I have been reading in the book of James for the last few days and today I read James 4:7,8;
7 Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8 Draw or come near to God and He will draw near to you.
Submit, resist and draw near are all verbs, things we have TO DO.
What a great promise in verse 8, draw near to God and He will draw near to us. We can actually determine how near we will be to God! My guess is that like the ancient Israelites many of us would prefer to keep our distance and live our own lives.
In Genesis 2 & 3, we see God placed Adam in the garden to tend and care for it.
Genesis 3:8, Then(after the Fall) the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of day, and they hid from Him.
God prepared a place to meet with the man and it was in a beautiful garden in the east, in Eden.
I have read of people who’ve had experiences of Heaven and met with the Lord in a beautiful garden, actually His garden. There are also gardens of our own souls, sometimes not quite so lovely.
My question today, is the garden of our soul ready for a meeting with Jesus? Do we have a place in the physical where we can go to meet with Him, maybe a chair, maybe a room or prayer closet?
How about setting a goal to close the distance between Heaven and ourselves. We have the promise, draw near and He will draw near to us. Maybe in all the busyness and Christmas is coming, we need to make Him welcome to visit the garden of our souls.
God bless you today, may you know Him closer than ever before.