Draw Near To God

   2 CHRONICLES 7:16-20


For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. ¹⁷ As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, ¹⁸ then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.’
¹⁹ “But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, ²⁰ then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
²¹ “And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and this house?’ ²² Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them.’”


We are vessels for God, to be molded and used for His glory.  He asks that we sanctify ourselves through His word, ordinances, statutes and commands.  God says, it is all about Him, and we make it all about us.  He wants to establish Himself in us, and make love abound from our very being.  But we must want to be used by God, directed by God to do His will.  Peace is what God wants for us and His world.  Holiness and pureness are to be our interactions with one another each day.  Eve bit the apple and unleashed an army of demons into our world that need to be stopped.  In Matthew 11:12, it speaks of what God and our world are up against, so we must adhere to the commands of God to bring about peace for ourselves and our world.  (Matthew 11:12) "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force."   We now must become diligent in working out our salvation, to destroy the devils works for our Lord.  We are a holy people.  God ordained us for righteous and pure works.  Our lands are blessed by God to prosper us.  However, if we won't look at the bigger picture, understand it can't be all about clothes, jewelry, and houses, we'll never be able to enjoy the peace that surpasses all understanding, because we keep pushing God and His forces away.  Don't become a byword and a proverb among the people - Draw Near To God.


(James 4:7-10)
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your  hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your  joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.


Blessings God as we all draw near to you in holiness,


Vincent Young, Christian Analyst.