Practising The Presence of God (2014)
Lent Meditations, Compiled by  Lee Bee Teik

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Purpose

  • To draw God’s people towards a more biblical view of God so that we may enjoy His friendship without fear of disappointments for He delights in mankind …. including you and me!
  • To enhance our appreciation and utter indebtedness to Christ for willing (at Gethsemane) to be made the atonement for sin (at the Cross) so that we can go home with Him (at His resurrection and second coming) to our waiting Father. Grace is mercy which is not deserved and cannot be earned.
  • To bring us to our knees to worship and love and please Him above all else!

Introduction

As you put aside more time for God over the next 41 days, enjoy His welcoming presence with no hurry. He must be so glad that you are here to give Him your attention and to listen to His gentle whispers. The Lent period is not for mere remembrance of the God who is far away but for deepening your friendship with the One who is near and within you. God is the One who so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, so that whosoever trusts Him will not be rejected by God into eternal loneliness but be reconciled with Him so that we may know and enjoy Him forever, as St. Augustine wrote.

This is a simple exercise appropriate and necessary for all believers the whole year round once one has got into the rhythm of waiting on God. But for those unfamiliar to such a spiritual discipline, this will be an initial simple manageable and gentle exercise to reduce the fat of spiritual lethargy, coupled with an aimless and joyless existence while on earth.

However, unless you have the Holy Spirit living in you as a guarantee of your salvation for eternity, through faith in the Son of God, Jesus, the Saviour of the world, the Bible references will not make much sense. In this case, know that God loves you and waits to come into your heart. Please kneel in your room, seek His forgiveness for all your sins, receive Him as your Saviour and Master and He will send His Holy Spirit to dwell in your heart. You will then hunger and thirst for Him through the hearing and reading of His word. Nevertheless, these meditations are for anyone who desires to know God for the first time or more, even if out of curiosity.

To God be the glory when we have begun to bask in His warm embrace when we feel rejected or ignored in our church or society. Our Father is negotiable, accepting and ever willing to be our Guide for our good. He knows we cannot manage ourselves on our own and is at hand to walk us on… He who cannot lie promises:

(Words in brackets are from the writer.)


Isaiah 30:19-26 (NIV)

19 People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem (after Christ has resurrected, this means the body of Christ, His church and bride), you will weep no more. How gracious He will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. 20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
 
22 Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold (e.g. wrong attachments such as certain exercise/meditation regimes, emotional wounds and addictions); you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!” (In Jesus’ Name for only He has the authority to deliver us from the evil one’s oppressions and forgive all our sins. This is what we will do once we know His direction/will for us in a particular matter.)
 
23 He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. 24 The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. 25 In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. 26 The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.

John 3:16-17 (NIV)

16 For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.

1 John 1:9 (NIV)

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Jeremiah 29:10-14 (NIV)

10 This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity.[a] I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

May our Father, His Son, and the Holy Spirit bless and keep you in His truth and grace as you make time for Him!

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