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Prayer: May Your Holy Spirit convict me when I wander from your presence. Thank You, Lord that You await with open arms ready to receive me when I return.

Scripture: The LORD is righteous in all His ways and loving toward all He has made. The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth. Psalm 145:17-18 NIV

One morning I was trying to give instructions to a student who had asked for my help as she was walking away from me to go out for recess. From across the room she asked, “What did you say?” so I repeated myself. Further away from the steps came, “What?” and finally from the hall she yelled, “What did you say? I could not hear you.” Why couldn’t she hear me? Because she was moving away from me instead of drawing closer as I was trying to speak to her. I believe she really wanted and needed my help. She just was not sure she was going to like my answer. Perhaps she thought I would ask her to miss recess to learn what she didn’t understand or that I would give her extra homework so she could practice the skill. She moved away just fast enough to ask for help but make a quick getaway in case she didn’t like my response.

How many times have I done this while God was trying to talk to me? More times than I would like to think about or admit. We ask for His guidance, His instruction, His peace, and much more; then we may wander away instead of waiting for a while to receive His message of direction, peace, comfort, etc. We may decide to move on and fix things ourselves, something or someone else may catch our attention and lead us to wander in another direction. We may not like what we are hearing so we move away so we cannot hear clearly, or at least pretend we could not hear Him.

Independence, distractions and disobedience will never be the correct answers. They will never instruct, comfort or guide us to the place where God desires. If we want to hear God clearly we need to stay close. We may even need to draw nearer to Him before He can deliver His message so that we are at a place where we will hear, understand and most importantly, be obedient. If you have not heard from God lately check your current location and distance from Him. He doesn’t move away – we do.

Daily Devotional – NEAR

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