can't separate from the love of God that is in XJesus
His presence in our life and our presence in His life
perfectly safe, no matter what may happen
this universe is a perfectly safe place to be no matter what happens
good basis for mental health. no grounds to fear.
able to be at peace no matter what
God is there with you and will take care of you
Ps 23
'I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me'
[said in different interview he prays through every morning]
God's sufficiency is the basis of our security, mental health, Godly character, anointing for service
He is with us and has authority over everything in heaven and on earth
Heb 13: let your lives be without greed and be content with what you have b/c He has said I will never leave you or forsake you.
so you have everything that you need and can't be separated from it by any circumstance
'The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want'
Ps 73: the nearness of God is my good
The Lord is my portion. I've got the Lord and that is enough
beyond omnipresence (physical fact)
relationship, manifest presence of the Lord
Aaronic blessing
- Perception
- since God is invisible, if we're going to be aware of Him, we have to turn our minds toward Him
- Paul in 2 Cor 4: while the outer person is going downhill, the inner person is being renewed day by day. we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are unseen. for the things that are seen are temporal and the things that are unseen are eternal
- the main way that God is with us is our awareness of His presence.
- God is gentle. if you don't want to see Him, you don't have to (at least for now)
- i expect there will be a time when everyone will see him, an unhappy time for people who are not used to seeing him now
- if we want to see God, we have to seek him. it's the key to this way of God being present with us
- 'seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near' -- Is
- He's not always near and seeking Him is the condition of awareness of Him
- the awareness of God is not something that just happens to us. we have to focus on it
- sometimes, of course, God makes it happen. God gives you an awareness of Him and His presence. certainly that happens to people in the Bible
- and even if that's happened to us, we still have to seek Him. 'seek ye first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness...'
- how?
- turn our mind to God. fix our minds on God.
- can be difficult at start. but that's the way seeking goes.
- if you're going to see something in the physical realm, you have to turn your attention to it. and if you're going to see it well, you have to examine it closely. you may have to move toward it. you may have to take steps. you may need a microscope or a telescope.
- does not develop passively. you have to commit yourself and pursue it.
- God wants us to want Him. Your life is kind of like a party that God wants to be invited to.
- the main way we seek Him is by dwelling on Him in our minds
- how and what we perceive determines the character of our lives
- when you have trouble with something, the key question is 'what are you putting your mind on?'
- students who are not doing well in a course do not have their mind on the content of the course
- goes for family, occupation, community, etc.
- we have a choice about where we place our minds and, if we want God present in our life, we have to hold Him before our minds
- Practice of the Presence of God
- putting your mind upon God and keeping it there
- took Brother Lawrence 10 years to get the hang of it
- 'I can't play Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata'
- if you want to and will it and practice, it wouldn't take 10 years
- you put your attention on God and the habits of your mind gradually change so that God is always present in your attention
- then God becomes increasingly present. it becomes an awareness that is different from just thinking about God. it becomes like perception
- in his later years, Brother Lawrence said 'I no longer believe, I see'
- if you want that, you can develop it
- we come to be aware of when God is acting and speaking
- we can use Scripture to help us keep our minds on God
- that's one reason various disciplines involve the meditative use of Scripture, to make the presence of God real in our lives
- once you decide to do this, you begin to track what's before your mind
- Paul says be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
- the renewing of the mind is primarily changing what it is occupied about
- Lectio Divina is one way
- Provision
- if we try to supply our needs on our own, generally speaking, God will let us do it
- --the problem is, we try to supply our wants, and it doesn't work or it doesn't make us happy.
- [I concluded in the past that i can't trust God to supply my needs, but it's really my wants that He won't supply, and maybe even sometimes my needs, if i am not seeking Him
- generally speaking, if we want to know God's presence in our lives, then we abandon the project of taking care of ourselves
- we still do our best, but we don't trust our best, we trust God and then come to know His action in our lives
- [ok, Lord. then i can trust you with my old age. i have been a little worried about not having any/enough retirement and having to do stuff i don't want to do to make ends meet. but Willard must be right here, and if i get with this program, your presence and provision will be joyful and no burden.]
- that's what it means to 'seek first the Kingdom and its righteousness and all these things will be added'
- [to 'seek first', which i have been praying about, means to seek constantly, not just 'first' in some cursory way]
- want and need are two different things, and very often we don't know what we need. by trusting God's presence, we are freed from the burden of doing what we want
- it is only as we abandon ourselves to the love of God that we are in a position to watch what is good be provided in our lives
- [it is not about being right all the time or appearing smart. it's about trusting God and seeking His presence and letting Him provide. people who do that, including many who raise support, get to see Him provide and work.]
- ['Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her']
- [Father, I want to be free from worrying about providence, things like houses and cars and college and retirement. i want to trust you and enjoy your presence]
- you can't trace the provision. God works through natural processes
- God doesn't always provide for us with identifiable acts
- mostly we see what God has done by looking backwards
- Power
- we see results we were a part of but can't account for the full effect
- the outcome of your actions far exceeds the possibilities of your outcome and your efforts
- [so this is what we need, and especially what I need, when it comes to living my life and being a husband and father and all my other relationships and work and ministry. if I will seek you first, I can hope to see progress in formerly intransigent situations including evangelism]
- that's the mark of the presence of God with a person in the Bible
- Dwight Moody example -- 'there's no way we can account for your results in terms of your natural abilities'
- Moody said he preached the old sermons to triple effect!
- Paul reported 'what God had done with him'
- Paul himself was not impressive by his own description
- showed up and talked. the effects were so powerful that it made others envious
- the same thing that happened to Jesus
- Ps 16.9: I have set the Lord always before me. He is at my right hand. I shall not be moved.
- [God is his copilot, in a sense (a sentiment often derided)]
- I act with Him and He acts with me
- same theme in Is: God's strong arm went at Moses' right hand
- where's your mind: on a talk show host? movie? the Lakers? they won't help you.
- cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you
- when we cast our burdens on the Lord and see them supplied, we know that He is with us
- RA Torrey example. no salary. 'If you walk up to a window every day and ask for what you need and it is provided, you're bound to think there's someone on the other side'
- this is why Scripture says 'Count it all joy whenever you fall into all kinds of troubles '
- b/c in them you will come to know God's presence and be established in your life with him
- we should be trying to do things that are beyond what we can reasonably accomplish. that is how we know God's presence in our lives.
- anointing, gifts of the Spirit, fruit of the Spirit and manifestations of God being with us
- how to secure these things
- take available means for fixing your mind upon God: the written Word, the living Word, mediation on Christ, holy people you know (learn from them)
- as we use these things to direct our mind, then the awareness of God's presence with us increases and comes more and more to be like ordinary seeing.
- experiment with how God comes to mind when you think of Him.
- as present, vividly standing before you, speaking to you, looking at you?
- not an oblong blur!
- utilize written word, images you have of Christ, invoke HS to help you, build habit of letting mind dwell on God
- how do you cast your burdens on the Lord and look for provision?
- stop striving, stop trying to do it all yourself
- don't try to make it happen.
- express to him your expectation and anticipation of Him meeting your needs
- possibly share with others
- you will see his yoke is easy and his burden is light?
- why? b/c He's carrying it
- how do we enter into the power of God?
- by attempting, in His will, what we cannot accomplish
[I want to grow up to be like Dallas Willard: wise, productive, not crabby, gracious
[One big takeaway: i can use media as a way of encouraging God's presence without necessarily studying it or paying attention like i was studying it. it's more devotional (to put it one way). I'm not necessarily paying attention to the sermon (for example) all the time. My mind might wander, but it might wander to God.
Ask 'How can I spend time with God?'
Brother Lawrence
Frank Laubach
Thomas a Kempis]
No comments:
Post a Comment