JOHN SHIRK – Today’s Q and A Segment explores the question “How can I draw near to God?”

The writer of Psalm 73:28 said, “As for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge.”

You can sense peace and security in that statement, and when we experience that kind of intimacy with God, we recognize that there is no better place to be.

But sometimes we might feel far away from God. This might happen because trouble surrounds us. We need help, yet we feel alone. Those are times to speak truth to ourselves. This is what the writer of Psalm 42 said in a similar situation. He said, “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”

At other times, we might feel far away from God because we have moved. In those cases, James 4:7 gives us this insight for moving closer to God. “Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God, and he will come near to you.”

Submission to God moves us closer to God where we can experience His peace once again in the Year of Exploration.

John Shirk

john@wjtl.com