TO BE OR NOT TO BE THAT IS THE QUESTION!

Psalm 16:11 NIV You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

You may remember the song Noel Richard’s wrote, “To be In Your Presence (My Desire)” and it says this…

‘To be in Your presence
To sit at Your feet

Where Your love surrounds me

And makes me complete

To rest in Your presence

Not rushing away

To cherish each moment

Here I would stay

This is my desire O Lord, this is my desire.’

Psalm 139 reminds us that we can never be away from God’s presence no matter where we are but sometimes it’s good to deliberately sit in God’s presence and allow His love to minister to our thirsty souls.😊

When we want to be in His presence we’re wanting to have a sense of closeness with our loving Father. Yesterday we looked at seeking God’s face and it ties in with today because apparently the Hebrew word for ‘presence’ implies ‘face’, which suggests having personal attention, favour and a direct relationship.

Praise God, because of Jesus, we have all of those things available to us. We have God’s personal attention around the clock, we have His favour surrounding us like a shield and we have His very own invitation to come into His throne room at any time to receive His mercy and grace when we need it. How privileged we are!😊

‘To be or not to be’ that is still the question! Are we going to spend time ‘to be’, or not ‘to be’, in God’s presence? It’s amazing that we’re allowed to seek Him out and enjoy a close relationship with Him, to spend some time with Him without rushing away, so He can make us complete and fill us with His joy, but also so we can minister to Him with our praise and thanksgiving, and our worship.

We know it will be well worth it when we do.😊 Amen.

Photo: Dan Gold on Unsplash

SEEK HIS FACE

1 Chronicles 16:11 NIV Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.

Sometimes, when we look at people’s faces it’s hard to tell what they’re really thinking because they don’t want us to know! But God is not like that! He wants us to seek His face, to know He is looking at us with kindness and love.

2 Corinthians 4:6 NLT For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness”, has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. 

There’s an old song “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”

When we look into Jesus’ face we will see His compassion and His strength to enable us to face our challenges. We’ll see His ability and power to deal with whatever is worrying us and His willingness to do it.

We’ll be filled with His peace and joy because He is our Champion, the One who doesn’t just have the victory but who has given it to us. He wants us to go into our day from a place of victory, not hoping to get one!😊

Psalm 105:4 ESV Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! It reminds us to seek His face always, continually, not just when we’re desperate, not when all else fails, but every day throughout our day so we can not only receive His love, but also so we can have His perspective on things, His wisdom and His peace in every situation. 

It’s like everything else in life, the more we practice doing it, the better at it we’ll become.😊 So whatever you are doing today here are a couple more verses to remind us to seek His face and know His face is shining on you. Amen.

Hebrews 12:2 NKJV Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith.

Numbers 6:25-26 NIV the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;  the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”

Photo by Tachina Lee on Unsplash