“You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.” – Nehemiah 9:6.
What is a perfect day for Winnie the Pooh? Every day is a perfect day for doing nothing says Winnie the Pooh. A hug is always the right size. “A day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside.” And finally, “what day is it?” asked Pooh. “it’s today, “ squeaked piglet. “My favorite day, “ said Pooh.
I know what you are thinking: Pooh is a little too perky or trite or cliché. Cute sayings or mantras or life philosophies that are tall with wisdom but short on reality will not make your day better. Hanging out with Pooh each day will make your life better, but if we “hang out” with Christ daily, we will eventually become more like Christ; and it doesn’t get any better than that.
My favorite day is any day I get closer to God. To get close to God, we must experience God. We must feel God’s presence in our lives, feel the changes in our attitude, our priorities, and the way we see and experience the world. We must experience that feeling deep inside our person: that God is real and tangible.
Searching for God is like searching for a treasure. We don’t wait for someone to show up at our door and hand us a treasure. We go look for it. We are willing to do what it takes to find it. We may not even know exactly what the treasure is but we know it has great value and, therefore, are willing to do the things necessary to find it. The Bible promises that if we seek God, He will come to us. If we truly want to find God, we will find Him.
I don’t know exactly what a great day is for you or what following God will look like for you, but I do know that if we want to grow closer to God this year, we’ll have to distance ourselves from whatever is distracting us. We’ll have to lay aside whatever we are prone to delight in more than Him. We need to ask God which distraction(s) we need to distance ourselves from in order to grow closer to Him, and then we need to get to work.
Discussion Questions:
- What constitutes a great day in your opinion?
- What can we do this week to draw closer to God?