IT IS SO GOOD TO BE NEAR GOD

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before You.

Yet I am always with You; You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Those who are far from You will perish; You destroy all who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all Your deeds.

Psalm 73:21-28

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

“But as for me, it is so good to be near God.”

It’s a testimony that every believer should have, a message we should be delivering loud and clear each and every day we’re blessed with.

For as we go through each day immersed in this world, we face a multitude of challenges and difficulties, trials and hardships, temptations and associated choices in response to them. As we seek to be the righteous people the Lord calls us to be, we discover it’s not easy. Like the psalmist who penned the great proclamation in opening line of this devotion, our flesh and hearts fail before God. As hard as we try to not fall into sin, so often we find ourselves doing just that, leaving our hearts grieving and our spirits embittered, leaving us feeling senseless and ignorant before the Lord.

Look back to Jesus’ parable of the prodigal or lost son (Luke 15:11-32). After asking for his share of his father’s inheritance before his father had even died, the son ran off and squandered what he had through wild living. The ways of the world in the country he left home for were just too enticing to avoid and before he knew it, the son was broke - and broken in the midst of a famine. To survive, he had to find work with a citizen who had him go into the fields to feed his pigs. It was in this place, at rock bottom, that the son came to his senses thinking, “Why did I do this? Even my father’s hired hands have food to eat and I am here starving,” And so he decides to go back to his father, confessing his sins against him with the hope that his father would receive him back and allow him to be a hired servant. And so the son returned and did what he said he would do, telling his father that he was no longer worthy to be counted as a son. The son expected condemnation. Instead, he found pardon and forgiveness, grace and love, mercy and compassion. For that lost son, and so many through the ages after Jesus spoke the parable into life, it was definitely so good to be near God.

That’s right, the father in the parable was none other than God the Father and the son could be any sinner who chooses to go away from the Father and chase after their own desires. Eventually, all who choose to do this will find themselves spiritually (and often physically and emotionally) empty, in need and knowing that they can find those needs met by returning to the Father. And just as father embraced and celebrated the return of his son, so too does God rejoice in every lost soul that returns to Him with a renewed commitment to be faithful and true to His will, every lost soul that comes back hungering and thirsting for righteousness like never before. For those who were lost and become found, they discover like the psalmist that God is the strength of their heart and their portion forever. They enter back into the counsel of God and await the day when they will be taken up in glory through their belief and trust in Jesus Christ, the Way and the Truth and the Life – the only way to the Father (John 14:6).

The alternative to not choosing to return is annihilation. Our scripture tells us as much. Those who decide to leave the Lord will be considered unfaithful and as they remain far off from Him, they will perish from God’s destruction. The Bible is clear. Choosing to stay away from God is a fatal decision. Just another reason why it is so good to be near God.

So where are you today? Have you, like the prodigal, elected to turn from the Lord to pursue your own way of life? If so, the good news is that you can turn around and head back home, joining those who never left, those who have known and continue to know that it is so good to be near God.

Know and trust that there’s a great party awaiting you. For the Father, the God it is so good to be near, will celebrate your return. For you were once lost, but in your return, you will be found and back home in your Father’s arms, a place where it’s so good to always be.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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