September 3, 2008
An Unopened Present
I was thinking yesterday about experiencing God. Sometimes it is difficult to describe the feeling of being in the presence of God to other people.
Even other Christians, who haven’t yet experienced that feeling, look at you like you are crazy when you try to explain the joy and peace.
Sometimes God is so close that I break into praise songs for absolutely no reason at all. I’ll be having a miserable day and feel His presence and I can’t contain my joy. I have no earthly reason at that moment to be joyful, but I feel like I have to sing His praises or I’ll burst.
The Christian’s journey is like a big present from God. He hands us this huge wrapped box. We open the box and on top is the gift of our salvation.
It is such a wonderful gift that we revel in it and are awe struck by His mercy. The knowledge that He loves us and forgives us simply blows us away. The fact that He knows we exist is so incredible as to be overwhelming.
At this point, the majority of believers stop looking in the box. They sit in their pews on Sunday content in their salvation and struggling through life.
If that is you, go back and look in the box again. There is something else there for you from God.
God has so much more to give than just our salvation. He desires an intimate relationship with us. He wants to give us a life full of joy and victory. A faith so strong that nothing, not even the threat of death can shake it.
Jesus tells us:
I
am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more
abundantly. John
10:10 b KJV
This verse isn’t talking about material abundance it is talking about spiritual abundance. A life so full of the presence of God that you are transformed.
Once you have had a taste of the presence of God, nothing else compares.
Give yourself fully to Him, don’t hold anything back. Spend time in worship and prayer. Spend time with Him daily. Not out of a sense of duty or obligation, but simply out of love for Him.
Be prepared to experience something you have never felt before. Seek the indescribable experience of being in the presence of God.
Until
next time,
May
you learn the freedom of an unconditional surrender to God.
Darrel Mason