Blog

 No doubt you’ve all seen the commercials for a well known cell service company that uses the 5 service bars in the background throughout the commercial. I’m even more certain that you’ve experienced what it feels like to check for those bars in real life. You want to make a call, but you only have 1 bar of service. That 1 bar of service might get the call out, but you aren’t sure how dependable it will be for the duration of the call. The ideal situation is 5 bars.

This morning, I feel like God is asking, “Can you hear Me now?” In my walk with Him I’ve found that my “service” can be better at times than it is at others. (That doesn’t mean my communication with God is based on cell towers, by the way.) Simply put, there are times when I am closer to God, walking in better fellowship with Him, than at other times. I can hear Him better sometimes than I can at others.
Let’s get something straight from the get go: God never moves. If I find myself living in distance from Him, it’s not His fault. He’s done everything necessary from His side to accomplish closeness with me – the cross is proof of that. But we drift, and naturally that drifting is in a direction away from Him. Though I don’t believe we’ll ever drift out of a relationship with Him once we’re His, we can drift to a place of weak fellowship.
Relationships take work and effort; we all understand that I’m sure. Why would we think our relationship with God is any different? We have to exert some effort on our own part to maintain a closeness and intimate “in-tune-ness” with Him! If we don’t ever pray (talking to Him) and don’t ever read His Word (allowing Him to talk back to us), our relationship with God has no communication. Anyone on earth will tell you that a relationship with no communication is weak, and certainly isn’t close and growing!
My point this morning is very simple: in my own walk with God, I want to have 5 bars. I want my relationship with the God Who loved me enough to send His one and only Son to die for me to be intimately close. I want to be so close to Him that I can almost hear His heartbeat. And He gives us all the resources needed for that to happen – we just have to make the effort to apply them.
You’ll never have 5 bars with your cell phone unless you have strong towers and a decent phone. We’ll never have 5 bars with Him unless we communicate with Him and allow Him to communicate back to us. That’s not being judgmental – it’s accepting the obvious.  
Do you long for that closeness with Him? Let it begin today – right now!

That’s just a thought, and I welcome yours.
Until next time,
blake

Copyright © 2022 by Blake Martin @https://pastorblakeman.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/5-bars/ No part of this article may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from Lifeword.org.