Loving God is obeying Him (1Jn 5:3), and obeying Him includes cleaving to Him (De 10:20), clinging to Him, sticking to Him like glue; we can’t love God as He ought to be loved … from a distance.
If we ever find ourselves checking in with God, that means we first checked out. If we ever return to Him, then at some point we must have left Him. If we’re ever unaware of God, oblivious of Him, ignoring Him, then we’re out of focus, distracted, consumed with the temporal, cleaving to dust.
What if one of the four beasts surrounding God’s throne, whose sole purpose is to glorify God Almighty by continuously repeating a single line, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come,” (Re 4:8), got distracted for a minute, and checked out to focus on something else?
We’ve no lesser purpose here and now. Sure, we can’t physically see Jehovah (1Ti 6:16), but He’s as much or more with us than with the heavenly hosts; He lives in and through us! (Ep 4:6) Constantly envision Him standing beside you, hovering around you, observing, engaging … He’s closer than that, closer than our breath. He’s never distracted, never loses focus, never forgets.
We’re not to hope to eventually live this way, looking to abide in Him (1Jn 2:28) in some far away day, but to be deliberate and intentional about it now, moment by moment, cultivating a continuous awareness of God’s companionship in our lives, and purposing to cleave to Him. (Ac 11:23)
If there’s anything we cannot boldly do in the presence of God, then let’s not do it. If there’s anything we cannot freely say before Him, then let’s not say it. If there’s any place we cannot joyfully go with Him, then let’s not go there. We live and move in Him (Ac 17:28); let’s do all in His name, every moment of every day.
In Christ, we can focus on the task at hand without ignoring Him; we can engage in prayerful conversation while we’re rejoicing in Him (Php 4:4); we can live in unbroken delight in His immediate and overwhelming presence as we serve Him here in this life. (Ps 27:4)
This is our inheritance in Christ; He lived this way (Jn 8:29), so He can live this way in us, as we access His life by faith. His command in itself proclaims His promise of aid in all who seek Him. (He 11:6) It’s a loss to live a single second of this life in any other way.
Oh! To be ever mindful of the living God! Continually loving Him, feeding in His majesty!
Tim,
I wonder how this relates to the admonition that
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Makes me wonder that to some extent to the degree I do not cleave to my wife, it can hinder me in cleaving to YHVH
Your thoughts?
I definitely see a relationship here, but not a strict one, and maybe not the way you are saying. I’d say that King David cleaved to God but not to his wife.
Rather than thinking that failure to cleave to our wives hinders our ability to cleave to God, I’d say that cleaving to God enables us to cleave to our wives, and ultimately to do all else He has called us to do, and be as we should.