I don’t know about you, but when life gets hard, stressful, or even just busy, I’ve found I have a tendency to get consumed with whatever it is in front of me that I need to tackle. The deadline for a big work project coming up? I’m gonna constantly think about it. Gotta have a hard conversation with someone important to me? You know I’m gonna go over what I’m planning to say 100 times and STILL feel like I don’t know what I’ll say. The thing is, when I start to focus on things in this way and get consumed by stress, I tend to push other priorities in my life out of the way: things like going to bed on time, eating healthy food, or spending time with community.
However, I’ve found there’s a priority that we as Christians can at times unknowingly push away when the going gets tough, and frankly it’s the one priority that should never be pushed away: intimacy and time with God.
Somehow we get it into our heads that closeness with God is something that’s more like an elective activity rather than an essential one, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Relationship with our Creator isn’t one of the items on our priority list. It’s more like the air you’re breathing while you write the list. We are designed for relationship with Him to be the foundation on which we approach our lives, not just an activity we do when we have time.
The tricky thing is that as we start to prioritize and focus on things without Him, we can fall prey to the deception that He starts to distance Himself from us, and that in order to get back into closeness with Him again, we need to make it up to Him and somehow earn it.
My friends, do not listen to this lie. Our God is not full of bitterness or resentment for us when we stray from Him, but rather is full of radical grace and outstanding mercy. He is EAGER to welcome you back and brush off any loneliness or shame you may have. All you need to do is turn around and welcome Him back into His rightful place in your life.
Hebrews 12 exhorts this truth beautifully: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 12:15-16, ESV).
I pray you and God are able to have an intimacy like never before this holiday season: that He will be your constant foundation, no matter what heights or depths face you.