Sept 27 -- Malachi 3:6-7

For I the Lord do not change ...

Ever since the days of your ancestors

you have turned aside from my statutes ...

Return to me, and I will return to you ...

Malachi 3:6-7

On the way out of church yesterday, someone came up to me excited. They were essentially saying that they'd returned to more regular devotions and were seeing God's fingerprints all over their lives.

They said, "Pastor, I remember you saying something about God saying 'draw close to me and I will draw close to you.'" I said, "Yes, that's James 4:8 -- 'Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.'"

"But it's something deeper," I said. "God never moves! It's just that when we draw near to him, we open our eyes (again) and see how close he's been all along!" Indeed, it's the old statement, "If you're feeling far from God ... guess who moved!"

Today's verses are at virtually the very end of the Old Testament. Just before talking about the coming of "4:5 the great and terrible day of the Lord," God-through-Malachi says, to paraphrase, "I, the Lord, don't change. I, the Lord, don't move. But you do! Y'all constantly turn aside. So move in a different direction. Return to me. And while I've never gone anywhere, you'll look up and notice me and feel like I've returned to you."

Oh ... and one last thing ... the final phrase in Malachi 3:6-7 is a good question that people ask all the time. God says, "But [in talking how to turn, return, and feel my presence] you say, "How shall we return?"

You ever asked that? Do you know how God answers? He talks about stewardship! He calls us to tithe. After pondering why we "8 rob God," he says, "10 Bring the full tithe into ... my house ... [and] see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing."

If you want to experience more of God, maybe you need to pray more ... maybe you need to study your Bible more ... maybe you need to ______ more (and you know what that is). Or maybe ... maybe you need to give more because there's nothing that says God I trust in you, like giving beyond our means ... and then turning around and learning that we can never out-give God.

In Christ's Love,

a guy who wants

his blessings to overflow