God's Presence

Another echo this morning.  This time both meditation books mentioned God's presence.

The first one I read is Daily Guideposts.  You can get this online at www.dailyguideposts.com or even find it on Facebook.   The story today talked about a little boy playing with his toy people, acting out a scenario where they were in a snake-infested jungle and it was dark and they were scared, and then said loudly, "But God was with them!"  

It was a good little thought, that no matter what is going on, how dark and scary it might be, God is with us. Made me think about the book of Revelation in Chapter 20.  It talks about the terrible things going on in the world, and the picture you get is little encampments of God's people, huddled in little circles here and there...all the tumult around them.  And then the words of scripture say, "but God brought them out of it".  PERIOD.  We don't know exactly how or when, but HE WILL.  He always does.  

In my life, there have been times when I was in such darkness!  And God always brought me through.  And I learned much during these times...
the most important lesson was to TRUST in Him.  I always say that you can't manufacture trust in yourself.  It comes from the experience of going through one problem after another, and seeing that God never leaves our side, even through the worst things.  Then the TRUST happens because we have experienced this often enough to know that He will always be there.

In the dark moment, it's still easy for me to fall into the panic mode, but I need to remember that I am never alone.

So that leads me to the message shared in The Word Among Us today (wau.org)...it was about our need to PRACTICE remembering the presence of God all through each day!  The call was to be pro-active throughout the day, remembering God, seeing Him in every situation, every person's face, every piece of creation.

To PRACTICE by thanking Him for everything, and by reading some scripture daily.  I pray with a journal, and I always begin by writing down and thanking God for the blessings of the previous day.  It helps me to pay attention to the prayers that were answered and the good things that happened, because sometimes I tend to live through them and never say thank you, and just go on to to the next thing.

I think God might be asking us to set aside a real appointment to spend some time with Him every day.  If you don't already, try to find a time each day to do this.  You will be amazed and delighted, because He is so anxious for you to give Him time, He will really bless you because of it!  

And when He does, I hope you will share it with the rest of us!