Return to Me

I know I've read Amos at least 13 times because I've had this Daily Bible 13 years.  I have never seen "still you wouldn't return to Me" until yesterday.  When I realized he was repeating the phrase, I began to underline it.  It's repeated five times.  Five.

I am going to start a class on Ephesians in January...but the focus is not on Ephesians.  It's on God speaking through Ephesians to direct your life on a daily basis...learning to listen for His voice and obeying what He says.  It is viewing the bible as His word to you...the verses you read every day being orchestrated that day for you.

Haven't you ever read a verse and it was so applicable to what was going on in your life that DAY that it gave you goose bumps? You looked up expecting to see some angelic apparition sitting on the sofa across from you...smiling.

I think every day He has a word.  I could never imagine Him saying, "You did so good yesterday, you're on your own today ... but I'll catch up with you tomorrow."

I don't think so.

The point is to stay in the Word and ...to listen.

I do great in the morning.  Blessed blessed blessed blessed blessed.  Then the rest of my day unfolds and by night time .... even though I thank Him sporadically during the day, and I pray when things come to mind, it's never the same as in the mornings.

So I've begun to jot down phrases, ideas, words from what I read that morning, on a tiny piece of paper or on my phone and when I walk, go over them, think about them, reflect, meditate.  Yesterday I wrote down (because it was repeated five times and I'm smart, I got it) "return to Me."

The morning was great.  The afternoon cycled down hill...slowly, not a train wreck crash but by night fall I was in a funk.  "Return to Me" remained a morning word.

This morning I looked at yesterday's reading because low and behold, it was repeated today...."return to Me."    Plus, "I stand at the door and knock.  If you open the door and ask Me in, I will come in and fellowship with you."  And..."Your word I have hidden in my heart, so I will not sin against You."

And people say God doesn't speak.

He teaches us a truth and then puts us in life.   "Get it?  Nope?  Ok, let's give it another shot today."

Here's the truth.  Every day, He speaks through His word...to us individually wherever we are.  Yesterday when I knew the spiral was starting, I needed to return to Him.  Because....that's where my joy is!    I return, open the door wide, ask Him in.  Sing a song, quote a verse, listen for His voice.

Even if a spiral is NOT starting, I need to return to Him often during the day, checking in as often as I would with a maps app if I were on a journey.

And we're all on a journey.  And He wrote our maps app.  And He's the voice in that app, directing us.

"Return to Me."

"You make known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand."    Psalm 16:11