Making God’s Presence our Priority. Seeking the presence of God should be our top value. When you love the Lord being near to Him is like nothing else.
In Exodus 33:15 Moses says,
“If your presence does not go with us, do not send us there.”
I want the presence of God to shape what I see and how I pray. When we perceive what God is doing it changes everything.
God longs to have quality time with us. Think of it this way if you met a friend in a group setting, you may not get to know that person in the same way that you could if you spent time with that person one on one. If we only worship God in public settings but don’t spend time alone with Him you will never get to know Him personally.
Listening to the pastor preach is great to grow our understanding of God. But we only get stoked by another’s oil when we leave or that person fails us, our light burns out. Likewise, learning about God through other means does not replace discovering Him for ourselves.
Worshiping God is a tool He had given us to express our love and affection to Him and honor Him in Spirit and truth. But our lives should also be a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice means offering ourselves to God in a worshipful way, living a life that is consecrated to God and not conformed to the world.
Some ways to be a living sacrifice to God include:
- Changing what Is evil with ourselves.
- Being transformed into Jesus’s likeness.
- Living according to God’s purposes. Living a life that is in accordance to God’s purposes for our life.
- Sacrificing emotions such as anger, depression, frustration, or hardening our hearts.
There are blessing that come from sacrificing to God:
- Being accepted by God.
- God comforting us by showing us we are on the right path.
- God helping us to discern His will and know Him.
Being a living sacrifice means believing who God says we are and what He has promised for us.
Praying is simply communicating with God. It should be our everyday conversation with Him. We can talk to God at any time of the day, and He desires constant fellowship with us. There is never a moment that we have to live without Him. He loves when we take little moments throughout of day to connect with Him.
Worship and prayer both play a significant role in drawing near to God. When we do this from the heart, He recognizes our need for more of Him. Jesus paid the price in full for us to be able to be in fellowship and have favor with Him.
Jesus continually left the crowds and went to places of wilderness to get away with His Father. If Jesus, who was God in the flesh, needed to spend time with God the Father alone, his much more do we need to prioritize time with Him?
Time with God may look different from sitting in a prayer meeting, going to church, or a prayer meeting. Don’t put God in a box, time with Him should be refreshing, and joyful. Maybe He leads us to sing scripture or read quietly. Maybe He could highlight something in His Word that may lead you into a time of repentance.
God desires interaction with us, and we should lean into how He leads us to seek Him. We should not assume a formula for pursuing God, but be open to His guidance during our time with Him.
His presence is important because:
- He is worthy
- We are inviting Him to dwell with us in every area of our lives.
There is a fruit that comes from worshiping, prayer, and fasting:
- Satan can no longer no longer torment us. He is defeated.
- We align our properties with God’s
- We experience freedom
We have the opportunity every moment of our lives to draw closer to Him. There is no one like Him in all the earth. No one can compare to Him.
There is always an invitation to go deeper with Him and discover more of His character. There is nothing like the joy of partnering with Him in preparing the way for His coming while we get ready for the harvest of delivers that will come in the last days.
From Pity to Praise 