“Draw near to God and he will draw near to you...” -James 4:8

As I looked out the window this morning, I noticed we had some guests that stopped by for a visit on our pond. In search of something that apparently they could not find on the surface of the water, several geese were in diving mode with their bottoms sticking straight up in the air.

They were going deeper.

As I watched this comical scene play out, it occurred to me that this is what has to happen sometimes in order to find something good – you’ve got to go deeper. Not that you can never find anything good without having to deep dive for it – sometimes you can – but it seems that the good stuff is usually down below. It takes a little effort to get to it.

This applies to our relationship with God as well. To grow in grace, we have to go bottoms up and every now and then and dive into deeper fellowship with Jesus. We have to set our distractions aside for a moment, open our Bibles, and visit with God as if He were real and present (because He is).

Jesus challenged his disciples to go deeper in prayer, to press in a little harder. To help, He gave them some incentive for doing so. He said in Matthew 7:7-8,

“Ask [keep on asking], and it will be given to you; seek [keep on seeking], and you will find; knock [keep on knocking], and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”

In other words, our prayer lives should look kind of like those geese going bottoms up. Rather than settling for a quick surface exchange with God, or a “one and done” on Sunday, we take it a little further than usual, we go a little deeper, and stay a little longer.

The circumstances we have in front of us right now present us with a great opportunity to go deeper. As a change of lifestyle has been momentarily imposed upon us, we are all trying to figure out what to do with the time that we would otherwise be spending on sports, going to the theatre, gym, restaurants, etc. With all the cancellations and program changes, we now have space to do things a little differently, at least for the foreseeable future.

One of the things I’m asking God to help me do is to go deeper in my relationship with Him. How about you?

Bottoms up!

It’s a new day with God. Run with it.