Fri.-Sabbath, 5/5-7/17 Devotion

Wahoo—it is almost Sunday! We get to go to church again! Here is Thomas Watson, from his, "The Happiness of Drawing Near to God" book. . . .

"A gracious soul cannot but draw near to God, because of the intimate rela-tionship between God and him. God is a Father, Isa. 64:8: ‘Doubtless You are our father.’ Does not the child delight to draw near to his father? There is no father like God for love; His children shall never want; He has land enough to give to all his heirs. God loves his children so entirely, that He will never dis-inherit them. How then can believers keep away from their Father? They do not know how to be long out of His presence.

"A gracious soul cannot but draw near to God, because he has found so much sweetness and contentment in it. While he has drawn near to God, he has drawn virtue from Him. Never did Jonathan taste so much sweetness when he dipped his rod in the honey-comb, (1 Sam. 14:27)—as the soul finds in communion with God. In drawing near to God a Christian's heart has been warmed and melted; the Lord has kindled His sacrifice from Heaven. In his approaches to God, he has had the blessings of the Spirit, the incomes of God's love, the previews of glory: God has given him a ‘bunch of grapes’ by the way; he has ‘tasted that the Lord is good.' No wonder then he is so fre-quent in his approaches to the divine majesty; he has found the comfort of drawing near to God."