RUMORS OR CONVERSATIONS
You are not an afterthought of heaven; you are the focus. Not sure if you connect with or reject that statement, but it's the most amazing truth communicated over and over again throughout the Bible. Read just one example:
““This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.””—Jeremiah 31:33-34 NIV
The original intent of our creator was to be in close daily communication. All of history until the cross was about restoring the distance that sin created. Jesus came to change our interaction with God from a distant formality to a personal relationship. God always desires us to be on the path that leads to him.
God is always moving us from distant rumors to personal conversations.
Don't quickly read past that incredible phrase in the verses above when God says, "I will be their God, and they will be my people." Allow the depth and immensity of that statement to sink in!He is committed to you and I; committed to bringing us closer to himself and to restoring the relationship we have with him as Father. When we see him as loving father it changes the game in our approach of him.
Hebrews 4:16 calls us to approach God with confidence; why? because Jesus had now destroyed the distance between God and people. When you approach God, let this verse be your model: don't approach God assuming he's mad, frustrated, or uninterested; spend time with God knowing that the prayer you are praying is the very thing he hoped for while hanging on that cross. Don't be distant when Jesus paid so much to bring us close!
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.—Hebrews 4:16
