You choose and bring near

Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts! Psalm 65:4

Last night I had a dream of an earlier time when my kids were young. I remember, in the dream, cuddling with my kids and enjoying them as three and six-year olds. Then today when I woke up and went back to Psalm 65, believing there was another nugget there, I found it: “you choose and bring near.” As a dad I would not have children and then not want to be near them. The older they get the more I simultaneously enjoy them now and I miss their younger days. It is unthinkable that I, an imperfect father, would choose to have children, but also choose to have them far away. Any good parent knows this.

If this is true—and it is—then why on earth do we treat God like some alien? We develop some split-level thinking that says, ‘God has to choose me because that’s his job. But he probably doesn’t want to be near me. I will just be happy with being chosen, and will hang out with the servants in the back yard.’ It sounds ridiculous when one spells it out this way, but I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people say, “I don’t feel near to God.”

If the devil cannot stop you being forgiven he will try his best to stop you enjoying God. And sometimes satan doesn’t even need to work very hard at this because our own performance-driven, earning-oriented, ego-and-accomplishment based wiring keeps us from God. Friends, our God is one. He is not some bi-level, half-hearted, half-baked God. There is enough in who he is and what he has done to both choose us, and to draw us near. Anything that is a potential barrier to nearness has been swept away by the blood of Jesus. There is no veil, no dividing wall, no legal case against us… “nothing can separate us from the love of God.” We are chosen to be near, not just to be saved.

You are chosen: get near! Let this truth wash over you until you know it deep in your soul.

You choose and bring near… you choose and bring near… you choose and bring near.

Application

• How often do you say to yourself, “I don’t feel near to God”?
  
  
• Have you believed the lie that says, “God chose me because he chose the whole world, but he doesn’t want to be close to me.”?

• If you accept that you are chosen but don’t feel near, you may still living under the law. Are you, in some way, thinking that nearness comes from what you do rather than the Father’s desire? If so, repent—change your mind, because it is wrong.

• What steps can you take to soak in God’s decision to choose you, and bring you near?