Day 7: High and holy place
Come near to God and He will come near to you... (James 4:8).
Sovereign, Omnipotent God, the psalmist wondered, "What is mankind that You are mindful of them, human beings that You care for them?" (Psalm 8:4). For although You are immortal and... live in unapproachable light... although You are God whom no one has seen or can see (1 Timothy 6:16), You call us, and invite us, and reach down to us from Your lofty holiness:
For this is what the high and exalted One says— He who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite (Isaiah 57:15).
Long ago You promised a people struggling with the grim realities of captivity: "You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity" (Jeremiah 29:13-14). You make the same promise today to a world in the grip of hopelessness and despair, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you..." (James 4:8 - NKJV).
And You have opened the way for us to come to Your high and holy place— to the mountain of the Lord — with clean hands and a pure heart (Psalm 24:3-4). You saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to [Your] own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom [You] poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3:5-6). You simply ask us to accept Your gift: Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded (James 4:8).
Father, help us to draw near, in all our woundedness and brokenness, our hurts and our scars. For often in fear and confusion, we hide in the darkness, as the first humans did (Genesis 3:10), and we snarl at the hand stretched out to heal us. But the Lord Jesus has promised, "Whoever comes to Me I will never drive away" (John 6:37).
Help us to come, with contrite hearts and lowliness of spirit, clinging to Your promise to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite (Isaiah 57:15). May we be found among the generation of those who seek Your face (Psalm 24:6).
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