Everyday Christianity: The Presence of the Lord (2)
I have set the LORD always before me;
Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved…
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16.8, 11
For You have made him most blessed forever;
You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence. Psalm 21.6
To be blessed
What do Christians mean when they say, “God has blessed me”? Or when they pray for the Lord to bless them? We hear this frequently, and, most of the time, the people who express this idea seem genuinely grateful to the Lord for His blessings. But what do they mean? What blessing are they seeking?
Typically, we associate the blessings of the Lord with those things that make our life easy, comfortable, safe, and happy—food, provision, good health, faithful friends, a good church, a loving spouse, and so forth. Or we consider that, amid trials or adversity, if worse came to worst, we’re still going to heaven when we die.
Blessings, in this sense, are simply the good things God does or provides for us, and for which we are grateful and glad. As we have seen, God was ready to give Israel all the outward blessings He had ever promised them—run the Canaanites out of the land and give the people farms, cities, and abundance, just as He had promised (cf. Deut. 28.1-14).
But because of their stiff-necked, sinful ways, He threatened to withhold His Presence from them, lest His Presence with them consume and destroy them in their sin. In God’s mind, His Presence was more valuable than all the outward blessings He had promised.
Israel did not have a heart for God, not even in those heady days following her deliverance from Egypt. Despite all they had witnessed of the power of God’s Presence, when push came to shove, all they wanted were outward blessings. They whined for water, moaned for meat, longed for the leeks of Egypt, and lusted for the flesh of foreign women. They failed to understand, as David later explained, that the Presence of the Lord Himself is the greatest and truest blessing. Israel, we know, left off pursuing the Presence of the Lord, took His blessings for granted, and ended up turning to false deities to make them happy.
The blessings of God’s Presence
The Presence of God is the greatest and truest of all God’s blessings. In His Presence we find rest for our soul, mercy and grace for our times of need, the Spirit of God to fill and empower us, His Word to teach and direct our steps, and our Lord Jesus, enthroned in glory, as our destination in life.
We probably know and agree that the Presence of the Lord is the best of all blessings. Yet mostly we seek the kind of outward and temporary blessings Israel sought because we believe these will bring us joy and pleasure. We too easily forget that such blessings are fleeting and can never satisfy what we deeply and earnestly desire.
And while God is gracious to extend such blessings to us, He promises that, in His Presence we may find fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore! Not in His blessings, mind you, but in Him, in His Presence with us, and us with Him!
Fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. What’s not to desire about that?
This is where we must turn, where we must look, if we would realize the great desire of our soul. And yet today, in churches all over the land, we continue primarily to seek the things God gives and does for us rather than the Presence of the Lord Himself.
Come to our senses
Our spiritual senses are too easily dulled by outward things. We rarely consider that the fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore are what we really desire and that these are available to us every moment. When will we come to our senses to know that complete rest and satisfaction can never be realized in the blessings of this life, be they ever so many and constant? Fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore are only to be had in the Presence of the Lord, the greatest and truest of all blessings.
Until we come to our senses, receive the truth of this, and learn to practice God’s Presence, we will continue to seek only those outward and temporary blessings which, in the end, cannot supply what we need. And seeking temporal blessings as our source of happiness, we will neglect or forsake the Presence of God Himself.
So how do we practice the Lord’s Presence? What does it require of us to know this Presence and the fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore it provides?
These are the questions we will explore in the following installments in this part of our study of “Everyday Christianity.”
For reflection or discussion
- Is it possible for the temporal blessings of God to become idols? Did this happen with Israel? Could it happen with us?
- How do we keep the blessings of God from becoming a substitute for the Presence of God?
- When are you most conscious of the Presence of God in your life?
Next steps—Transformation: What do you understand by “practicing the Presence of God”? How will you do that today?
T. M. Moore
Men, check out the fall schedule of reading and study groups. You can register now by going here. Take a look at the clearance sale in our bookstore. All the books in our inventory are free. Order several for yourself and some friends. I would especially encourage you to order a copy of To Know Him, as the subject of that book goes well with our present study.
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment to give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
A spiritual life is a disciplined life in every facet. How does this work out? Our book, A Disciplined Life, can help you review and improve your own disciplines toward a more robust walk with and work for the Lord. For a free PDF of The Disciplined Life, click here. And while you’re there, download a free PDF copy of our book, Enjoying God.
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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.
