"You shall make an altar of earth for Me,
and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings
and your peace offerings,
your seek and your oxen;
in every place where I cause My name to be remembered,
I will come to you and bless you."
Exodus 20:24
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God with you. God with me. That is the miracle of life. Could there be a more glorious reality in life than that? The Eternal God of all ages...the very God who created you and me...and then saves our souls...it is this loving and benevolent God who voluntarily shares Himself with us and chooses to walk through life with us as our Constant Companion and Dearest Friend.
Surely when we look and see the Holy One of Israel...the Great Divine living in and with us...we are able to recognize what an undeserved gift His presence is. But the awesome thing is...our God is doing signs-and-wonders and performing miracles all the time. Right? Of course He is! He delights in doing the amazing and unexpected. He glories in the fact that He can take our breath away by being Himself. He takes great pleasure in filling our minds with wonder and our hearts with awe. All we have to do is open our eyes and we can see Him doing the things that can only be done by Him. And that is the truly incredible thing about our Lord, not only does He give us His unconditional love but He is trying to actively participate in our lives too. As a matter of fact, He wants to be involved in every thought we think, every word we speak, and every deed we perform. Now if that doesn't take your breath away nothing will.
And I wonder sometimes, how many of God's children in this day and age, within the perameters of the contemporary Christian Church as a whole, allow God this sort-of access into their lives? Okay, taking it a step further, how many Christians today desire God to participate in their lives to this degree today? Is there really anyone on the face of the earth today, who seeks God and wants God only and absolutely? I wonder.
A.W. Tozer in his book entitled "The Pursuit of God" refers to a rather unhealthy condition within the cloistered walls of the Christian Church. He wrote, "We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic that insists that if we have found Him (Christ) we need no more to seek Him."
Many of us are satisfied to know Jesus just a little, to know Him as Savior alone. We are relieved to escape hell of course but, that's all there is. There is nothing more. We don't desire Jesus. We don't want to seek after Him. We don't want to spend a whole lot of time or invest too much of our energy growing in the knowledge of Him. Pity. There is so much more... and we must seek to find it. To seek God's loving presence. That is what life is for.
I will leave you today with this quote taken from the cover of Brother Lawrences' book entitled "The Practice of the Presence of God."
"Brother Lawrence was a man of humble beginnings
who discovered the greatest secret of living in the Kingdom of God here on earth.
It is the art of 'practicing the presence of God in one single act
that does not end.'
He often stated that it is God who paints Himself
in the depths of our soul.
We must merely open our hearts to receive Him
and His loving presence."
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A Challenge:
This week reflect on the deepest desires of your heart. What do you want out of life? How does cultivating intimacy with Jesus figure into your ambitions? Be honest, with yourself and with God. Talk things over with Him. Ask and He will enable you to see your life through His eyes and from His eternal point of view. You might be surprised....if you let Him...Jesus can do some pretty amazing things in your life and through you.
Love in Christ, Patty Clark
