- Psalm 137:5-6
"If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget her skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy."
- Basically, the psalmist says "If I don't put Jerusalem first, let my life fall apart." In the OT, Jerusalem was exalted and honored because it signified the dwelling place and the presence of God. Today, that dwelling place is within us. God's presence lives in
us. And just as the psalmist realized, if our chief joy is for anything but the presence of God, our lives will fall apart. In my own life, when I desire anything more than I desire God's presence, I immediately lose all my joy and strength, and even little things start to overwhelm me. - I love what Sean Smith said at SALT in January: "What we value we will recognize. Therefore if we value the presence of God, we will learn to recognize it." This is so true, and so practical. If I value a friend, I will learn to recognize their face, their voice, their personality. In the same way, if I truly value the presence of God, I will learn to recognize it. I will learn to recognize His voice.
- Joshua 20 tells the story of the cities of refuge being established. Basically, if someone accidentally killed someone else, and a friend of the victim sought to kill them for it, that person could flee to one of those cities, and the pursuer couldn't harm them. This really mirrors God's presence. When we stumble and fall into sin, the enemy will jump at the opportunity to attack us. But instead of running away, we must flee to the presence of God. It is only in His protective hands that we find safety. It is the one place that Satan cannot enter and harm us.
Another thing that struck me about this was that, if the person fled to the city, they had to admit what they did. They couldn't just run there and then pretend everything was fine, and still be protected. They had to say "Hey, I messed up; help me!" In the same way, we can't hide our sin and remain in God's presence. To find protection, we have to humble ourselves and admit "Lord, I really messed up, and I need Your forgiveness and protection."
One day as I was praying for an upcoming Chi Alpha meeting, I started reading in Joel where God says "In the last days I will pour out my Spirit . . . " Then for some odd reason, my mind wandered back to this passage in Isaiah 29. And it was definitely the Holy Spirit, 'cause the two passages are not related in the least. :) Anyway, in Isaiah 29 it talks about a man being thirsty, and dreaming that he is drinking, but when he wakes up, his thirst is not quenched. God said, "Andrea, My presence is not like that. My presence is real. When I pour out my Spirit and my presence, you will be filled. You won't walk away saying 'I still feel empty; like it was just a dream.' My presence is real."
The more time you spend in God's presence, the more of His heart He will give you, and the more sensitive you'll become to His leading. And the more of His heart He gives us, the more like Him we become, and the world notices that.
2 Corinthians 2:15
"For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing."
We have to remember that we are Christ's aroma to the world, and we do carry the presence of God wherever we go. In my life, there have always been those people where it's like "I just want to be around you, because it's like being in God's presence," so evident was His hand in their lives. And we are all that fragrance to the world. We have to remember that. As my friend Nate says, "My classmates may never read Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, but they read the gospel according to Nate every single day." You may be the only Jesus some will ever see; so what do they see when they look at you?
(This is actually based off of a Bible study I led a couple of weeks ago. Just some food for thought.)
No comments:
Post a Comment