I hope you enjoyed the last 2 days of the blog.....Wait, it wasn't there was it. I did that on purpose to see if anyone would notice. I hope you continued finding you own way to make sure the presence of God was with you and your family without the blog for the past 2 days. I don't know about you, but for me it is easy to forget about God presence in my day to day life. It is as easy as just that. Many of you have been reading this everyday and after yesterday, you thought, well I guess it is not going to happen. I wanted to show everyone how easy it is to just forget. Having the presence of God in your life is a choice we must take daily. The bible tells us we cannot serve 2 masters. We just can't. It doesn't work that way for God. He wants all of us and when we can't do that it seems we just go through life and make it day to day. But there is something missing, and we all know what it is. There are people we know and maybe even ourselves that are looking for something to fill the void in our life...It is the presence of God almighty.....
I am going to get a little personal right now and just put it all on the table. I grew up in church and I know right from wrong. I know the bible fairly well and know when I am not on the straight and narrow path. There has been more than one occasion I have felt as far from God as I could be. There have been times in my life I could care less about what God wanted from me and I only wanted to take care of myself and that was it. I know none of you have ever been there, but I will admit it.
Almost 10 years ago was one of those times in my life. I had just gotten divorced. I was an okay looking guy with custody of my son and a god job. You know what that meant. There was something special about me when it came to women looking for an opportunity to date. I am not going to go into details, but this was a time in my life where I gave into the temptations of self and the desires of the flesh so many times it was pathetic. I was mad at God for me getting divorced. I was mad at my parents for having such a great relationship in front of me. (I later learned it was not always so happy) I was mad at my ex wife for many reasons. I was scared to be a dad of a little boy. I was mad at the church for telling me I had to go. I thought they would stand beside me and help me through this. I was mad because I thought it wasn't my fault, it was everyone else's. I continued to slip further and further away from God and it didn't matter to me at all. I was done. I was throwing in the towel and I was going to do what everyone else was doing and that was take care of me.....
I quit going to church regularly. I started figuring out ways I could do what I wanted to do. I fished, I hunted, I partied, I went out with the ladies, I played golf, and I did whatever I wanted to do....
I, like so many other people, started focusing on my desires and not what God desires for me. I was on a downward spiral into hell and no one was going to stop me. So I thought....
I remember laying in bed one night with Parker curled up next to me crying because I felt so alone. I remember praying to God, knowing he wasn't hearing it because of the sin in my life. I had allowed myself to believe none of this was my fault. Then it hit me. It hit me hard. It was my fault I had allowed God to not be first in my life. It was my fault I had allowed my selfish desires to come before my relationship with God, Parker, and my family. I was missing something and it was the presence of God. I had to get things right. I had to pray for forgiveness and come to the understanding God never left me, I left God. I prayed to my Saviour to forgive me. I confessed my sins. I got things right. The presence of God was with me again. I had everything I needed right in front of me. I had a son that adored me, family that supported me, and a God that never left me.
A few weeks later I got a call to go try out for a youth pastor position in Seminole and the rest is history...or another story for another day....
Here is the moral to the story:
God never leaves us we leave him. We can blame whoever or whatever we want, but we are ultimately accountable for our actions...
Proverbs 19:21
"Many are the plans of a mans heart, but God's purpose always prevails..."
Challenge:
Think about the times you were not in the presence of God.
What did it feel like?
What did it look like?
What did you do about it?
Do you want others to feel the same way you did?
We have 15 more days until we get to Christmas day, will you commit to carrying the presence of God with you for 15 days straight?
Justin Presley
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