Getting Closer to Him

“Getting Closer to Him”

By Zach Wood

Psalm 24:3-4 NIV

Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?  Who may stand in his holy place?  The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.

We spend a lot of time in our lives trying to get close to certain people, places and things.  We’ll drive quite a distance to get to a place we’ve never been to before to explore new sights of nature.  Sometimes we’ll stand in long lines to meet someone who is a popular public figure.  We’ll spend a good amount of money to purchase tickets to have a great view at a concert of a popular singing group.

We could go on and on about ways we figure out to get closer to things and places and people we want to see.  We may take hours or days to achieve these goals.  It’s amazing how we’ll strive to do these things and how much time and money we’ll invest. 

We “seek” a lot in our lives, do we not?  We spend a lot of time investing in so much.  When I consider how much we spend our lives investing in other things, I have to wonder how often we truly spend time investing in seeking God and investing in our relationship with Him?  If we spent half the time we spend in doing other things and put that attention and energy more into searching the heart of God, I think we’d really be amazed at how much we’d grow in our faith.

We all say we want to get closer to Him.  But how much do you really want to get closer?  What’s “close” to you?  Is it just knowing about Him?  Is it just attending church on Sunday and hearing a good message and going about your daily life?  This Psalm is pretty clear that if we truly want to be closer to God and invest our daily lives into knowing Him, then we need to strive to have clean hands and a pure heart. 

You maybe be shaking your head and saying, “I know, I know, I know!”  However, if we “know” we should be doing this, then why aren’t we??  Why are we not striving to know Him more and more?  Do we really and honestly want to be in His presence and stand in His Holy place?  Do we want to rid of the dirty hands and stained hearts and allow Him to cleanse us? 

Do you sincerely want to grow closer to Him?  If so, take some action and do something about it.  We need to be more serious about getting closer to Him.