The presence of God brings joy
We begin our new mini-series today called ‘The Presence of God’ and each day we will think about a different aspect of this.
We will cover the following 5 aspects (i-v);
i. Why should we want to experience the presence of God?,
ii and iii. Practicing the presence of God parts 1 and 2,
iv. Blessings in the presence of God
In our final part we will discover
v. How we can bless others when we are in the presence of God.
How much time each day do you spend in God’s presence? Or is it how much time do we spend being aware that God is present. Sometimes we get so busy with our lives, that whenever we do remember God, we feel guilty that in a sense we have been away.
But is it possible to lead a life of being continually aware of being in the presence of God?
Sometimes we can be so aware of God when we pray, when we praise and worship, when we study our bibles and when the Holy Spirit is moving at our meetings. But what about the rest of the time which for most of us is the largest part of our day.
I once read a small book called ‘The practice of the presence of God’ written three hundred years ago by a monk called Brother Lawrence.
In this book it is described how Brother Lawrence was able to cultivate a continual awareness of the Lord being present in his life thus bringing great joy.
But you might say that is fine for him being a full time monk with nothing else to do; no work to go to, no ironing or chores. But in actual fact, he was the cook for the monastery and he believed it was easier to be aware of God’s presence when doing his kitchen chores than at any other time!
So the challenge for us is to invite God into our lives, into our chores, our busy times and quiet times.
Why should we make the effort to be in God's presence?
Psalm 16:11 Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Now anyone who has experienced joy, always wants to receive more, the joy of the Lord is our strength, although this scripture certainly applies to us when we go to heaven, it also applies to us now for our eternal life began the day we were born again.
We also know from experience that wonderful feeling of joy when God reveals His presence at the church meeting or anywhere else.
Only God himself can bring full joy to our hearts, only He can satisfy our souls.
Jesus Christ is the bread of life that alone can satisfy our spiritual hunger.
Our destiny in Christ is to be continually with Him forever but I believe we can begin to do that starting now.
Amen
Prayer.
In Part 2 we are going to consider how it might be possible to increase our awareness of the presence of the Lord in our daily lives.