What a mighty God we serve, excellent is Your Name. Father, we are grateful unto You for all Loving Kindness and protection in the lives of Your children. We cannot thank You enough, for Your peace that passes all understanding that You endowed on us. Be thou glorified for ever and ever, Amen!
Indeed beloved, it is a privilege to come before the King of glory. Father, we are not ungrateful for all that You have done for us. The death of Christ on the cross was for the redemption of our sin, so that we can gain access to the holies of Holies. We thank You above all, for the confident we have in You that when we call; You answer us (Ps 17:6). Thank God, we can call You, Abba Father.
The Lord answers the petition of a man with clean hands and a pure heart, for the prayers of a sinner is an abomination before Him, therefore we encourage you to purge yourself of every sins, to ascend the throne of the Most High God through prayer, praises and supplications:
Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in His holy place?
The one who has clean hands and a pure heart.—Psalm 24:3–4a
God has rigid requirements for those who want to enjoy intimate fellowship with Him. There is no easy access to God for those with unclean hands or an impure heart. It is an affront to holy God to assume that we can indulge in our sin and blatantly disobey His word, then brazenly enter the holy of holies. In Old Testament times, one’s hands represented one’s activities. Clean hands symbolized pure activities. Priests washed their hands before serving in the temple to symbolize that only those who were cleansed could worship holy God.
There are levels of intimacy with God. The moment you become a Christian you begin a relationship with the Lord. However, if you persist in your sin, sin will separate you from God and keep you from enjoying close fellowship with Him. If you follow only God’s basic commandments but resist every time God gives you specific, personal directions, you will never fully experience the depths of God’s Person. If, however, you are like the psalmist and understand the holiness of God, you will adjust your life to His standards and respond to His prompting so that you may have deeper fellowship with Him.
The closer you get to holy God, the more obvious even your smallest sins become. The more you know of God’s character, the more you will realize the need to wash your hands and purify your heart before you can get close to Him.
Are you willing for almighty God to make you absolutely pure before Him so that you can enjoy the maximum possible relationship with Him?
Without holiness no one can see God. He is a holy God, therefore whoever that must have access to Him must be pure, holy and without blemish.
Beloved, have you ever heard that our God is a Jealous God? Do you also know that the same Merciful God is also a Jealous God? He cannot share you with anything, neither will He share His glory with anybody. Be careful how you walk lest you fall into His wrath.
For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.—Deuteronomy 4:24
Our God is a consuming fire. He is satisfied only when His love totally consumes us. We usually think of a jealous person as someone resentful and suspicious, but the Lord’s jealousy on our behalf is something that should be precious to us! He has the complete right to our lives. He gave us life, and He wants to protect us from anything that could harm us. That is why He has commanded His children to worship no other gods, allowing nothing to distract us from His consuming love.
The Lord opposes anything that hinders our relationship with Him (Deut. 6:15). He knows the danger of other gods, how they will lure us away, deceive us, and leave us empty. He will tolerate nothing that takes precedence over our love for Him. Our faithfulness to God assures us of the abundant life He wants to give us. If we reject Him, He will pursue us until we return to Him.
We should not resent the fact that God wants to guard our relationship with Him. It should bring us comfort. Our relationship with God should be our top priority. It should dictate how we spend our time, our money, and our energy. If certain people or our possessions separate us from God, we must reexamine our hearts and give our devotion first to Him, as He commands. God wants each of us to love Him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength (Deut 6:5; Mark 12:30).
Our love for God should extend to every corner of our lives. God loved us so much that He gave us His own Son. Let us respond by giving Him our highest devotion in return.
Let us not loiter in the place of prayer but hasten to the place of worship and invite God into your heart and situation. Our God is a living God and He will surely prove Himself to you.
Remain blessed in the Lord.
