Come Near

Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Most of us will struggle to establish a daily appointment with God until something happens in our lives to convince us that there is nothing else we can do to find peace, help, hope, answers, or courage than to come to God in prayer. Unfortunately, prayer becomes a last resort, rather than our initial response.

I’ve spent over two decades teaching people to pray, and frankly, I’ve heard every imaginable excuse why people don’t pray…but what people most often fail to understand is what they are missing when they neglect to pray: power to overcome, comfort to sustain loss, courage to stand against temptation, faith that is invincible, and the ability to perceive the supernatural. These are the very real benefits of spending time with God.

Prayer will no longer be a passionless duty or a monotonous discipline if you get a glimpse of the moment-by-moment power and intervention of God available to you. When you hear God calling you to come near to Him, you must expect that He wants to give you more peace, power, and rest – look for it, ask for it, don’t leave your time without it.

Rosalind Rinker, one of InterVarsity’s first staff workers and author of Prayer: Conversing with God, called prayer “a dialogue between two persons who love each other.”

I can just hear Jesus saying, “Come to Me. I know your needs. I truly love you. Do not be afraid. Come, rest in Me.”

Exert from "Sacred Obsession Devotional" by Becky Tirabassi