I trust you all are looking to the Lord to impart “Something New” into your soul and you’re holding onto the promise that “He” is able to impart to you more than you can think or imagine.
I had a few Scriptures written down that I wanted to use as encouragement during our fasting time, and I went to bed last night with my right eye starting to water and hurt. When I got up this morning, my lower eyelid was swollen and hurt like I was getting a sty. I used to get these when I was young because of eye lid operations when I was 6-7 years old, but haven’t had them in over 50 years.
The reason I’m sharing this is because of the scripture God put on my heart to share about today. Psalms 139 & Luke 24. Hopefully it will make sense by the time I finish this post.
Psalms 139:1-7
O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thoughts from afar.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
[4] Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all.
[5] You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.
[6] Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
While we fast, one of the primary things most, if not all of us want, is to sense God’s presence in a deeper way. David seemed to learn that there is nowhere he, (or we) could go from God’s presence. He made the comment that this understanding was “Too Wonderful” for him. In other words, this revelation was not a passing thought but a “Huge” breakthrough.
Can I encourage all of us to consider that God’s presence is always with us no matter whether we are fasting or not? Fasting is meant to help us “Focus” on this truth, not to create God’s presence.
Luke 24:13-17. The Road to Emmaus –
And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem.
And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place.
While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them.
[16] But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.
[17] And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they stood still, looking sad.
This is the second part to my point. Though God’s presence is always with us, sometimes we are prevented from perceiving it either because we are too “occupied” with other things or because God himself is withholding that awareness.
I think we can figure out when our part is off because we are so focused on other things; many times good things, but we can’t even begin to believe God is very near. But how about when God withholds awareness? These two men were not living without a hunger for God. They truly wanted to understand what God was up to but now found themselves so confused by the event that had just happened (Christ’s death on the cross).
From my perspective, here is just one reason God may withhold the awareness of his presence from good people seeking good things from God. Sometimes we need to do the hard work of “Reasoning Out” what we know.
I think we all want God to just “Dump” understanding and wisdom on us, yet he designed man to “Reason” through life’s events to gain wisdom. These two good guys got confused with the events surrounding their lives. If Jesus revealed who he was too quickly, they would have likely dropped their effort of going deeper to gain knowledge and understanding of what God was up to.
This leads me back to my opening. My eye was almost shut this morning and I had plans of getting a cup of coffee and start studying but with my eye the way it was, I couldn’t read very well. So I started to complain to God about letting this happen when I had such good plans for the morning. What I learned was “He” had other plans for me and this seemed to be a way of getting my attention.
Can I ask the question?
What is God trying to get you to “Wrestle” with to go deeper during this fast? What understanding does he want you to gain even when the process isn’t easy.
May we do the heavy work of thinking while letting the Holy Spirit lead until we gain the understanding that –
1) His presence is always with us.
2) He wants to take us deeper.
3) We are going to participate in the work of growing in our understanding of who He wants to be in our daily lives.
I love our reasoning together in everyone’s posts. God is doing a deep work.
Pastor Dale
Leave a Comment