"Then I said, “O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands,..." Nehemiah 1:5 (NLT)
In one sentence Nehemiah's words hold important keys - keys that some either don't recognize and understand, or that some tend to race past to their own detriment if their aim is to walk closely with God.
The first I would point out is Nehemiah's observance and address of God as He is - enthroning God in his heart and mind first, as he comes, desiring to speak to The King Of Kings, The Lord Of Lords, and The True And Living God. Preparing our hearts and minds by remembering the true nature and position of our God as well as our own lower position before Him, correctly sets the table for the conversation that we wish to have by putting it in the proper perspective. God is all-deserving of our praise and I believe that by addressing Him properly, we draw the ear of our loving Father to hear the entreaties of His child, rather than our just rubbing the bottle - calling God to come out and hear another list of our wishes as if He were some kind of genie. I believe that if our aim is to have close relationship with our God, it's important that the foundation of that relationship be built on the right perspective and that we be willing to invest in it continually as we walk close together down the path of life with our Creator God And Father.
Another key, one so critically important to our realizing the fruit of the vast wealth of promises that we find in scripture - the promises that some people are so quick to want to hold onto and that others might use to draw attention to their piety...
"...God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands..."
Here we go with what I believe again, but I do believe that when we see God making a covenant, contract, ... "promise", in scripture, that it's very important to consider who He's making it to. Just because a person reads one of God's promises, doesn't mean that it automatically applies to them. Take for example the famous and oft repeated promise found in 2 Chronicles 7:14 for example...
"Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land." (NLT)
It's clear in this passage who the promise is made to, which is important, but there's a key within the key here which is easy to overlook because it's so small and yet it's huge! It's the little word "if" looming large over the promise. If you know me, then you know that I like to point out that for every promise that I've found that God's made in scripture, there's a prerequisite - a qualifier. It's likely something contained along with the promise offered that we must do, a countenance of heart and spirit that we must have, or a person that we must be, for example, in order for us to receive the fruit of what our God's generously offering. I believe that many people become disillusioned by expecting things from God that they didn't receive because they didn't do what was required in order to receive what they expected. There's a term for that ... I won't use it here.
There are other keys to realizing the fruit of relationship with our God everywhere in scripture...
"In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered." 1 Peter 3:7 (NLT)
...but if we're not willing to search them out in an earnest investment "in a relationship" with our God in order to find how please and obey Him, we're not only robbing ourselves of what's been offered, but likely our families and those around us as well. We're offered amazing wealth in God's currency, but we have to be willing to search for and to apply the keys that give us access to what He's so graciously offered. In our search for relationship with God and those keys, we hopefully will discover that the greatest treasure we could possibly find is Our God and Father Himself in greater measure.
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