come away.

One of the sweetest things we can do as believers is come away to a deserted place and worship Jesus. It's when we spend quality time with Him, praising Him, adoring Him, thanking Him for all He has done in our lives. The Lord has truly shown me that prayer and a precious quiet time with Him every single day is what is most delighted in His sight.

I fall so short at this. Especially with all the distractions in this life, as I have had family staying with us for quite a while...it's easy to wake up in the morning and in your mind think of the list of ridiculous amounts of things you have to do that day..then your thoughts and desire to spend time with the Lord vanish. What happened? The Lord delights in YOU. He so desires that you come away and praise Him.

The Bible says that the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. How often do we honestly pray? And I'm not saying laying down in bed thanking Him for your day, which is fine...but how often do we set aside time to truly pray? More than just 5 minutes?

As the Lord had been pressing this issue upon my heart lately, He gave me Psalm 84:5, "Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage."

In the dictionary, the word pilgrimage means: "A journey, a long one, made to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion."

Wow. Just think about that. The Lord loves when our hearts are set on devoting our time unto Him. We are called every single day to be pursuing pilgrimage. We are called to come away to a secret and precious place and devote our all unto Him... daily!

Boy...do I fall short of this sometimes. It should be our hearts cry...our hearts desire that we WANT to come away and spend time with Him. My hearts prayer is that I don't just 'want' to pray, but I would need to pray in order to survive before my day continues. Prayer is such an important part of our Christian lives. As we continue in our relationships with the Lord, it's how we communicate, how we hear from Him, it's how mountains can be moved. Prayer is a POWERFUL thing. No wonder people go around saying, 'my prayers are never answered'.

Maybe it's because you don't spend enough time thanking the Lord for His goodness, and devoting yourself to a prayer life with Him. This has been a rude awakening to me too.

I've gone over this before, but it's such a burden upon my heart for me and for everyone else who is walking with the Lord. We are commanded to come away to a deserted place each and every day, to spend time with our Savior. He is so worthy and deserving. Our time that we have been given is not so that we can waste it on idle things, on things of the world...but our time is to be spent worshiping the Lord, glorifying Him and furthering His kingdom. With these, He shall be satisfied.

How often do you come away and spend time with Him? When was the last time you just stopped everything and communicated with Him in a precious way? It isn't just what we should want or need, it's what He commands of us.

"One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple." Psalm 27:4