JUST DO IT!

I read several different blogs this past week and a common thread kept jumping out at me.
The concept of fellowship with God...communion with Him....maintaining our spiritual relationship with Him...
We have been taught well in our Christian churches....we know the rules...we should spend time with God every day...we should pray and read our Bibles....we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, which means we should attend church, right? We should witness ....we should, we should, we should...

We have high expectations of ourselves...and we try...we try really hard but we keep falling off the wagon...our schedules get mixed up, trials come into our lives that prevent us from maintaining our relationship with Him other than to cry out for help, we are extremely busy, we have families and jobs and situations to deal with and its just so darned inconvenient. We are tired...we are stressed, we are overwhelmed, we forget, ....or perhaps we are just plain lazy.
Can I get an "Amen?" :)

STOP!!

Did He not say, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light" ?
Did He not say "Draw nigh unto me and i will draw nigh unto you"?
Did He not say "Repent" which means simply turn?

This is the same Lord I serve...isn't it the same one you serve?
I think we forget that He desires our companionship more than we desire His. His love is greater...He is standing ready and willing to meet us anywhere, anytime...for an hour or a moment. This relationship with Him is, after all, about love...and lovers make time for each other...
All that is necessary is that we make a move...in His direction.

How hard is it to take 5 minutes..yes only 5 minutes as soon as you open your eyes to do nothing but be with Him. No knee bending praying, no exaulted praise and worship...just be.

How hard is it to write out a scripture...just one or two verses, in your own words and look at them a few times during the week....maybe breathe a prayer over them...

You'll be surprised to find how much difference just a few moments can make...
Of course if you feel the need to pray several hours daily, read chapters and chapters of scripture, listen to nothing but praise CDs or even take a weekend retreat to spend time with your Lord, I'm all for it...but really...is it truly necessary to work so hard to touch Him? To love Him?...Isn't it the small daily touches that keep us close to our families and friends? And by the way...this same principle (I hate saying that...so many people correlate principle with formula)...anyway...this applies just the same to cultivating relationship and fellowship with other believers...especially the fellowshipping together, of brothers and sisters with God Himself....
I know we love a good potluck or a night out with the gang from Sunday School and these things are good and are fellowship of a sort...on a human level...but if we want to begin to experience fellowship together with God....a totally different kind of fellowship...a spiritual one...it really isn't so hard....
Drop a sister an email encouraging her with that verse you've been looking at, share it together....meet for a quick cup of coffee and spend a moment praying together or stop by her job to say HI and offer a hug...

I have a few blogs that I read that encourage me often to simply DO SOMETHING...fellow bloggers read them in wonder and can not fathom how these bloggers continually seem to hunger after the Lord, or how they continually seem to grow in Him...they marvel at the depth and wisdom of these bloggers who seem to have found the secret...but they, the reader, don't see the secret. It is there...clearly in plain view....
What stands out about these bloggers who seem to have real relationships with their Lord is this one thing:
They DO SOMETHING about their faith. Perhaps they are ultra spiritual but I don't think so... in reality they are often driven by great personal difficulties to a place of dependence on their Lord and subsequently they have fallen in love with Him. They DO SOMETHING about their relationships with God and with His people. Practical, physical, simple exercises to touch Him and share love with Him... a walk, a drive, a break in their routine, they stay up a little later or rise a bit earlier, they forgo chores to grab a moment with Him...they meet with other believers to share their hearts and turn to Him in everyday experiences like dealing with children or spouses, nature or chores....

Could this then be part of the secret? Simply taking the time to be with the One you love?

The thing I am most convicted of right now is not that I should spend more time with God or work on my relationships in the body....
The thing I am most convicted of today is to JUST DO IT! Do something, do anything to turn to Him, either alone or with sisters/brothers in Christ, to love Him and Be with Him...to JUST DO IT! Its really very simple and can take only a moment...but I need to MOVE...I need to draw nigh...I need to DO SOMETHING....ANYTHING...to turn to Him....to make time for Him....to love Him.
...its simpler than we think...
JUST DO IT....