“I have asked the Lord for one thing; one thing only do I want: to live in the Lord’s house all my life, to marvel there at his goodness, and to ask for his guidance.” Psalm 27:4 GNT
When you fall in love with someone for the first time, there’s only one thing you’re after, to be in the person’s presence. Somehow time flies when all you do is sit, stare into each other’s eyes, laugh, and just be at peace. Nothing else in the world matters.
Things that become issues later, such as the exchange of physical gifts or who pays the restaurant bill, don’t matter when the feeling is still fresh. In such a season, even work is a distraction.
This is how it is with God. There’s a season where all we want to do is worship and just bask in the light of His word all day long. Then, when the feelings leave, we start to complain about not having answers to prayers, or we question God’s ability to come through for us. Like human relationships, we move from desire to demand.
All David wanted was to stay in that honeymoon phase with God all the days of his life. It wasn’t just about what God did for him, but who God was to him.
We get the most out of God’s presence when all we desire is the presence, not the material benefits of being in His presence. It’s difficult because we’re all after results.
But it’s in His presence that we receive power through His Spirit to do work the way He desires.
How can we enjoy the benefits of being in God’s presence without focusing on what we can get out of God?
There’s an adage in the Igbo dialect that says, “When a bird lands on a rope, the rope must shake.”.
All the bird wants to do is cease flight and just pause for a while. But in pausing on the rope, two things happen:
- The rope shakes, even if the bird didn’t intend it to.
- The bird shakes the rope by just standing on it.
The meaning is simple: Our states change when we cease all the toil and just pause. There’s an interaction between God’s presence and us the moment we enter. Things shift, things change, and we move in rhythm with that presence.
When we take flight into our work life again, we take that new state with us, and we work from that state, achieving results that can only come from pausing in God’s presence.
“I choose to pause in God’s presence by doing the following…”
Ceasing flights is not a waste of time. It’s an opportunity to recharge. Doing it often is an avenue to always stay recharged.
Take some time to think about how you want to integrate God’s presence into your daily life. Write your thoughts down in a journal and start putting each one into practice.
Leave a Reply