Make it about me? What kind of direction is that? That seems like counterintuitive advice from a Christian blogger, especially in our “All About Me” culture. But, I stand behind those words and say again, “make it about you”.

Now, allow me to clarify what the “it” is in my statement. The “it” is God’s Word and making it all about you, is personalizing it as you read it. What does that mean, you ask? Well, it means put yourself in the scriptures. I don’t mean to replace Noah’s name with your name and make it you who built the ark, but rather take a scripture with a plural pronoun and make it a singular pronoun. Did I lose ya with the formal grammar? Let me give you an example.

Psalm 46:1 says this:

God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.

Swap out the “our” for “my” and read it again:

God is my refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.

Did that change how it felt? Swapping out those pronouns can bring a scripture right to your world. When we say/read “our” when we are alone it is easy for our mind to dismiss that promise for us as individuals. Reading “my” takes ownership of that promise and in the verse such as above can be a reminder that God is YOUR personal refuge and strength. You can do this with many verses of scripture to help you proclaim those promises over your life.

Much of the Psalms are already written in that format because many of them are direct praises or prayers that were written by King David during his life. The Psalms often “hit us where it counts” because we can identify with the writer because of his writing in first person and our reading it that way. It becomes an instant prayer to God and what better way to pray to our King than with His own wise words?

For another example, here is a powerful prayer from Ephesians 1:17-21 – (personalized by me – words swapped shown in italics)

I keep asking that the God of my Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give me the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that I may know him better. I pray that the eyes of my heart may be enlightened in order that I may know the hope to which he has called me, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for me who believes. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

OK, so you understand the how of “make it about you” now you need to know the why, right? The reason is to bring yourself closer to God and allow Him to draw closer to you. God is not some benign old man sitting in a throne allowing His angels to do the connecting and reporting on what is happening with us. He is Present and with each and every one of us at every single moment of every single day. Yes, He has angels that assist in our care but He is one that has, or desires to have, the deep, meaningful relationship with us.  He tells us in His Word:

James 4:8a Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Notice the order of action in that verse. We draw near to God first, then He draws near to us. Now this doesn’t mean He is not ALWAYS with us, it just means that God is a gentleman that won’t force Himself on us. He gave us free will and He desires, more than anything, to draw near to us but He desires us to desire Him. That’s a lot of desiring but it is truth.

I have seen it work out this way in my life. I draw near to God, even by just a few inches, and suddenly He is tangibly in my space. Once I make the move to draw near to Him, He instantly draws the Great Distance between this realm and His realm to be near to me.  We just need to make the first – inchworm move – towards His heart and prepare for a deluge of overwhelming love to come crashing down on us.

Well, you have the How of “make it about you” and now you have the Why of it, as well. That leads us back to another How, as in “How Do I draw near to God?” The great answer is there are no rules to How. You can read God’s Word, you can pray, you can attend Bible Studies, you can listen to worship music OR you can simply sit in a quiet place and listen for His still small voice. The catch of it is, you MUST quiet your spirit to be open to His Spirit. While God will definitely SHOUT sometimes, the majority of His speaking to us is via that still small voice. For a little more description of what I mean, check out this post on how to sit down with God.

You were created by God who made you exactly how He intended, draw near to Him and revel with Him in the creation that is you. Allow Him to bless you with His presence, you won’t regret it, I promise you that!

Blessings and Love,

Pamela