous posts about this aim of drawing closer to the Lord
(in the order of their appearance):
What Brother Lawrence Said About Can’t
CLOSER Without the C is… ? (How Not to Lose Out)
How a Call to Him Becomes Conversation (Scene One)
How a Call to Him Becomes Conversation (Scene Two)
Entertaining High Thoughts of God
*****
Linked to
“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.. .” Oh, what a precious promise to claim, that the presence of our Savior is only a prayer away. Like you, I wonder, why do we so seldom avail ourselves of such a marvelous presence? Thank you for reminding me. Lori (www.lorihatcher.com)
Yes, Lori. Exactly. It’s astounding that we can enter the presence of the Master and Creator of the Universe and beyond… and even more incredible that we who know this don’t avail ourselves of the opportunity more! Thanks so much for visiting and commenting!
Wonderful reasons, Sylvia! And I can’t wait to hear more about your word. I think I need to work on the “L” . . . probably the “C”, too . . .
Thank you for sharing!
The L is a big one. I need to hush-and-listen more, too!