Devotionals

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“Come,” says my heart, “seek God’s face”; your face, Lord, do I seek!
Psalm 27:8

What a beautiful verse! Our heart and soul thirsts for God. He is our home. Our soul is yearning for God, saying to us, come to me and you will see God. How do we connect with our soul and heart?

I believe the first step is wanting to listen to our heart. We must listen to the yearning of our soul to connect with God. We should pay attention to our desire to be home with God and connect with our Creator. This can be scary for some of us, because, in order to do that, we must strip away our outer layer of the roles we play each day. We must strip our heart spiritually naked, as I mentioned before.
Revealing ourselves like this can take practice over time. When we first start, we may feel awkward. Throughout the day, people have expectations of us, and we place even more demands on ourselves. We need to see evidence that a job is completed and done well. That is a requirement of our culture. However, revealing our heart to God is something totally different. All He asks is that we be present with Him. That’s all.

Some people come to God each day slowly, by focusing on a scripture passage, a formal prayer, or a mantra. Some may focus on a picture of Jesus to help them center their thoughts. Others use music. Each of these is a wonderful place to start. Then, I suggest putting away whatever has helped you focus, and just be with God. Use no agenda. Clear your mind of all thoughts. Allow yourself to go deeper and deeper.
Does this mean that we aren’t supposed to talk to God about our everyday problems? Of course not. It simply means that we can sometimes pray to encourage this deeper relationship and connection with God. If we look deep inside, we will realize that this is what our heart is yearning for.

Do not hide your face from me; do not repel your servant in anger.
Psalm 27:9a

We may occasionally feel like God is angry at us when we don’t feel connected to Him and feel His presence. This is called the dark night of the soul. This period is necessary for us to grow in our faith. Is God hiding from us? Is He angry at us at during these times? I don’t believe He is. Many who have deep faith have experienced this phase in their relationship with God.

Instead, new growth is occurring in us, and, in order for the new seed within us to grow, something old must die. Whether that is an image of Jesus, a deep belief we have had, or just our relationship with Jesus, something is changing. We can find this quite upsetting. Again, I suggest a spiritual advisor for this difficult period in your relationships with Christ. We must remember that God is not abandoning us, and He is not angry at us. In fact, He loves us so much that He wants a deeper relationship with us. It can be unsettling and can seem like we are going through a dark tunnel without any idea what is on the other side.

Yet, we can have hope knowing that this is natural and can show us that we are growing in our faith. We are on the right path, even thought we might not know where the path is going. What we do know is that we are beloved daughters and sons, and we will come out of this with a greater awareness of God.

It is important during this time to stay with our regular routine of prayer, church attendance, and ministry. This may be a good time to go on a retreat. However, for some, the opposite is true; they must remain busy, yet still follow their regular prayer routine. Do whatever it takes to stay faithful to your desire to follow Jesus.

You are my help; do not cast me off; do not forsake me, God my savior!
Psalm 27:9

We sometimes look to other things or other people when we are having difficult times. We may put all our hope in one person and look up to them so much that we think they never will hurt us, leave us, or make a mistake. We put all of our trust in them. At some point, we realize that they, too, are human and, like all humans, they will hurt us, make mistakes, or may leave us. We will feel confused and disappointed, and we may wonder if we should ever trust again.
It is certainly appropriate to ask for help from someone when you need it. You should have a certain amount of trust in a friend or a professional who may be helping you. In fact, it is a healthy and necessary part of life—we need each other. The problem comes when we give our complete devotion and trust to people. We cannot believe that everything they say is exactly what we should follow: we must think before we act on any suggestion we receive. It is not wise to blindly follow, without requesting guidance from our all-knowing God.

As small children, we trusted our parents in that way. A safe haven of trust is a necessary part of child development. At some point, however, we realize that our parents sometimes make mistakes. Hence, we develop our own thoughts and ideas, even though we continue to listen to our parents’ words of advice.

It can be unsettling and confusing to those who are unsure of themselves and want to completely trust someone, simply because they don’t believe in their own ability to think things through. If their friend or professional counselor is helpful, they will help them see that they have the internal ability to decide things for themselves. Each of us needs to learn that we will, at times, make mistakes.

God is the only One to whom we can totally trust, devote and commit our lives with complete confidence. We do not have to worry about God leaving us. Even when we die, God will be there. In fact, when we die, we will be even closer to Him. Even though we don’t always feel His presence, we know He is there. This knowledge is comforting.

However, God wants us to use the free will he has given us. He will not stop us from doing something that will hurt us or isn’t healthy for us. That is our choice; our free will. God does not “cast us off,” instead, sometimes we cast Him off, if only for a few minutes. I believe the writer of this Psalm is asking God to please help us not forget Him, and to show us how we are supposed to love others by showing the love He has for us. God will never forsake us, even though we may feel that way, at times. It is then that we most need to turn to Him.

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