Experiencing God's Presence #233

Experiencing God's Presence #233

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Proverbs 4:23

First and foremost, the Presence of God is a heart issue. That’s where we experience Him most profoundly. Jesus told His disciples that the Spirit would be like a river flowing outward from within them, not flowing inward from outside of them. If we want to experience the tangible touch of God, the living Presence, we will have to become attuned to His movements within us.

That’s why meditating on verses of Scripture is an effective exercise in Presence. True meditation goes well beyond memorizing a verse or exploring knowledge about a truth from different angles. It’s a spiritual practice of chewing and swallowing the truth, digesting it to the point that it becomes a part of who you are. When you embrace a scriptural truth and then turn it over and around within your soul, letting it sink into every corner and crevice, it changes you. It becomes part of your nature. When that happens, you don’t have to obey it against your inclinations; you simply fulfill it by being who you are. That’s how transformation happens.

Scripture says to guard our hearts. Most people interpret that as, “Keep the bad stuff from getting in”—a good practice, but only part of the full meaning of this verse. We are to be diligent about our internal state—to keep the bad stuff out, to keep the good stuff in, to dwell on truth and peace and the Presence, and to anchor ourselves in Kingdom reality. Filling our hearts with scriptural truth is a vital part of that process. It’s one of the most important and foundational ways we experience God.

Father, I’ll do what I can to guard my heart—to fill it with all the right things. But You are the true Master of my heart, and I’m trusting it into Your hands. Shape it, fill it, and meet me there. Let it be a place where Your Presence always reigns.