I can pay such little significance to the thing that meant so much to Jesus, the Father’s presence. The challenge is, what does it mean to you? Is it nothing to you? How much do you value it? When Jesus hung on the cross for our sin, for the first time in His thirty three years on earth, He experienced God turning His back on Him. Jesus’ cry of agony was, “My God , my God, why have you forsaken Me?”, Matthew 27:46. The loss of His Father’s presence broke His heart. Jesus paid the ultimate price, once and for all, for the sin of mankind. Hebrews 10:10 “By which we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”.
Hebrews 10:14 “For by one offering He has perfected forever those that are sanctified”
God had to turn His face away from Jesus as He bore the sin of the world on the cross. He sacrificed Himself in our place, went through the uttermost suffering and in that one act, bridged the gulf between men and God that sin separated, forever. Once we have entered in through the door of salvation, we discover the joy of His presence in our heart. God’s promise to never leave, nor forsake us stands sure. It is part of our birthright in Christ. Hebrews 13:5 “……I will never leave you, nor forsake you”.
God’s promise stands sure. The fault lies on my side when I lose the awareness of His presence through wrong actions. Every time I make a natural judgement of a person, or situation that God has permitted in my life, I lose the awareness of His presence, the thing that meant everything to our Lord Jesus. The result is complaining, frustration, anger, stress etc. The downward spiral will continue until I repent and ask forgiveness for paying such little heed to the thing that Jesus valued so highly. When adverse situations arise, instead of reacting in my old sin nature, I need to learn to respond to the Holy Spirit and see what God is saying. If I continue to refuse to find God in everything that crosses my path, I will never grow up in the Lord Jesus Christ. My wrong reactions to people and situations demonstrate just how much I usurp the authority of Jesus Christ in my life. I demonstrate how much I am still devoted to self rule of a heart that should be Christ ruled.
Matthew 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God”. Heart purity is seeing God, finding God, in all things.
Never surrender the awareness of God’s presence to a situation. When your “peace barometer” is disturbed, stop and take stock of the situation with the Lord. The peace of God in our being is not just a nice feeling to be enjoyed, it is also a God-given barometer to register a prompting from the Holy Spirit to His guidance, alert, wisdom…..indeed many things that we need to daily navigate in the school of life, but also the school of the Spirit. Every day is a school day. I need to keep my eyes on the Cross, the Lord Jesus Christ every day. My salvation does not depend on me or anything I have done. It is entirely on the finished work of Jesus Christ. On His foundation I can firmly stand and, Jesus and I, can journey through each day enjoying the Father’s presence together. He never leaves me alone in my trials, His word declares it is so. My feelings are irrevelant, only what His word declares is true.
May I learn to value what Jesus paid the price for on Calvary for me, the awareness of God’s presence, part of the all-inclusive gift of my salvation.
Photo by LOGAN WEAVER | @LGNWVR on Unsplash