Experiencing The Presence of Jesus
By Rev. Tanner Fox
This week I have the opportunity to preach and instead of giving you some other content, I decided to offer the action steps from the sermon right here in our blog.
Psalm 27:4 - 5 “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock… 13-14 - I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the living. Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
The sermon is about Practicing the Presence of God. The Psalmist, King David, reminds us to be confident of the promise of God’s presence but he also implores us to seek the presence of God. Scripture in many other places, is clear on both points.
From Genesis to Revelation God has revealed himself to his people, speaking, moving, acting, saving, etc. We see this most clearly in the person, presence, and work of Jesus of Nazareth. He is Immanuel, God with us (Is 7). He is the image of the invisible God (Colossians1). He is the word made flesh, dwelling among us (John 1). And he is coming again to dwell with his people and to bring an end to all weeping and crying, mourning and pain (Revelation 21). A Promise worth believing.
And I feel as though I know all of this. Cognitively I believe that he is present everywhere, that he is in all things and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1)! And yet, I don’t always feel like he is present. I feel distant from the Lord and it's hard to hear his voice, or sense his love.
But David and other authors of scripture remind us that the presence is God is a promise to believe and a practice to embrace!
Psalm 27:4 “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. V8 - “You have said, Seek My face, my heart says to you, Your Face O Lord do I seek.”
Draw near to God and he will draw near to you (James 4). Abide in me and I will abide in you (John 15).
The good news, when we feel distant from God, is that there is something we can do to seek, draw near, and to abide in Jesus. The question is, how?
An old monk named Brother Lawrence literally wrote the book on practicing the presence of God. Seriously, it’s called Practicing the Presence of God. He was a man who had a different, heavenly countenance, so much so that people noticed and wanted to know how he remained calm, still, and peaceful no matter the circumstance. He told them that he practiced the presence of God all the time and his practice consisted of these two primary elements.
Attention & Hunger. These are our action steps for practicing the presence of God.
Attention: He set out each day to pay attention to God as often as possible.
Your attention is grabbed, taken, stolen, asked for in 1,000 ways each day. Our first step to practicing God’s presence is to pay attention to him.
How? Start small. Spend 10 minutes a day, alone, paying attention to God. Mark out 10 minutes of your day to be quiet and useless before God. Try to be with Jesus. You don’t even need to be actively praying words in your head. Just be with Jesus. If your mind goes crazy and you can’t focus on the Lord, then use a simple prayer, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Just relax and settle yourself and breathe deeply, and pray this simple prayer. Begin with 10, and grow from there offering God your attention.
Hunger: He set out each day to grow his appetite for the presence of God.
Our hearts are endlessly hungry. We are filled with desires and longings for love, satisfaction, belonging, contentment, joy, comfort, peace. The problem is not that we have all of these longings, in fact they are God given. The problem is when we feast on or try and satiate these longings with things in this world. Our hunger is deeply and truly for the Lord and yet we settle for less than what he offers.
C.S. Lewis famously said that God most likely finds our desires not too strong but too weak… We are halfhearted creatures fooling about with drink and (other pleasures) when infinite joy (in Christ) is offered to us… We are far too easily pleased (The Weight of Glory).
How? Four things.
Try to identify what you want. Fill in the blank, honestly “One thing I ask, this only do I seek to _______________.” It begins with identifying the thing loved over and above Jesus. Be honest with yourself and name it. If you are having a hard time knowing what you really want, start by tracking your habits and then dig a little deeper to see what desire the habit is connected to.
Begin to pray for a hunger, and appetite to be with Jesus over and above anything else in the world.
Begin to habit yourself to it. Spend time with Christ. Start feasting on His Word, on prayer, on silence. Give your heart some space to begin loving time with Christ.
Invite someone in to hold you accountable to weaning off the old love and feasting on the new one.
I want to join you in this journey of experiencing the presence of Jesus. I want to come alongside and share about my journey as you share about yours.