The Overwhelming Importance of the Believer being continuously in God’s Presence!

19 Oct 2024 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Psalm 145:18.       The Lord is nigh (near) unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.

Oh, how wonderful it is to wake up to a nice sunshiny and warm lazy-day Saturday! Just the thought of not having to get up early and rush off to work is oh so comforting. And being able to simply loll around in bed or on the couch or wherever you choose, just makes it all the nicer. And I did enjoy some of that lazy-day Saturday bliss, but unfortunately, for some of us the bliss cannot last all day, as we have God’s work to do. So here we are writing the Bit. (smile) And our first activity is to offer up our Lazy-Day Saturday Prayer with all sincerity and truth. Please pray with me: 

‘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 by the time we’ve finished the prayer, we can feel our spirits lightened and calmed through God’s awesome presence, because that is one prayer the Lord always rushes to answer. There is nothing that warms the cockles of His heart more than us sincerely seeking His presence and greater intimacy with Him. And doing that is so important, that the Bible contains many scriptures which encourage us to seek the Lord’s presence. 

So let’s look at a few of them today nuh, starting with this wonderful wake up call from Isaiah, where he advises his people Israel thus: ‘Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.’ (Is. 55:6-7) 

Now friends, that’s exactly what so many of us in this ungodly and sinful world need to do; return to God, seek Him sincerely so that He can pardon us, and make our lives so much better than they currently are. Meanwhile in Psalm 16 – God Preserves His People, Bruh David poignantly writes: ‘Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.’ (Ps. 16:11) 

And there’s no denying that my fellow believers! In God’s awesome presence there’s abundant joy, and that joy rises up, simply because we know that He will take care of us. As the author of Hebrews so assuredly tells us: ‘Let your conversation (conduct) be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he (God) hath said I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.’ (Heb. 13:5) And we know that our faithful God keeps all His promises. So there’s no need to worry when we’re in His presence. 

There’s also this interesting prayer from Moses for God’s presence to go with him and the children of Israel on their journey to the Promised Land. He offered up to God: ‘Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people. And he (God) said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he (Moses) said unto Him (God), If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.’ (Ex. 33:13-15) 

Oh friends, yuh see how important God’s presence was to Moses, that if He wasn’t going to be with them along the way, he’d prefer to stay right where he was. And that’s exactly how important God’s presence ought to be in each believer’s life! If He’s not with us, then we’re not moving from where ever we are! 

Then there are these encouraging words from the sons of Korah in Psalm 46: God is our Refuge and Strength. ‘Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.’ (Ps. 46:10-11)  And until we truly believe that my brethren, we will never be able to fully enter into the Lord’s presence, we will always feel as though we’re on the outside looking in at a joyful scene. 

And we all know these words of assurance from Jeremiah to the Israelites re their captivity in Babylon. After seventy years the Lord would cause them to return to their homeland ‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil (calamity), to give you an expected end (a future and a hope). Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto (listen to) you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye search for me with all your heart.’ (Jer. 29:11-13) 

That’s it friends, our God only has good thoughts toward us, but we have to seek Him sincerely and be obedient to His will, if we desire to get into the fullness of His presence. And that is totally borne out by these words of Bruh David from Psalm 145 – God’s Unsearchable Greatness. ‘The Lord is nigh (near) unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear (reverence) him: he will also hear their cry, and will save them.’ (Ps. 145:18-19) 

Oh my fellow saints, it could not be more explicit than that…except possibly with these words of Jesus. ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things (that you need) shall be added unto you.’ (Matt. 6:33) That’s another faithful promise. But we’ll close with this marvellous and soul strengthening promise from Jesus at the end of the Great Commission. He left the disciples, and consequently all future believers, with these simple but oh so true words: ‘and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.’ (Matt. 28:20b) 

Now if that doesn’t hit you right in the heart, then I don’t know what will! But it’s ever so important that we believe that Jesus is always with is, through the Holy Spirit, and is doing His best to lead us along the straight and narrow way that ends in eternal life at His side. Much LOVE!

… if we’re not in God’s presence…then we’re missing the whole purpose of life…

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Today’s Scrip-Bit 4 March 2015 Psalm 27:11‏‏

04 Mar 2015 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Psalm 27:11.    Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain (smooth) path, because of mine enemies. 

Aye mih Scrip-Bit family, it’s another beautiful day on God’s great earth! And all His children declared a loud and thankful ‘Praise the Lord!’

Yes Friends, this is the day we call Wednesday, the middle of the workweek. And once we’ve gotten there, there’s no turning back, just plowing straight ahead with the providence of God!

It’s obvious that I woke up late. (smile) I went to bed late too. But unfortunately, these days the ole bod doesn’t have the stamina and energy to go to bed late and get up early, so please learn to put up with the varying times that the Bit arrives. (smile) Once I’m alive and kicking, it will get there, I just can’t promise that it will be very early.

Anyway, for whatever reason the Lord has, I woke up with my right knee aching this morning, so I’m sort of limping around until it decides to play right. And that’s one of the things I detest about my aches and pains; their inconsistency. I’ll be fine for a while, then out of the blue, for no apparent reason, various parts of my anatomy will start to act up.

But yuh know what my brethren? Our God is so wonderful that He also caused me to wake up singing the chorus to the reggae song, ‘I am blessed.’ Yes Friends, ‘I, I am blessed! I want to tell the world, that I, I am blessed!’

Yes family, if you have a roof over your head, clothes on your back, food on your table, have a decent job to go to, and can also read this, then you are indeed blessed. So please sing the chorus with me. ‘I, I am blessed! I want to tell the world that I, I am blessed!’

One more time, more enthusiastically and gratefully than the first. ‘We, we are blessed! Let’s tell the world that we, we are blessed!’ And again: ‘We, we are blessed! Let’s tell the world that God’s children are blessed!’

Oh my people, we are so blessed that we don’t truly recognize it and take it all for granted. But at least three quarters of the world, consumed by starvation, poverty, joblessness, homelessness and health issues, would gladly give their eye-teeth (smile) for what we have.

Yet we walk around with smug, complacent attitudes, complaining about small, petty inconveniences. It’s high time we stop doing that Friends, and learn to truly appreciate our blessedness, especially in this Lenten season, where we are supposed to be introspective, looking inside to see what areas of our souls and lives we can clean up.

Thankfulness for the great gifts we have and the freedom to worship Almighty God without fear of persecution should be ranked at the top of our list. But we have to work hard and stay faithful if we want to keep those wonderful gifts in these very trying times.

We just can’t assume that we’ll always have them, because there are enemies in our society who are just dying, frothing at the mouth to take them away.

So while we can bask somewhat in the glow of our blessings, we just can’t sit around, as we have been doing, and allow this evil and ungodly world to take away, to dismantle our blessedness. We have to fight to keep what we have my brethren!

That means we have to stand up steadfast and strong; let our voices be loudly heard all over the land, about the wrongs that are being done. And more importantly, as the body of Christ, we need to take some serious action to stop the bloodletting and deterioration of our society.

Our freedoms won’t handed to us on a silver platter. They were won by fighting fiercely and tenaciously for them, and we’ll only keep them the same way.

Enough of me now though, time for our Bit: ‘Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain (smooth) path, because of mine enemies.’

Oh Friends those are words and sentiments we can pray at the start of each and every day! They are that important because they take us to our heavenly Father to ask for His strength and guidance in our rough pilgrim’s journey. And that’s the only way we can handle our earthly sojourn with the strength and confidence we need.

If we don’t know the Father’s way, then we’ll get all confused and lost and fall for any nonsense that mankind proposes. And believe me, there is plenty nonsense in our world today just looking to grab us and keep us in bondage, both literally and figuratively. But when we look to the Father first and foremost, they will not be able to get us in their evil clutches.

And Friends, asking the Father for guidance is nothing new. Listen to Moses when the Lord appointed Him to lead the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt. ‘Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.’ (Ex.33:13)

A very reasonable request my people. And the Lord’s reply was: ‘My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.’ (Ex.33:14)

Oh my brethren, when we ask God for guidance and His presence in our affairs, He NEVER declines our requests! But after asking for it, we still need to have the faith that He’s going to intervene and make it all right. For without true faith, we can’t come before Him with our petitions.

‘But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.’ (Heb.11:6) So Friends, it’s not just simply asking, but also believing that our requests will be heard and worked upon by our omnipotent and magnanimous God.

And I think I’ll stop there for today, don’t want to give us too much to ponder on all at once, for I know our short attention spans. (smile) So my fellow believers in Christ, please, let’s truly consider the words we’ve heard today nuh, and let them take deep and serious roots in our hearts.

Let’s also water and nourish them so that they will grow and help us stay on the straight and narrow path that leads directly to our most gracious and LOVING heavenly Father, for that is truly wisdom at its zenith! Much LOVE!

…God’s children need to stop simply talking faith…and rather take action…act zealously and faithfully on God’s Word…