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Ever been on a date with God?? It sounds weird, and growing up I probably would have felt really uncomfortable about the idea simply because it seems so googly and emotional, but now it doesn't seem so strange. All throughout scripture we see God wooing us and pursuing us in a very intense way. Just look at Hosea for example (which is where this all spurred from).

Hosea 2:14-15
Therefore, behold, I will ALLURE HER, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Vally of Achor (valley of trouble) a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her outh, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

We see here an account of the Lord alluring Israel, His chosen race... who kept wandering. God desires to captivate our heart. He desires to be the ONE love of our life. We are his BRIDE, the one He is JEALOUS for.

WITH THAT SAID... last night I went on a date with God. A friend had done this recently, and it had been something on my heart. I was convicted about my time with God and how I view it. For my entire life I've told people that my walk with God is a relationship, and while that has been partially true (because He has walked with me), I see how often I have NOT treated my walk with Him as a relationship. I've jumped through the Word like a hoop, trying to throw it in the day where I can. I talk to Him when I feel the need, I don't just spend time getting to KNOW Him because I DESIRE to know Him more. (just as I would desire to know somebody I was interested in)

Last night I spent a few hours with God. I didn't exactly know what it would look like- I just wanted BE with him in a focused time. I started off listening to some music, gearing my heart to worship (music always stirs my heart and helps me get in the right frame of mind... so personal.). I was hoping to see God's glory displayed through my study (which I did, just in a different way), but by the end of my time with Him, REST was the theme He gave me.

I spent a good bit of time in the book of Job, and to see Job go through physical and emotional hardship (and by hardship, I mean... HARDSHIP!) and yet (1:22) "In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong." We see Job then going through times of struggle- cursing his birth (ch 3), crying out to God "WHAT WAS MY PURPOSE FOR BIRTH!". We see times of dispair and we see a continuous battle in Job's heart, but then (13:15) we see Him exclaim "though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him."

Though Job was sent through trial and fire, He COULD trust in Christ. He could find rest in the fact that the person who God reproves is blessed. (5:17) We see a man who struggled through much pain, but found comfort in the character of God- that He is sovereign and trustworthy.

THEREFORE, though trials come and times of struggle and testing, I can REST in the fact that I have a Father who is pursuing me passionately, a Father who desires for me to rest in Him and TRUST Him, a Father who will never EVER leave me nor forsake me.

The Lord just encouraged my heart so much through this time, and then brought me to a really neat prayer from the Valley of Vision...

Love-Rest In God

My dear Lord,
I depend wholly upon thee, wean me from all other dependences. Thou are my all, thou dost overrule all and delight in ME!!! Thou art the foundation of goodness, how can I distrust thee?  how be anxious about what happens to me?
In the light of thy preciousness the world and all its enjoyments are infinitely poor:
I value the favour of men no more than pebbles.
Amid the blessings I received from thee may I never lose the heart of a stranger.
MAY I LOVE THEE, MY BENEFACTOR, IN ALL MY BENEFITS, NOT FORGETTING THAT MY GREATEST DANGER ARISES FROM MY ADVANTAGES. (This stood out to me over the rest of the prayer... wow. Times of advantage are so easily the times when we forget to love God and depend on Him. We forget too easily in the good times that God is still to be out portion.)
Produce in me self-despair that will make Jesus precious to me, delightful in all his offices, pleasurable in all his ways, and may I love his commands as well as his promises.
Help me to discern between true and false love, the one consisting of supreme love to thee, the other not, the former uniting thy glory and man's happiness that they may become one common interest, the latter disjointing and separating them both, seeking the latter with neglect of the former.
Teach me that genuine love is different in kind from that wrought by rational arguments or the motive of self-interest,
that such love is a pleasing passion affording joy to the mind where it is.
Grant me the GRACE to distinguish between the genuine and the fals, and to REST IN THEE who art all love.


To end my focused time with God, He brought me to this song... what a blessing to know that through the trials and fires of life we can find REST in Christ.

Thankful for God's constant love for me, for refreshment found in spending time with Him, and the fact that He in His GRACE even allows me to get to know Him better. 

Do you want to go on a date with God?