Because You Are God’s Companion
Go to a quiet place where you can be undisturbed. Let all else fall away: there is much to do — to enjoy, receive and appreciate — as we remember how beautifully desperate we are to encounter God’s love.
When you are comfortable and settled (you might want to play soft, instrumental music in the background if this helps you relax and focus), start with this simple and profound question: What is on your heart right now? Do you know? Pause and consider your answer. Perhaps spend a few minutes contemplating and writing your thoughts in your journal.
Encountering God involves coming home, remembering and returning, awakening and refreshing. Your heart knows the One who gave you breath, who formed your inward and outward parts. It is, deep down, what — and who — you know best.
Engaging your heart with God’s heart is the most familiar place, your heart’s true response to what gives it life. You are not alive without God: Your lungs may expand with air, and your organs may beat, pulse, move and do their work, but you are more than a body. As an heir of God, created from dust and God’s breath and adored by Jesus, your spirit, given life by God, needs companionship with him above anything else. More than food, more than air, more than ambition and outcomes and even beauty.
Today, let’s lay down — surrender and give back to God — what is never ours to hold. Let us have nothing distract us from being filled with God’s love right now.
Lord, when I encounter your love, I am filled with life. There is nowhere else I can gain this life. Yet, I confess I do seek life in so many ways and places that are separate from you. (Name them now. Be specific. Be honest.)
What idol — something you can find yourself loving, thinking about and spending time with more than God — feels most difficult to give up? Is it something that brings you comfort somehow? Is it a way of coping to ease pain or reduce fear? What attitudes keep you from being God’s companion throughout the day? What pulls you away from him?
Spend time, journal open, asking God what he wants you to know about your heart…
Lord, show me what I love most. Show me if there is anything I love more than you.
Help me to turn towards you entirely and hear your voice now.
It is incredible how Scripture provides multiple examples of how God walks with his people. He calls us his beloved (Zephaniah 3:17), and he loves to be with us. Let your heart lead you deeply into the following verses for a few minutes.
Read each of them a few times, and then enjoy God’s presence as he leads you deeper into his living Word.
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
Lord, please show me a picture of me walking with you. Please show me what this looks like in my life right now.
“I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.” (Leviticus 26:12,13).
What did this look like when you walked with the Israelites out of Egypt? You freed them and walked with them. You have freed me, and you walk with me. Help me appreciate this freedom — and your closeness — all that you give to me.
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8).
Father, take me to the Garden. As I close my eyes and give you my imagination, help me experience your intimacy. Help me walk side by side with you.
Spend ten minutes journaling what God showed you as you contemplated the verses. Some ideas to consider:
What does being a companion of God mean to you?
What does it look like to walk with him in your relationships?
Your work?
Your home?
Your problems?
Your worries?
Your joy?
Your dreams?
Your pain?
Continue to enjoy God’s company, giving him praise and worship.
Amen.