Experiencing God's Presence #1 - The One Year Experiencing God's Presence Devotional
Experiencing God's Presence #1
Apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:5
The Presence is everything in the Christian life. Maybe that seems like an overstatement. Surely obedience is important, along with bearing fruit, being loving and compassionate, praying, growing in faith, overcoming obstacles, dealing with relationship issues, and so much more. That’s why so many books are published and so many sermons preached about these things. Christian living is a vast array of disciplines, attitudes, and activities, and we have to know how to approach them. Right?
But think about it. What happens to your attitude when you have a palpable sense of God’s Presence around you? How fruitful does your prayer life become? How strong does your faith grow? What obstacle seems large when you’re aware that God is in the room? How hard is it to obey when He is present to empower you? How hard do you have to try to bear fruit if He is spilling out from within you? What relationship issues remain unyielding when His power overwhelms? The truth is that His Presence working within us is the key to everything, and without Him we can do nothing.
That’s why cultivating both an awareness and an ongoing experience of His Presence is vital. When God shows up, miracles happen. Life comes out of death, beauty comes out of ashes, dancing takes the place of mourning, futility gives way to fruitfulness, confusion is replaced by order, and obstacles bow to His will. Even the hard side of His Presence—the convicting and correcting truth we don’t want to hear—eventually gives life. When God is at work in and around us, everything changes.
Zealously, relentlessly, passionately pursue God’s Presence. Every endeavor in the Christian life is futile without that. But with it, everything is possible.
Jesus, I need You—Your Spirit, Your life—in me and around me. I’m not content just to know about You or to believe the right things. I want to experience Your Presence. I know You want that too. Please, Lord, let me sense You always.
