SOAKING IN THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD

Hosea 6:2  "After two days he will revive us, on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence."

This scripture showed me that sometimes we cannot just call upon the Lord after repentance and expect that He will be right there.  I believe He may just wait a day or two to see if we were truly sincere in repentance or if it was just "lip service" to get Him to answer a need we had at the time.  After so much rejection, I can see Him waiting, waiting to see if we are truly seeking Him, needing His grace and mercy to forgive us of our sins, to restore us. 

I was putting on some body lotion the other day, and it seemed like I had not applied any at all.  My dry skin just soaked it up.  So I applied some more, and then actually needed a third application before it seemed like enough.  There is nothing, I find, that the Holy Spirit will not use to enlighten me on the Word of the Lord, bringing the thoughts of the Lord into a life application to me.  The Holy Spirit told me just as we read the Word of God, as we study His Word, it is like the first application of lotion.  Our spirits can be so dry and thirsty that a one time reading will barely touch the surface of our spirits.  It is only after continued reading and studying the Word that we begin to notice the dryness disappear.  I don't know why some neglect their spiritual life.  I tend to neglect my physical body more so than my spiritual life.  I will fail to use lotion until I see that my hands are so damaged.  But I cannot allow my spirit to become as my hands.  I can see the Lord wanting me to take care of the body He dwells in also, and I am going to put forth a better effort. But the most important thing I do each day is begin my day with the words of the Lord.  Then devotionals to lead me into thinking of what the Lord has done for me, the blessings that are showered upon me each and every day and the thoughts that the Holy Spirit would give me concerning the things I read.  But the Word of the Lord is a powerful tool each morning to deliver you into a place of security in the Lord, a place of perfect peace.

At noon each day, if I am staying in my office, I use my IPhone to read from the Bible app I have.  I just need that mid-day refreshing, that reminder that the Word of God can and does soak into my spirit and draw me into the presence of my God.  Worship music playing also draws you into the presence of the Lord as it fills your heart with that song that you can sing to Him yourself, loving on the Lord, thanking Him for His goodness.  As you worship, as you read, you will be begin to soak in the presence of the Lord.  As you spend more time in worship and reading, you will begin to feel your spirit fill up with the Lord.  Such presence....such sweet presence.

As children of God, we truly have no excuse for a dry spirit.  It only takes a few minutes a day to pick up your Bible and read.  I find the more I read, the more I desire to read.  It is like taking a sip of a delicious cup of tea, and finding you cannot put the cup down until every last drop is gone.  When you begin to read of the Lord's love for us, of His beautiful provision; when you read of the sacrifice that our Jesus made to save us from sin, His words of forgiveness.....how can you put this down with just reading a few words.  His words are life, they are bread and drink, filling every hunger inside you and taking away that thirst that nothing has been able to satisfy.  It is His presence you soak up each time you read His Word; He comes alive in you as you read. 

Our God is on every page of the Bible; He sits across the room watching our faces as we read, seeing what reaction we have to what He tells us there.  I was reading a little book on Worship as I waited for my car to be washed this afternoon and I was reading scriptures there telling me about the changing of worship as the Holy Spirit came upon those there in the upper room waiting for the promised power from Jesus.  As I read the words tears filled my eyes as I knew that we have received such a gift when we are born again in the Spirit.  The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of our Lord, living in us....never being without Him, having Him so close, filling us with His love and power, His joy and peace.  How blessed we are, friends, how blessed we are.

Make time to spend in the Word of God.  Make time to listen to worship music, let the Holy Spirit lead you into worship with it.  Let your hearts rejoice in the miracles that the Lord does for us each day.  Read, sing, love....soak in the precious presence of the Lord.  He gives Himself freely to all those that truly seek Him, that desire Him more than life....He freely gives all He is to us.

02-27-12