In times of uncertainty, especially in these times when the
world seems so bleak, and everything seems hopeless. It is refreshing to know
that God is with us. It is also a time when some have questioned “Is God really
with me?” “Why am I going through all that I am going through?” The answer is
YES, God is with us. Because we are going through a difficult time, does not
mean that God is not with us, and even if we have no problems and life is all
rosy now it does not mean God is not with us.
God created us to dwell inside of us, so God wants to be
with us. Matthew 1; 23 Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a
son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel which is translated God with us.
God is surely with us, but what do we do with His presence in our lives? I remember
when I was about 6 years old my dad bought me a hand sewing machine, I am not sure
why he bought it for me at that time but I was excited about it, I loved it, but
guess what, I never used it. It was too technical for me because it was a real
sewing machine, it wasn’t a toy. It would take a lot of learning and practice for
me to use, but at that time all I wanted to do was play, no stress, just easy
sewing, so it became useless to me because I never used it.
When we surrender our lives to Jesus, God is with us, we might
not see him or feel him all the time, but He is with us. But if we are not
conscious of His presence, we may never really experience Him the way we should,
if we never commune with Him, or we are too in a hurry to speak to him because
we have a million and one important things to do, He may never speak with us. For
example if you live with your parents and all you do is greet them in the
morning and at night, and have no real meaningful conversation with them, then
you might just be living as flatmates with your parents but not really know
them. This is the same as our relationship with God. He is with us, but do we really
know he is with us? Because if we do, we will live our lives differently.
God is with us through His word, ‘In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things were made
through the Word and without the Word nothing was made that was made. In the
Word was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness did not comprehend it.’ John 1:1-5 If we do not spend time
studying His Word, then how can we feel his presence with us. Sometimes it may
be difficult to study the word, and sometimes we don’t even understand what we just
read. But if we truly have a desire to know someone or understand a story, we
will not be satisfied with our lack of understanding of the person or the story,
we will probe further, and ask the person more questions because of the desire
within us. If we really desire to know God we will not be satisfied with other
people’s perspective of him alone, but in finding our own rhema moment that
which God reveals to us personally, not to Pastor Bimbo, or to Pastor Matthew
which is good not saying it’s bad, but we will long for and only be truly satisfied
when God reveals Himself to us personally.
God is with us because His light shines through us. Imagine
that you are in a very dark room and you cannot see anything or move around,
yet the light switch is on the wall, and all you need to do is to get up and
switch on the light but you do not. That’s how it looks when we have the light
of God in us, but there is darkness all around us. His Word is light, how are
we using the Word? We can decree a thing and it will be established. His presence
is light, how are we cultivating His presence? we can talk to Him about anything and everything, His truth is light,
his truth will set us free from bondage, His grace is light, His grace is sufficient
for us, His grace abides with us. We have the grace to do what he has called us
to do, which we cannot do on our own by our own strength.
‘Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said Surely the LORD
is in this place and I wasn’t even aware of it’ Gen 28: 16 Imagine if we
could see God physically everyday, in every situation, in hardships, and in
moments of Joy, knowing with full assurance that he is with us. We must embrace
this truth and yield to it, for the visible is the enemy of the invisible in all
our lives.
Very timely and powerful message! God bless you For sharing!
ReplyDeleteThis is so deep. Love the illustrations and the way you broke it down. It's so real. Thank you. The further I probe, the more I know God.
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