Lord, be gracious to us;
    we long for you.
Be our strength every morning,
    our salvation in time of distress.

Isaiah 33:2

This verse continues in a theme we’ve been following recently, which is that God is our comfort, our shield, our strength. We will face hardships and trials in this life, there will be moments when we must deal with stress, fear, despair, and even hopelessness. Yet through it all, God will sustain us, will give us peace, and rest, and calm, and the strength to carry on.

Here, I’ve just taken one little verse out of a whole chapter that runs along these same lines in a military context. The enemies of God and of His people are all around, and they seem quite formidable (33:1), but God will provide His people with the strength to overcome their Foe (33:2) and go on to total victory (33:3 ff.).

And so it can be with us.

There is no doubt that God is nearby. There is no doubt that God is strong. There is no doubt that God is loving and merciful. The only part of this equation that is not abundantly clear is whether or not we will trust Him and rely upon Him.

When we close our doors to God, He normally respects our wishes and remains outside; He doesn’t seem to be in the habit of kicking our doors down, even though He could do it in an instant. Thus, we must recognize that being in a relationship with Him means that He will respect the choices we make, even though we might make a bad choice.

With that said, and considering that Scripture teaches this lesson over and over again, in various ways, it is incumbent upon us to make the choices that invite God into our lives and into our hearts, rather than the choice of benign neglect of the relationship that every day life on this earth tends to encourage for us. To put it another way, we need to be intentional in our relationship with God.

How often do we set aside time to be with Him, to speak with Him, to ask Him to guide us, to listen to hear His answer, to thank Him for His blessings, to give our lives over to His will? These kinds of things are intentional, while just assuming everything is fine, is not.

By now, you might have decided that I’m just crazy, and who knows? You might be right. Even so, I’m confident that when you consider it carefully, this is not only something to just think about, it’s also something to ask God about, and to ask Him to guide you to the place He has in mind for you, the place where His blessings are.