Four Principles to Help you Draw Closer to the Heart of God
Is something getting in the way of your relationship with God? Are you struggling; wondering if God even hears your prayers? Or do you feel your relationship and prayer life are good, but you desire to have a more intimate relationship with Him? Join me as I uncover four principles to a more intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father.
Tucked away in the book of Joel, we find a valuable lesson that, if applied, will awaken an intimate relationship with God.
Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing—grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God.
Joel 2:12-14
1.) Return to God with All your Heart
When we feel hindered in our relationship with God, the first thing we need to do is return to Him and surrender. God wants ALL of your heart, not just the parts you are comfortable giving up. He wants the parts that are wounded. He wants the parts of your heart you refuse to show others, even Him. When we feel God is far away, surrendering can feel scary; but, if we allow ourselves to give in to it completely, surrender is freeing.
2.) Fasting
God honors your fasting, whether it is a food or social media fast. When you fast, abstaining from food or other things you enjoy, you are honoring God. Fasting causes you to be more dependent on God—more focused on God. If there is an area of temptation, God wants you to experience victory over that temptation. Fasting can help kick start a new lifestyle—one that is more Christ centered.
3.) Weeping and Mourning
Godly sorrow will lead to repentance, which leads to a real change in your life. Is there depth of sorrow for your sin? Do you experience grief over the sin around you? Does it sadden you to see people blatantly disobey God? If so, “Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:9-10).
4.) Rend your Heart Not your Garments
You don’t have to tear your clothes to show an outward display of grief. What God longs to see is a torn heart. For a broken and contrite heart the LORD will not despise (see Psalm 51:17). In the book of Joel, the prophet is not just pointing out sin and telling the people to do better; he is calling them to total conversion. To return to God completely—totally surrendered—unconditionally committed. This is more than merely following God with our words and actions. We can pull that off without our hearts being right. What draws us to God is a heart that is totally yielded to Him.
The Lord our God is in the business of pursuing hearts. He will not give up. If you have walked away, it is not too late to rend your heart and turn completely to Him. It is never too late to return to the Lord your God. He wants all of your heart and He will wait for you to come to that place of weeping and mourning. He is patient, gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love, and ready to stop a disaster from happening.
In his devotional, My Utmost For His Highest, Oswald Chambers said it best, “If we are truly surrendered, we will never be aware of our own efforts to remain surrendered. Our entire life will be consumed with the One to whom we surrender. Beware of talking about surrender if you know nothing about it. In fact, you will never know anything about it until you understand that John 3:16 means that God completely and absolutely gave Himself to us. In our surrender, we must give ourselves to God in the same way He gave Himself for us— totally, unconditionally, and without reservation. The consequences and circumstances resulting from our surrender will never even enter our mind, because our life will be totally consumed with Him.”
Are you ready to draw closer to the heart of God? Are you ready to turn to Him with all of your heart and surrender all? Then let this be your prayer: “Father God, I know without a shadow of doubt that You gave Your only Son, Jesus Christ to save me from my sins. Today, I turn to You with all of my heart. I surrender it all. I give You myself in the same way You completely and absolutely gave Yourself for me–totally, unconditionally, and without reservation. I desire for my life to be totally consumed with You. In Your name I pray, Amen.”