P is for Presence

1 How lovely is your dwelling place,
LORD Almighty!
2 My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.
3 Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young—
a place near your altar,
LORD Almighty, my King and my God.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you.
Psalm 84: 1-4, NIV

“There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the LORD your God has blessed you.” Deuteronomy 12:7. NIV

We are nothing without God. Whatever it is that we believe we are in need of is only a poor substitute for what our soul is really crying out for and that is the presence of God.

No job, car, person, circumstance or bank account can ever fill this void. People constantly spend their lives ever striving and chasing for something they may not even realize they need. Achievement after achievement and victory after victory can never satisfy like the presence of the Lord.

God’s presence is not something you can pull out like a genie in a bottle. Like any relationship it must be cultivated if it is to truly grow and develop. This requires making time for God and calling on Him not just in bad times but in times of favor, harvest and thanksgiving.

Spending time in silence, with no distractions, cell phones, internet and Wii fi and being still, expecting to hear from Him and praying for His presence invites Him into your life. Make God first priority and not the last on your list of things to do at the end of the day. Seek Him first and He will draw near unto you. God is ever willing to be with you with in both the large and small situations of life if you will only invite Him in. He is willing to walk with you in the garden as well as carry you through the desert. But you must first invite Him into all aspects of your life if you are to truly satisfy the yearning you are desperate for.

Pray for more of God’s presence so you can enjoy more of Him. More of God in your life will place you at a point where you are abiding and not constantly striving. You instead float down the stream instead of merely treading water and barely holding your head up against the current. God’s presence is the assurance we all need to know that we can get through whatever circumstances seem daunting. His presence gives us discernment and wisdom and places us on our correct path and does not leave us to the mercy of our own understanding and subject to our own devices.

Invite God into all of your life. Don’t delegate Him to just church worship and meal times. You are really desperate for so much more and He is willing to be that much more to you and then some if only you’d allow Him full and total access to every area of your life.

Exodus 33:14-15 details how God was willing to go with Moses and Moses was smart enough to know that there was no way he could free God’s people from Egypt without the presence of the Lord upon him. Should we not follow the example of Moses in our own daily struggles and challenges? God was eager to be with Moses and He is eager to be with each of us.

The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.”

Even in the verse prior to the ones above Moses asks God “to teach me your ways so that I may know you and continue to find favor with you.”  You can only learn from someone if you are in his presence in some form or another. Moses wanted to learn from God and find His favor so he could fulfill his destiny. We can afford to do no less so that we too, may live out God’s best plans for us.

P is for the Presence of God.

Heavenly Father I ask your continued presence in my life, that I would truly seek you and be satisfied by your presence above all else. Whatever distractions pull me away from your presence I pray that you remove so that I may have more of You and fulfill the abundant life You would have for me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.