Thieves in the Temple

Growing closer to God is a big goal in our lives as Christians. But a question that many will have is how do you? How do you grow closer to God?

One thing I would like to clarify is getting to know God is not about feelings. You'll always go through seasons when the presence of God feels far or it feels like God might not care about you, but feelings are fickle. Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" Our walk with God is and will always be about faith in Him and following Him. Have faith that God knows, loves, and hears you. Our first priority is to follow Him. Often feelings will come after that. Just know that in a relationship with God, the foundation is not how your heart feels, but faith in Him and His Word.

That aside, how do we grow closer to God? What's the heart of all this Christian talk about a relationship with Christ? We can literally (well, spiritually) move closer to Him. But...

We live in the world, and the world is a dark, cluttered place. God's on the other end, and though we're sanctified with His holiness so that we glow in the dark, I'd go as far as to say that pretty much all of us have obstacles between Him and us. They could be sins. They could be habits. They could be interests. They could be activities. They could be people and relationships. They're not necessarily bad things!! Just things that we place before God or close to Him. (For instance: school, friends, Facebook.) We often have junk standing between us and God, and I'd bet it's not one item -- there's quite a few.

Think of it like this. There are large obstacles in a line, in between you and your Father. I named some of the things they could be. When you remove one, you have the space to move one step closer to Him! Truly, our life with God and growing closer to God is locating and kicking aside these objects to get closer to the heart of our Lord.

The obstacles in our lives steal away attention from the Holy One. Go grab your Bible and read John 2:13-17. Read Mark's version of the narrative, too, found in Mark 11:15-17. The Bible says our hearts are a temple for God. We want it to be as pure and vacant as possible in order to be filled to its full extent with His glory and love! But there are those thieves we all have in our personal courtyards. Pray to God right now and ask Him to reveal to you any robbers in your heart. Spend some time with your King requesting Him to chase them out, and then truly work to place Him above them, trusting and having faith that the Holy Spirit will help you. Then, you will grow closer to God.

Girl Talk:

What are the robbers in your heart? How do you plan to drive them out? Post your comments sharing with your sisters.