Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? (Psalm 139:7 NKJV)
If I take the wings
of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your
hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. (Psalm 139:9-10 NKJV)
The story of the monk who constantly used this phrase is well known to most people. It was in the sixteenth century, one winter's day, as Brother Lawrence was walking in the forest, he found himself standing beneath a tree stripped of its foliage. The thought suddenly flashed on him that before very long that same tree would be covered with the leaves and glory of spring. "Then God must be here," said he to himself, and his whole being became awed and filled with the thought of God. That impression remained with him for the rest of his life, and he said that he was more deeply impressed with the actual sense of God's presence in the kitchen, when he was preparing the food for his brother monks, than when he was kneeling before the ordinance.
It is a blessed
experience when the soul lives in this awareness of God; when we live, and
move, and have our being in Him; whether we take the wings of the morning, and
go with the sun in its passage to the western sea, or descend into the valley
of the shadow of death. Let's read this
Psalm again, remembering that our Lord said, "Lo, I am with you all the
days, even to the end of the age."
The habit of practicing
God's presence is specially acquired when we accustom ourselves to draw on the
divine resources. We can recall two outstanding illustrations; one given by
Abraham's faithful servant, and the other by Nehemiah. In the one case, the traveler
lifted up his heart to God for direction as to the choice of a wife for his
master's son; and the other tells us that between the king's question as to the
reason for his sadness, and his reply, he flashed a cry to God for a suitable
answer, and it was given him. Why don't we, in every moment of uncertainty and
perplexity, when the tempter draws near, instantly claim the equivalent of
God's gracious help?
PRAYER
Gracious Heavenly
Father, will You so enable us by Your grace, that we may live in the fear of
You all the day long; may the difficulties and temptations of our daily
experience have the effect of leading us to take each step in the consciousness
of Your presence. I pray in Jesus' name,
AMEN.
God's Daily Promise
Promise #261:
I have called you to inherit My blessing.
1 Peter 3:9 WEB
not rendering evil for evil,
or insult for insult; but instead blessing;
knowing that to this were
you called, that you may inherit a blessing.
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