Be Here

Hi everybody, it’s Pastor Dave at Word By Mail. Thank you for joining us for another “Encountering The Father” day in our Alone With God journal. And listen, I’m going to let Daisy do the details today, but here’s what I need to do. I just need to ask you to stop. Just stop for a second. Just stop. Daisy wants to talk to us about something super important that God really made clear to her and that she wrote in her journal. And it’s so critical for us to hear. So, Daisy’s going to be talking about being present with God – about just being with him and how critical that is. So, we can’t listen to that while we’re doing three other things, and thinking about other things, or you know . . .  like we have to stop down and just be with the Lord.

So, grab your Bible. Grab your Bible; if you have a journal, grab that. Turn your Bible to Genesis Chapter 2. (That’s right after the “Book of Contents” in your Bible. – classic preacher joke . . .) Genesis Chapter 2, verse 3, and please. This is so important, and it speaks to me so much because, myself, I struggle with this. I tell people in the ministry, especially when they’re burning out, I tell them, “You’re not spending enough time with the Lord. You’re not present with him. You’re not resting in him.” And so, get your heart ready, and Daisy, let us have it. Tell us what you have for us today.

Hey, y’all, it’s Daisy. Today, we are doing the “Encountering The Father” section of our Alone With God journal. This is my favorite part of the journal. It is the part where we look back at our week and we see where and how we encountered God in our devotional journaling. As always, if you don’t have our Alone With God journal but you would like to get one, I highly suggest it. It is the most transformative tool in walking with God and exploring your relationship with him on a deeper level. So, please get one. You can get one at wordbymail.com.

Today, I am going to walk you through something that I wrote in my journal this week.

Genesis 2:3 (NASB)
3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

So, last night I went out with a group of my friends. And while everyone was at the table and they were present and engaged, I was sitting there distracted by the next day’s to-do list. I just kept thinking about all the things that I had to get done. And a friend that was sitting next to me gently nudged me and she said, “Hey. Be here with us.”

I just thought, how many times is God calling us to just be with him? To rest in his presence and to put off making the to-do list and thinking about all of the worries of tomorrow. He even commands us to surrender our lives for twenty-four hours by giving us a specific day to do that. And he modeled it for us from the very start of creation. That’s how important that detail was.

And yet, so many of us use our Sabbath to make up for the work that we didn’t finish during the week or to get a head start. And when we don’t rest, we can’t be good disciples. We lose the natural flow of life that was specifically set up for us to recharge. And so, when we don’t take that time to unwind and recover, we send ourselves off into the world just be these tired zombies who are disgruntled and distracted. So, it’s time to make the Sabbath great again, y’all. It’s time to plan for a day of worship and to just connect to God through prayer and rest.

So, I want you to think about when was the last time you rested, and you reflected on the week. How would it impact your ability to disciple well if you took off one day a week to just celebrate the things that God has accomplished through you and the way that he’s provided for you? How would that small change totally transform your quality of life and the lives of those around you?

Let’s pray. Dear Lord, thank you. Thank you for using this devotional time to remind me to stop and to rest in you. Help me prioritize you and honor you through my obedience. Thank you for designing me the way that you designed me and for giving me scripture as an instruction manual on how to connect with you and to take care of myself as your treasured creation. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Oh, man, that is so good. That is so good!

You guys, God has given us his Living Word, and he’s given us Living Presence. And he’s told us we need to stop and spend a day – can you imagine spending a day with the Lord, just resting and meditating on him and worshiping him? Listen, in my lots of years, I’ve had some of those days, but not nearly enough. And so, even an hour, even a couple of hours. Guys, really, this is the real deal, man. We’ve got to stop down, and we’ve got to be present with the Lord. And so, Daisy, thank you for that reminder.

Guys, if you need us for any reason, you can text us at (877) 790-WORD. (877) 790-9673. Or you can get to us at wordbymail.com. We suggest the best way to get to us is to download the Word By Mail phone app from your app store. And there, not only do you get these journal guide devotions, but there are well over a thousand verse-by-verse Bible teaching messages on that app that God will use to speak to you. God will use them to teach you. You can use them in your personal study time or in small groups. You can watch them, listen to them, read them. Check it out. Grab the Word By Mail app from your app store for your phone or device.

Oh, and I forgot one thing. Listen, you can’t do this by yourself through the weekend. So, tomorrow, Saturday, grab that cup of coffee. Sit down and write in your journal, “What am I grateful for this week?” Just spend a minute with the Lord tomorrow morning on Saturday, just writing what you’re grateful for this week.

And then, we’ve got another message for you on Sunday. If you can’t get to church on Sunday, then let us be your church. You join us. The message this week is number six in the “Gospel of Mark” series. It’s called “Reaching Jesus By Force.” It’s a great message. You can watch it, listen to it, or read the message. And if you’re a Bible teacher or you want to use this in a small group, the teaching notes – my actual teaching notes – are also there at the link. That link is here in the description. “Reaching Jesus By Force.” You can get that message on the app, on the website, or on the Roku or Apple TV channels, so you can watch it on TV. So, do that. Make sure you really spend that full message time with the Lord on Sunday.

We will see you again on Monday. God bless your weekend. Bye-bye.