Psalm 16:11b. in thy presence is fullness of joy;
So we’ve finally come to our lazy-day Saturday, where we can loll around as much as we want with no activities to accomplish within a certain time period. And isn’t that a good feeling? It certainly is. But before we get started, I want to point out a couple of incidents that happened in the recent Halloween celebrations. First of all, two people were killed and six injured in a celebration in Orlando, Florida, while a razor blade was found in a chocolate bar in Cochrane, Ontario.
And I’m sure those are not all the negative incidents that occurred because of the foolish celebration, but just those that reached the news media. What’s it going to take for us to cut out the pagan nonsense eh? What kind of evil society are we living in, if we can consciously put a razor blade in a chocolate bar that a child is going to eat. And I guess it won’t be banished until someone from the family of a high government official or one of the money men that profit from it suffers some negative repercussions from the unwise celebration.
And now that I’ve had my say, (smile) let’s move on to the more pleasant aspects of the day, like offering up our Lazy-Day Saturday Prayer. As one sincere voice: ‘Lord, I want to be with You now. Please slow my thoughts and quiet my soul. Let my muscles relax, my breath deepen. You are here with me – Your peace and LOVE are present. I marvel to think You can’t be contained, that Your LOVE both surrounds and fills me. Thank You for this tenderness, Lord. I praise You for Your unceasing nearness. Increase my awareness of You today, that I may know You all the more. Amen!’
And that’s a perfect prayer for a lazy-day Saturday, where we have the time to foment greater intimacy with our wonderful God. To simply bask in His awesome presence and listen to whatever He has to share with us. It’s a time to just run amok, as it were, in the awesome glory and presence of Almighty God! (smile) Yes friends, being in God’s presence is as good as it gets! And we ought to enjoy it while we have the opportunity.
And I don’t mean we should use it as a time to complain and ask for stuff, but simply to enjoy being in God’s presence, like when you’re with a friend, whose company you enjoy, and you can just sit quietly and be happy, or do simple, joyful things together. The important aspect of it being the togetherness. That’s how we ought to spend this lazy time with our God…just being together with Him, and enjoying the joy that His presence brings.
And there are numerous scriptures that talk about being in the Lord‘s presence and how good and joyful it can be. Like this verse from Psalm 16 – God Preserves His People. Bruh David ends it thus: ‘Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.’ (Ps. 16:11)
Meanwhile the Sons of Korah put it like this in Psalm 84 – Rejoicing in God’s Tabernacle: ‘For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.’ (Ps. 84:10-12)
Then there’s Psalm 139, one of the grandest psalms in the psalter, where Bruh David recounts the omnipresence of our magnificent God. Now listen to these verses that speak of that presence. ‘Whither shall (can) I go from thy spirit? or whither shall (can) I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell. Behold thou art there.
If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. yea, the darkness hideth not from thee (is not dark to thee); but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.’ (Ps. 139:7-12)
Wow! Our God is everywhere; be it day or night, be it in heaven or in hell; in the sea or on the earth! We simply cannot hide from His presence, although many of us still foolishly try to do it. And every time I read those verses or hear them read, I always remember the first time I heard them being acted out many years ago by Dr. Robert H Schuller in an ‘Hour of Power Sermon’ in the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. His actions and the words have stuck with me down through the years.
And we have this faithful promise from God found in Hebrews: ‘Let your conversation (conduct) be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake tee.’ (Heb. 13:5) Then James exhorts us: ‘Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh (near) to God, and he will draw nigh (near) to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded… Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.’ (James 4:7-8, 10)
Yes my fellow believers, God’s greatest desire is for His human creation to draw near to Him, not be far away, but the truth is that in these trying times we need to avidly seek His presence, not wait for Him to come to us. Anyway, He’s already done that through the earthly work of Jesus; now it’s our turn to sincerely seek Him. And we’ll close with this marvellous promise from Jesus: ‘…and, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.’ (Matt. 28:20b)
Now we couldn’t want for a more faithful promise than that, especially since it’s been kept by the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, to remind us of all that Jesus is, and to guide us to where He desires us to go. So let’s spend some time today and just consider the awesome presence of God in our lives nuh. We can never go wrong doing that! Much LOVE!
…in God’s presence…there’s always joy…
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