Sometimes I’m a little dense. It takes me a while to figure something out; like the other day I was wondering why I was down and ‘draggy’. I went through my checklist of potential reasons, and none of them fit. Finally I hit the nail on the head when I realized I’d been reading my Bible, studying, meditating on it, praying for others, blogging, talking about the Lord, etc, but I had not actually taken time to be in the Lord’s presence. “You will show me the path of life (alive, fresh, strong): in Your presence is fullness (satisfaction) of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures for forevermore.” NKJV Life, joy and times of refreshing (Acts ) are in His presence!!!
We get so busy sometimes we forget to just be with Him, love on Him and allow Him to love on us. I can’t imagine our spouses being okay with us reading about them, thinking about them, talking to others about them, but never actually spending face to face time with them. Certainly, the marriage would not be a good one. So, our relationship with the Lord is no different and we need face to face time with Him (even if we don’t in fact see His face). The Bible speaks about being in God’s presence, but the word for presence is paniym meaning face, therefore paniym= presence= face.
Of course you’d be right to say we are always in His presence and that is true (Ps. 139:7), but watch a married couple sitting, one watching t.v. and the other reading, and you’ll see how you can be in the very same room and still not be with each other or loving on each other. Like Joshua, God’s presence goes with us as His children, and we find rest in Him (Ex. 33:14). But, being in the Lord’s presence is not a passive thing, we are to seek (search out, strive after) it:
Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore. Ps. 105:4
When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek. Ps. 27:8
Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name: the upright shall dwell (settle) in thy presence.
Ps. 140:13
Ps. 140:13
According to these scriptures, we Christians are to strive and search out the Lord’s presence. Sometimes though, we can get so busy 'doing' that we neglect just 'being' in God's presence. The result is a stale, lifeless, sad, lethargic life, and not the abundant life the Lord wants us to have (John 10:10). We need to actively enter His presence… often. Without doubt I needed to. And it only took a few minutes of being in His presence before I began to cry as it felt so good to be there. Why, oh why did it take me so long to figure it out? Life, joy and times of refreshing are in the presence (face) of our Lord. In fact… I’ve got to go...
So let’s all cry out to the Lord like the Psalmist:
Hide not thy face far from me… Ps. 27:9
Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Ps. 51:11