Trusting In GOD's Presence | 12.26.12

No matter what we face in life, we can trust in GOD's presence.  Make no mistake about it: GOD is always with us, but we can never be confident in this thing if we fail to trust in His presence.  In fact, it was spoken by Moses in Deuteronomy 31:6 to all Israel that the LORD "will not fail thee, nor forsake thee."  (Hebrews 13:5 quotes this passage in a way more familiar to our hearing: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.")  Herein, though, lies the reality check: simply accepting the fact that GOD is present is not enough when our faith is under fire.  When the will of GOD for our lives leads us through the valley of the shadow of death, we require more than the mere acceptance of GOD's presence...  We must pursue an immutable awareness of GOD's presence, an awareness so strong that nothing we face can make us doubt His presence being with us.  And as much as we may hate to acknowledge this, for our awareness of His presence to become that strong, it generally takes us encountering situations wherein only a manifestation of GOD's presence can get us through.

It's not by accident, friends, that we see Moses encouraging all Israel in Deuteronomy 31:6.  For Moses was himself led by GOD into situations that required him to explicitly trust in GOD's presence.  After fleeing the only home he had ever known to reinvent himself and spend the next forty years of his life hidden away in the desert, Moses got an assignment from GOD that struck fear in him: return to Egypt and tell Pharoah to free the Israelite people (Exodus 3:10).  Moses went down a whole list of concerns and GOD addressed each of them, one in particular being that he was slow of speech and of a slow tongue (Exodus 4:10).  This is where we see a fine example of the sufficiency of GOD's grace and how the strength of the LORD is made perfect in weakness, as stated in 2 Corinthians 12:9.

GOD confirms His presence by manifesting Himself through us.  Moses clearly did not want to go to Egypt unless GOD went with Him.  GOD said that He would not only go with Moses (in Exodus 3:12) but He would also speak through Moses (according to Exodus 4:11-12).  Do you see what just happened here?!  To prove that He would be with Moses, GOD promised to manifest His presence in the very place Moses considered to be his greatest area of weakness.  HALLELUJAH!!!  Know this, friends, that the strength of GOD Almighty is being manifested in our weakest areas as a confirmation that GOD's presence is right here with us.  Our awareness of GOD's presence is growing stronger each and every time demands are made on our weaknesses, so we must not despise our weaknesses or become fearful when situations arise in an attempt to expose them.  When we begin to trust in GOD's presence, it is then that we become confident in His power and ability working through us.  We can now approach the work of advancing GOD's Kingdom with more boldness because, thanks to these experiences with GOD in our weak areas, we have a heightened awareness that His presence is with us and working through us to accomplish within time the expected end that has already been decreed in eternity.