Meditation

Read James 4:1-10

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.—James 4:8 (NRSV)

When I was a child, I noticed that my parents and family members embraced, praised, and sought after God only on major holidays or when hard times arose. We would go to church a couple of times each month, but there was a clear line between church life and home life; we rarely mixed the two.

As I got older, this practice didn’t make sense to me. How could we treat the God who gives us life with such disregard that we come to him only on holidays or when we’re in some kind of trouble?

As I have grown in my faith, I have learned an important lesson. The more time we give to God, the closer to God we become. God is worthy of all our attention, not just on certain days. The book of James says, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” We don’t need to wait until something goes wrong to seek God’s presence. We can embrace God’s presence in the good times and bad. True peace comes to us when we commit to staying near to God and God’s way.

Prayer: Dear Lord, in a world of distractions, keep our eyes open to find the true peace and security that come from you. Amen.

Thought for the day: In both good and bad times I will draw close to God.

Zach Schaar, Ohio