Hosanna Restoration Church

Last time, we talked about what we say and about what needs to be said, and things that silence might cover better. This week the Lord impressed me with response to Him. How do we respond to God and to His presence? How do we prepare for His presence?

Well, I came to the conclusion that my preparation needs work. I confess that when I go to the Lord I am frequently nearly done by the time I am focused and truly prepared. I find that other things interrupt me. I hurry to make sure I get “my devotions” done and then I have to start over!

Then, of course, I am a pastor and when things jump out at me, it is a fight to make myself quit thinking of preaching and teaching and focus on hearing what the Lord is saying to me. I realize that what He says to me is often what needs to be shared, but it also must be engrafted in me.

As I read the Old Testament, I am often amazed at the amount of meticulous preparation that the Lord required for sacrifices and today it hit me that I have a lot of stuff that I do too! The things the Lord required of them required focus and time, which zeroed them in on what they were doing. Sometimes, my distractions are what force me to focus. The important thing is that we focus on the Lord and respond to Him.

Lord, give us tender hearts that desire you and that desire to interact and to respond to how wonderful you are. Jesus had a lot to get done in a short time, but His preparation was where His response came from and the same is true for us.

Scripture tells usto always be prepared to give a response in order to defend the hope that is us. We are not only to respond, but we are to respond correctly. We need to have hope to defend. Hope comes from time with the Lord. Hope comes from observing what the Lord is doing in our lives. Hope grows with paying attention to and responding to God and His amazing presence.

My personal quest is to quit wasting time and quickly get on with the business of being present. Casting down imaginations as distractions is a great way to do this. The problem is, we often think about the distractions before we cast them down. Of course, there are times when the Lord might have a different plan as well. Jesus had times when He was going to get away with God and compassion for the people put it off for a while.

What am I getting at? Well, it comes down to responding to God. How important is He to me? My instant response is that He is my everything! If He is my everything, then there should not be anything more important to me than Him. Nothing should be able to distract me. My overwhelming attraction should be Him. I should always be ready to respond to Him, which means I should always have an ear open to Him. I should refuse to leave His  presence until I have properly entered His presence. I should not just run in and say hello and then say, “well, I’ve got to go!