“You cannot spend day after day in the world without its affecting your mind and will and heart. It doesn’t take long to become disoriented to the ways of God. The world has a dulling effect on your spiritual sensibilities.” So says Henry Blackaby, author of Experiencing God Day by Day.
And I would suspect he had been following me around lately and wrote this for my benefit. But no, the copyright on his book is 1998. Well – that helps settle me down a bit as I have been consuming the latest news of riots and unrest in the U.S. as well as the world stage. Plus I just ran to the grocery store for a few things and was greeted by petitions to be signed seeking ballot issues for men in women’s sports, limits on transgender surgery for children, and school notification of parents about gender-identity change.
And I needed to get ready for my Bible study group meeting at my house in the evening. Checking my homework for that, upon quick review, I found I had completed it. It was a great lesson on Jesus preparing the disciples for going out into the world to share the gospel and do miraculous healings all along the way. Wow! It felt so disjointed jumping around in-and-out of these situations and topics.
But Blackaby’s words were so spot on. My mind, will and heart were becoming disoriented to the ways of God – I was being spiritually “dulled” by the world in which I live. Yes, my Bible study that night was of wonderful relief, insight, and provided great peace of mind that the Lord is in control and at work, no matter how crazy the world seems to be.
BUT – I don’t have a Bible Study group every evening that can help me do that turn around. Looking closer at Blackaby’s lesson, he was reminding me of when the Israelites were in the desert having just been freed 3 months earlier by the Lord through the most frightening of events and were now being led by God who wanted to speak to them.
As He instructed Moses, meeting with God requires preparation. God is awesome and perfectly holy. You don’t just barge into his presence unprepared. Moses told them they were to take two full days to prepare – specific instructions were given about how they were to “consecrate” (set apart or sanctify through ritual) themselves to get ready to meet the Lord. They did it.
As Blackaby shares, once they were ready, however, God spoke to them with thunder and lightning, with fire and smoke and the sound of loud trumpets (Exodus 19:16-25). I can barely imagine the scene, but I can understand why God had the people stay at a distance observing the smoke and thundering sound (probably shaking in their sandals). But through this encounter, He spoke directly to Moses having him come up the mountain to His presence to reveal the Ten Commandments that he was to take back to the people.
These were of crucial importance establishing the standard by which God expected His people to live. In them, God established the Sabbath so His people could take an entire day to refocus on Him and His will for them after spending six days in the world.
Hmm, is this how I look at Sunday? As a full day to “refocus” on the Lord and His will for me? And do I only need to do a focus on the Lord on Sunday? How long does that last in this world of daily bombardment?
I go to the Lord multiple times a day – so it rather impacted me when Blackaby talked about “barging into His presence unprepared” being an affront to God. However, I found the “preparation” I believe I needed was daily, not just on Sunday.
One source I truly appreciated suggested we need to “hunger for His presence”. Jesus tended to go to deserts and climb mountains and then rest and wait for the “hungry” ones to reveal themselves and come to him. The disabled, the blind, the mute, the diseased, the crowds all came to Him no matter how far it was. Not the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the religious community. The hungry always found Jesus. Am I hungry for His presence?
And who were the ones who got healed, encountered Jesus, and received what was needed? Those who humbled themselves before Him, who surrendered themselves totally to His direction, who sat at His feet.
And after they encountered Him, got healed, and heard his words, they remained in His presence. Like the story told in Matthew 15:31 where the crowd was with him for three days and He had compassion on them. He fed them (miraculously) – over 4,000 of them. When I go to God for an interaction, do I linger? Or do I just do a quick devotion for the day and move on? What if I saw being in the presence of Jesus as the most excellent way to spend my time?
I know and I hear you – I have to work, I have responsibilities, I have to respond to all these emails, texts and homework I need to do. Jesus knows, don’t you think? He knows what I need to do, what needs to happen in my daily life – my practical needs. So He gave me Mattheew 6:31 which tells me not to worry about eating, drinking, clothing – practicals. He said “…your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.”
As one of my sources said, the more we seek Him, the more He shows up miraculously. But what he said that really struck home was that when we radically live for Jesus, we will get pushed to places of trust or “no food”. Do I choose to take care of myself or will I still pursue Christ and trust he knows my needs and will make a way? Oh, dear – that is truly challenging.
My final challenge came as the last suggestion made by this source – and I know it is true. He said “rely on Him to show up – no plan B”. He reminds me of the verse about feeding the huge crowd I mentioned above – Jesus said “I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” If we place ourselves in His hand, obediently, where He has to show up or we fail – He always shows up. Just note 1 Corinthians 2:3-5 “And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power so that our faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
Do I truly “rely on God to show up”? That is the question to ponder and answer. I pray this has been of value in bringing you to ponder and answer as well. How will this impact our daily and Sunday lives? Are we prepared for Godly encounters?
