God Invites Us to Spend Time in His Presence

“Then God said to Moses, ‘Come up to the Lord.’” Exodus 24:1



God’s invitation to come is different than any other persons invitation we will ever receive. We may come up with all kinds of excuses to reject someone's invitation to do what they want, but when God invites us to come, this is categorically different. When God invites us to come, it is as if a king is inviting a pauper to dine at his fancy banquet table to enjoy the choicest of foods. Hello, it’s a no-brainer!

What an incredible opportunity this was for Moses! He had already experienced the burning bush. He had seen God bring plagues to the people of Egypt and deliver the Israelites. He had seen God bring water from a rock and manna from heaven. Here, God is inviting Moses to spend some one-on-one time in His presence. No one in the Old Testament had more meetings with the Lord than Moses.

We, as followers of Christ, because of His provision, can experience His manifest presence every single day. Jeremiah 29:13 says, “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” The invitation is always open for us to come, to experience His presence.

We read in Exodus 24:15 that when Moses went up to be with the Lord, the glory of God settled there. To the Israelites at the bottom of the mountain, the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire. It says that Moses stayed on that mountain for 40 days and nights. 

God wants to reveal Himself to you. God wants to say to you, as He said to Moses long ago, “Come up to the Lord.” God is saying, “Seek Me. Spend time with Me. Encounter Me. Linger here. Experience My manifest presence.”

Quenching Our Thirst

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters.” Isaiah 55:1

This particular invitation to come, in Isaiah 55:1, is to find complete satisfaction in Christ. Isaiah uses the idea of being spiritually thirsty and finding the replenishment for that thirst in Christ. Just as Gatorade prides themselves in quenching one’s thirst, only Christ can completely satisfy the dehydration of our souls.

The temptation we face in this is receiving our satisfaction from other sources. Those satisfied with the things of the world see no need for Christ, and therefore do not thirst. Places such as wealth, addictions, social media, other relationships, and the list goes on and on. These means will only lead to emptiness and ultimately an unsatisfied soul.

Jesus said in John 7:37, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

Come to Christ today. He invites you. He is the Living Water. His streams make glad the city of God. His waters bring salvation. His waters bring forgiveness. His waters bring healing. His waters bring deliverance. His waters bring love. His waters bring revival.

Come Repent

“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” Isaiah 1:18

In this Scripture, Isaiah is addressing the nation of Israel, and in the same way, he declares this to all sinners throughout time and humanity. This is a call to repentance, to come clean. It is an invitation to be honest about our sinfulness, to repent, and to allow Christ to bring forgiveness and healing.

Isaiah begins this chapter by calling out the Israelites for their sinful ways. He says in verse 4 that they were a “sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the Lord.” As horrible as that sounds, the reality is that we have all done this, we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. We have all done things that separate us from a holy God. We have committed sin that the prophet, in verse 18, likens to the colors scarlet and crimson. This, most likely, is referring to murder and the blood that was on the hands of the Israelites. You have probably never committed murder, but we have all been stained by sin.

The good news is, we don’t need to live there. Christ died to set us free once and for all. Jesus poured out His blood that we might be set free. As the Holy Spirit moves in our lives, as we repent of our sins, Christ then takes our horrible sin and forgives and purifies us and makes us clean. Isaiah says, “we shall be as white as snow and like wool.”

I used to live in Minnesota, and one thing I loved about living there was getting to enjoy the snow. Some of you can look out the window right now and see snow on the ground. In Minnesota, we certainly had a lot of snow, and because of the cold temperatures, it stayed around much longer than anyone would want, but looking outside at the ground covered with white snow was always a beautiful sight.

In this verse, God tells us that through the transaction of our repentance and His forgiveness, Christ makes us as pure and as white as that freshly fallen snow. What a beautiful picture of God's forgiveness! Though our sins be like scarlet and crimson, God says, I will get rid of all that, I will take it away, and I will wash you white as snow.

Take time now to welcome the Holy Spirit and His conviction. Then, repent of all known sin and receive the forgiveness of Christ. Praise God for being our Redeemer and Forgiver of sins!