Draw Near

The last few weeks or months I have been thinking lots about this thing of "drawing near to God". The more I think,  and go through life, I believe more and more that we were created to praise. That it is God's desire to have fellowship with us, to pour out His Spirit on His people, to heal the broken hearted, to bring restoration, to heal the sick to set free the captive. That is infact why Jesus died:

mSurely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
nsmitten by God, and afflicted.
5 
oBut he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
pand with his wounds we are healed.
6 
qAll we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
rand the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

The thing is that the curtain has been torn. Jesus died so that we can have fellowship with the Father. When we pray, we don't beg God as if He is not willing. He is willing. He is so willing, He sent his son, but we must not harden our hearts, we must not approach Him with unbelief(like the blood is not enough to wash away our sins) believing He is an angry Father who only sees our sins. He dealt with our sins once and for always and that was when He turned His face away from Jesus, therefore He no longer turns away from us - "upon Him as the chastisement that brought us peace". Sin has been dealt with once and forever. He sees us as perfect because of Jesus.

I believe that we are to welcome Jesus with Praise. In Psalm 33:1b it says "Praise befits the upright". and in Psalm 22:3 it says that "God inhabits the praises of His people." We are upright only because of Jesus and for that very reason we have an eternal reason to praise, our destiny. When we come to God we do not come on our own basis, we praise Him for who he is and what He has done. Psalm 100 says  

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving 

   and his courts with praise; 
   give thanks to him and praise his name. 
⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; 
   his faithfulness continues through all generations.

I believe to often we approach God trying to "Not be fake" but then we are actually coming on our own merit. We are approaching Him as if it's on the basis of our own works when actually its not about us, not about our merit. We come praising because He is worthy. We are called to "enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise".

In james 4:8 it say "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you". In Psalm 145:18 it says "the Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth." In Jer 29:12 ¹² Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity." 

God is true to His Word. He will draw near to us if we draw near to Him in truth. If we are truly seeking Him, we will wait on Him. We will wait till He comes, till He does what He says He will do. He is not man that He should lie. He does not just entice. But are we willing to praise no matter what life throws at us, are we willing to not get offended at God and not harden our hearts?