Posts Tagged: the presence of god
“The Empowering Presence”
“11Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” (Judges 6:11-16, English Standard Version)
Sometimes I like to have a soak in the tub. It feels good to my back and various other parts of my anatomy. We were staying in a Comfort Inn last night. They do have a handrail in the tub/shower, but it is not low enough for me to grab hold of. So there I was. I enjoy a soak in the tub now and then, but I don’t really want to spend the rest of my life there.
So, I did whatever any non-self-respecting man would do: I called my wife to come and help. She walked in the bathroom and moved my smartphone. I immediately got up on my own and got out of the tub. My wife’s mere presence wasn’t so mere. Her presence empowered me to do what I couldn’t seem to do seconds earlier. I was stunned.
At a time when the Israelites were being severely oppressed by the Midianites, Gideon was called to deliver the Israelites. To say that Gideon was not filled with self-confidence would be quite the understatement. Gideon asked “. . . how can I . . . ?”
And God answered, “. . . But I will be with you . . . .” The presence of God would be enough. The presence of others in our life is very empowering. How much more the presence of God?
“LIVING WITH THE PREPOSITIONS IN THE RIGHT ORDER”
“Today, LORD, I want to live in and through and for you. Help me to live with the prepositions in the right order.”
I tend to think (and even feel) grammatically. That doesn’t mean that my grammar is always good or appropriate.
Take prepositions, for example.
Prepositions are the workhorses of every language I know anything about. Along with conjunctions, they connect and divide. They prioritize. They are, I would argue, the most important parts of speech and thinking—more important than nouns, or even verbs. Prepositions are the unsung heroes of language.
“She gave her love to me,” versus “She took her love from me”—that sort of thing. “I ran toward the dog,” is a very different statement from “I ran from the dog.”
So, this morning, I wrote in my journal the words that begin this post: “Today, LORD, I want to live in and through and for you. Help me to live with the prepositions in the right order.”
The prepositions are crucial in this desperately longing short prayer.
First, I need to live in God. Indeed, I believe that there is nowhere else to live.
The Apostle Paul, speaking to some of the intellectuals of first-century Athens, said, “For in him (that is, God) we live and move have our being” (Acts 17:28).
We live in God! Does that seem a bit “new-age-ish” to you? Well, it’s in the Bible!
Of course, if we live in God, that means it is going to be terrible difficult to recognize God’s presence, or even God’s existence. If God is the medium in which we live, we will probably take God for granted. Expecting us to be aware of God would be like expecting a fish to be aware of water. Water is all that the fish knows. Therefore, awareness of water is, I suspect, not easy for fish.
And yet, though living in God makes it very challenging even to be aware of God, it is a wonderful prepositional truth. (No, I did not mean “propositional truth.” I meant “prepositional truth!”) There is a sense in which I need to “seek” God. There is another sense in which I simply need to pay attention. God is, in fact, all around me, inescapably present. This non-negotiable presence of God might invite me not to take myself quite so seriously. It might help me to relax.
But even when something or Someone is inescapably present, I do need to pay attention to that fact. Unfortunately, paying attention is not one of my strong suits.
Then, there is the preposition “through.” “Through” means that I don’t try to do life apart from God. Living through God means that I recognize my intense need for God’s help in order to live well. Otherwise, I will mess things up. A friend of mine said years ago, “The Christian life is hard to live without God.” In his usual ironic way, Marlon nailed it. What he was really saying was that it is impossible to live the Christian life apart from God.
And then, there is the preposition “for.” To live for God means that I seek to trust and obey, to glorify God, to make God look even a fraction of how good God really is. To live for God requires my very best intentions, will, plans and actions.
So prepositions matter, in my opinion. The order matters as well. If I start with living for or through God, I’ve already messed up. I need start with the in—God’s everywhere presence. Then, I need to continue with through—God’s every-when empowerment. Finally, I need to live for God—recognizing that I am not the center of my universe; God is. It is in, through and for God that I need to live! Only in that order does my life find its proper order.
IMPORTANT UPDATE!
I just got an e mail from a friend who had read today’s blog. He had some excellent suggestions for making it even better.
“. . . [Y]ou forgot WITH, which is my favorite preposition. God uses WITH more than any other preposition when describing himself and us, n’est ce pas? On another note, I think of prepositions as VERBS. Gives them more CLOUT, if you will.”
Both points are well taken, and will be the subject of future blogs, I hope!
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
- “Even a Sliver of Light” April 9, 2024“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:6, English Standard Version) I missed the total eclipse yesterday. There were a number of good reasons for this, but […]
- “The Process in Miracles and the Miracle of Process” March 11, 2024“2 Kings 5:1 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. 2 Now the Syrians on one of their raids […]
- “The Power of Encouragement—Even for Old People” March 10, 2024“But encourage each other every day while it is ‘today.’ Help each other so none of you will become hardened because sin has tricked you.” (Hebrews 3:13, New Century Version) Yesterday, I was walking at a nearby park. There was a large group of young people some of whom were running while other young people […]
- “Endurance” March 10, 2024“For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” (Hebrews 10:36, English Standard Version) “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us […]
- “The Limits of Non-Judgmentalism” February 24, 2024“Matt. 7:1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. Matt. 7:2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” (Matthew 7:1-2, English Standard Version) This morning, in my virtual 12-step meeting, we discussed the topic of judgmentalism. There were many wise […]
- “Delighting in Being Told What to Do?!?” February 23, 2024“Psa. 112:1 Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments! 2 His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures […]
- “Character is the Real Lesson” January 19, 2024I am often confused about what lesson I’m really supposed to be learning. For example, this morning I was trying to knock out several Spanish lessons. My intentions were a lot better than my internet connection. I’ve done three lessons. Or rather, I’ve done two lessons. One of them I did twice because the internet […]
- “The Year of Becoming Un-Planked” January 1, 2024Each year, I try to come up with one word or a short phrase for what I intend to work on in the upcoming year. 2024 is “The Year of Becoming Un-Planked”. What?!! What does that even mean? So glad that you asked! Jesus said to his disciples, “Why do you look at the speck […]
- “Searching for the Noble One” December 26, 2023My wife and I were reading Luke, chapter 2 on Christmas Day. Luke 2 talks about the shepherds being told to look for this very special child—in fact, this King—in a stable. I prefer the word “barn”. I grew up on a farm. I know what a barn is. A stable is entirely too biblical […]
- “That Don’t Impress God Much” December 14, 2023DTEB, “That Don’t Impress God Much” “That Don’t Impress Me Much” (Song by Robert John Lange and Shania Twain) Micah 6:8 (MSG) “But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be […]
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