Living in His Presence

"But you, Israel, are my servant. 
   You're Jacob, my first choice, 
   descendants of my good friend Abraham.
I pulled you in from all over the world, 
   called you in from every dark corner of the earth,
Telling you, 'You're my servant, serving on my side. 
   I've picked you. I haven't dropped you.'
Don't panic. I'm with you. 
   There's no need to fear for I'm your God.
I'll give you strength. I'll help you. 
   I'll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you." Isaiah 41:8-10 The Message Bible


Yesterday evening, I found myself sitting at the Ash Wednesday service thinking and dwelling on the darkness that exists within me and the world that I inhabit. This particular evening was more dark than usual as my worries and fears were traveling half way around the world, where a loved one is serving at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. The fear and worry continue to be overwhelming as the news reports continue to show more violence as hatred surges with the intent to kill, torture,capture, and injure those serving there that we hold so dear. 


The Isaiah verses above remind me of two important things that I must dwell on as the days progress. 1. God's promise that He is with those that have put their trust in Him. 2. God will provide strength to those who turn to Him. I have to trust in these promises that God will lead His people with strength regardless of what lies ahead. However, the verses fall short of the assurance that everyone will be safe here on earth. The verses let us know that we are safe in His presence. His presence is not necessarily this earth, but in our relationship that we share with Him. Parts of me don't want to think this way as I can't imagine the pain for those grieving for loved ones that have already lost their lives in this uprising, but other parts of me find great comfort in knowing the beauty of this understanding. 


My first Lenten devotion yesterday helped me gain focus to start the journey. The question asked about how I am following Jesus. The first thought might be to list the things we are doing to follow Jesus, but I somehow felt a nudge that my heart and mind had a few different thoughts about the question. I started thinking about the most important thing to me is to follow Jesus in His presence. As my husband and I discussed these thoughts, I elaborated a little more. I used this analogy to explain my answer. In some ways, I think of Jesus as a person training me for a job. He follows me around all day to see what I'm doing, to give helpful advice, to critique my work, and to just be an eye that I stay on task. I need Him to succeed in a demanding workplace. So, my answer to how I am following Jesus is that I am trying to live my life in a manner that reflects Jesus' presence every hour of my life. 


Living in His presence could be life changing. It means that when the dark fears and worries arise, we have comfort in knowing that God is with us and will give us the strength we need to face whatever comes our way. God tells us over and over again throughout the Bible to not worry, but the fact that He keeps telling us that shows that worry and sin are very closely related. It seems that regardless of how hard we try to eliminate these things from our lives, we just can't get a grip on totally removing them from our lives. The good news is that we know where to go when sin or worry takes over our lives. We can turn to Jesus for forgiveness, strength, and love that will overcome the pain that these two enemies, sin and worry, use to abuse our lives.


Praying and knowing others are praying brings me great comfort because I know that God hears our every prayer. Prayer is a way to deliberately bring us into His intimate presence like a child being hugged and held by its parent. It's like a timeout to say I need to feel You close to me.  So, I will be taking many extra timeouts in the days to come as I pray for those serving in our military that are in harm's way including someone we love very much whose mission is to bring peace to an area saturated with evil. My prayer will be, that all that turn to Him, will feel and dwell within His loving presence as each hour passes. 


Let us pray:


Heavenly Father,
Thank you for allowing us the blessing of living in Your presence each and every hour of the day. Thank you for the promise that You are with us and will give us the strength to face the challenges of life here on earth.
Amen