Getting into His Presence

Posted on by Andrew Clark

I know what it’s like to be looked at as if I’m stupid for suggesting a follower of Jesus should maybe spend an hour of the day seeking God’s presence, reading his Word and in prayer. I’m not even talking about doing that all in the one sitting. I’ve wept over church spiritual life surveys which reveal many hearts don’t seem him for even an hour a week.

Is that really unreasonable? No. It really isn’t. But why does it seem like such a huge ask? Well, we have really low bar when it comes to discipleship. We are also highly distracted generation. But, more than anything, I know that in my life it can come down to lack of hunger and thirst for Him.

Sure, I might call it busy, stressed, tired, etc., but a lot of the time it can just ‘am I really bothered?’ It’s just easy to not want to and live in that scarce state.

Now, for over 23 years, some church or other has been giving me a stipend to enable me to invest my life in ministry, but somehow, there have been seasons when ‘I haven’t had time’. But do you know what? The problem isn’t time, it’s desire.

You won’t always want to come before God, pray, open the Bible. Authentic discipleship takes us beyond the dry desert into quiet (or noisy!) desperation and into sacrificial pouring out of our lives. Discipleship isn’t static – you don’t machine. Lack of movement is a step backwards.

God comes where he is wanted. He is like the father waiting on the brow of the hill longing for his wandered kids to come home to his presence. If we don’t come by love and choice, we will eventually come in a crisis and discover if we’d come home earlier or not left at all, we might have been in the ‘oh what needless pain we bear; all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer’ category.

The Lord loves it when I come. He told me so.

So, I don’t want to live in the mediocrity of ‘reasonableness’. I want to draw deeper into his love and presence each day, not just because I need to churn out ‘ministry’, but because I am his beloved son and there’s no place I’d rather be.