Opening to the Lord

Many times we come to God in prayer and ask God to reveal Himself more to us, we ask Him to speak to us, and for that we do well. But we meanwhile have our hands so full with other things that there is little room in our life for God to actually work with. Our attention span is so short, and so God only has but a few minutes before we lose focus and turn to other distractions. Our schedules are so packed, and so God only has the 15 minutes we give Him in the morning. We give so little room in our hearts to the Lord, and so greatly limit Him from working within us, from revealing more of Himself to us. We miss so many opportunities every day to experience more of the unsearchable riches of Christ, because we are so preoccupied with the trinkets of this world.

Imagine the person who is dearest to you spending the entire day preparing a delicious meal just for you. With love in their heart they put so much care into all of the details, just to delight you. And then when the meal is ready you look at the food, walk over to the pantry and take a bag of chips, and then leave. What a pain it would be for the person who had spent all of that time preparing the food for you. They had prepared the food, just for you, with a desire that you would enjoy it. And instead of eating it and enjoying it, you ignore it and take something else.

Sometimes I fear this is so with our relationship with Christ as well. He gave everything that He possibly could give for us. With us in His heart He went to the cross and suffered so greatly, with the aim that through His actions we could be brought near to Him, to enjoy Him daily as our Bread of Life. And yet instead of turning to Him and enjoying Him, we settle for cheap things of this world. Would the Lord have mercy on us.

The Lord wants to show Himself strong on our behalf (2 Chronicles 16:9). He wants to reveal more of Himself to us. And He will if we but seek Him. We must see that the Lord works with what He is given - He has given us free will and doesn’t force Himself upon us. For all that we give to Him, the gain that we receive back is far greater. Would we open ourselves to the Lord. What depths of the unsearchable riches of Christ we will see when we dedicate our time to Him and ask Him to use that time according to His pleasure and purpose.

“The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him”

Lord, you deserve so much better than what we give you. Lord, forgive us. Draw us further, with your beauty, from the idols and distractions of this world. We want to give You our best, and to seek You with all of our heart. We want to be open to You.