One for the road

I ran out the door and took a verse with me-just one: "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you" (James 4:8). I wanted to see what would happen if instead of a head full of vague impressions from Scripture, I focused on just one thing. The verse was more or less arbitrarily chosen. I could have picked, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8), or, "What are you seeking?" (John 1:38)

What I found was interesting: Any given verse of Scripture takes you to all the rest of Scripture if you meditate and pray on it long enough. A plain verse of Scripture on a page is a "sleeper" waiting to be discovered by someone so that it can come alive and release the blessing that is brimming in it. Every verse is an unsuspected entrance into the heart and mind of God.

I did some praying. I said things like:

"Father, I am drawing near to you. I am setting aside this time to read and pray. I am meditating on your Word rather than allowing the racket of random nonsense in my head. If there is any other way of 'drawing near' to you, please let me know it, and I will do that too."

Later down the road:

"Father, I know that you are always near to everyone in some sense. You are our environment. But your Word says you are close to some than to others: You are near the lowly but the haughty you know from afar (Psalm 138:6). Please don't let there be in me a haughty spirit. Do whatever it takes to burn it off."

Even later down the road:

"Well, now that I think of it, Father, there are other ways you have given to 'draw near to you'-like learning lots of your Word (John 15:7), like obeying your commands (John 15:10). By these things you say we 'abide' in you, and 'abiding' is about as 'near' as a person can get. Help me to obey and cooperate with your Spirit's purification boot camp (2 Corinthians 7:1) so that I can be nearer to you."

If you pick a verse and chew on it all day, it will take you by the hand and show you its treasures, like lady wisdom in the book of Proverbs. As Francis Schaeffer said in his book True Spirituality:

"There are oceans of grace which wait. Orchard upon orchard waits, vineyard upon vineyard of fruit waits."

Come to God and He will come to you. For it will not be just you walking down the road pondering God's Word by yourself, it will be the Holy Spirit walking along with you, glad that you have requested His company.