St. Giles Evangelical Presbyterian Church

Devotional:November 4-10, by Bob Poole, Elder

In my previous devotional, I wrote about the importance of coming before the Lord in prayer and listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather hear God speak to me, than hear me speak to Him. Clearly, this should be one of the primary reasons that we even fast and pray; to deny ourselves of some of the ordinary things of life that we may experience the extraordinary found only in His presence.

God desires to speak to us, though He will often do so in many different ways. When we are in a place of needing to know His will concerning a matter, most of us would say that we would love to hear that still, small voice imparting instruction or direction to our situation. But we may just as easily hear through the illumination of His written word. God may choose to reveal His truth in a number of ways – through dreams, a sermon, a word of knowledge, circumstances, or even by way of an inner “nudge” that we often refer to as His leading. As a child of God, you have experienced Him speaking to you in many different ways. (There’s no secret formula.) But the purpose of His speaking is always the same. He wants to communicate with us because He desires to be in relationship with us.

This is sometimes hard for us to grasp… this idea that the God of the universe wants to have an individual relationship with me. We know that He loves us… John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” But we often see God as so holy and righteous, that He is unapproachable. We need to be reminded again of the truth that the God who gave His only Son to save the world made it much more personal than that. He gave the very best of himself to save YOU, and to save ME. This past Sunday, Scott Wilcher, a well-loved son of this church, brought the morning message. In his sermon, Scott illustrated how Christ didn’t come simply as a bridge over the chasm of sin to bring us to God, but that God actually entered into and became sin for us through the person of Jesus, in order to redeem us to Himself. He didn’t just make a way… He became the way. And He didn’t just do it for everyone else; He did it for me.

Today, as you draw near to Him with praise and thanksgiving, remember that the Father loves you and desires to have fellowship with you… So much so, that He has held nothing back in order to make His love personal… just for you.