just be with Him.

God just wants you to be with Him.

He doesn’t want you to do anything. He just wants you to be with Him.

Years ago, a friend said these same words to me after praying for me, and I didn’t know what to say. I knew that. I grew up in church. God loves me. He wants to be with me. He sent Jesus to die for me so that we wouldn’t be separated, so that I could be with Him. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I didn’t really understand why this was being highlighted to me, or what my friend was really trying to say by emphasizing the word BE.

God wants me to BE with Him. Okay. Was I not already doing that?

It turns out, I kind of wasn’t.

It took months of circling around this statement for me to finally realize maybe I didn’t really know how to be with God.

I knew how to worship Him. I knew how to praise Him. I knew how to be grateful. I knew how to pray. I knew how to ask Him for what I wanted. I knew how to read His word. I knew how to hear His voice.

I did not, however, know how to sit still in His presence without doing any of that.

Maybe I felt like I needed to be doing something, otherwise nothing would happen or it wouldn’t count. Maybe I thought God would only come close if I was talking to Him or something. Maybe I thought that’s what it meant to be with God. Whatever the case, I started being more intentional about simply sitting in His presence, without an agenda, and just focusing on Him and who He is. Full stop.

I’ve noticed it’s in these moments when I feel the most filled with hope and peace and joy. It’s not that praise or gratitude or prayer don’t help me feel those things – they absolutely do, it’s just that sometimes simply being with God and receiving what He has reminds me that I don’t have to earn it. That’s just who He is.

I’ve been coming back to this a lot recently. I need this reminder the most on an average day, I think. Like a Thursday, when everything feels like the middle. The middle of the week. The middle of disappointment. The middle of waiting. The middle of what feels like nothing is happening.

When I feel like I should be doing something better or more, I remember that nothing is required of me at all. I get to just be with Him, and it’s not until I slow down and quiet my mind that I remember – His presence really is enough.

I don’t know what kind of week you’re having or what you’ve been talking to God about recently, but maybe the best thing you can do for yourself today is to stop – asking, praying, praising, doing – and just be with Him.

The power of God is in you, even on a Thursday.