This Cling ministry started with a prayer twenty years ago as I studied Deuteronomy. First I came across Deuteronomy 10:20—“You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name”—and that word cling jumped off the page.

I saw it again in Deuteronomy 13:4—“You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.” Once again, cling beckoned like a neon sign. Every other verb in that verse made perfect sense. Of course God would want us to have a reverential fear of Him, keep His commandments, listen to His voice, and serve Him. We can do all of those things from a distance. We can even follow from a distance, as long as we’re headed the same direction. But cling to Him? That was personal. In His face. Did God really want us that close?

Moved by those verses, I began to pray, Lord, help me to cling to You. And for more than twenty years, through ups and downs, trials and storms, the Lord has been faithful to teach me. Not that I’m an “expert clinger”—I don’t always get it right. But I know this—I need to cling to Him. I’m desperate to cling to Him. Every aspect of life on every level is affected by whether I’m clinging to Him.

I never thought cling would be anything more than a personal prayer and journey between me and God. But in 2015, when my agent suggested that I write a nonfiction book, I took it to the Lord, asking if I should write one and if so, what it would be about. One word flooded my heart—cling. I didn’t know how I could extend that one word into an entire book. But by God’s grace, Cling: Choosing a Lifestyle of Intimacy with God was published by Our Daily Bread Ministries in 2017.

Since then, through Bible studies, conferences, a web series, music, and more, the Lord has made clear that CLING is an entire ministry. He’s now moved me to take the step of launching Cling Ministries as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation. It is my prayer that God will use this organization to widely proclaim this important truth of our need to walk intimately with Him.

-Kim Cash Tate