Hosanna Restoration Church

We spend our lives looking for something that will satisfy us. Little children go from one thing to another to another to another. Think about it. If they have a red sucker and see a green sucker, they want the green. As they grow up, they find their favorites for a while, but that is always subject to change as well.

This searching continues. The truth is, this goes on because we need the one thing that will truly satisfy us and at the same time help us find the satisfaction that God intended for us to have in life. That one thing comes from the presence of God. It is His presence that perfects what God began in us.

Notice Jesus simply said follow me and I will teach you. They needed only to stay close to Him. We have the same opportunity. In Psalms we are told to enter His presence with thanksgiving in our hearts and praise Him. We are given reasons for having this attitude; we are given promises as to what this attitude will accomplish.

We are promised by God that He will complete the good work that He has begun in us, and we are told to seek Him, and we will find Him. We are told that His presence will produce pleasure, life, and fullness of joy.

We often learn from a young age that God is out there somewhere, but we really do not understand where. We have the general idea that if we are good enough, we might go to where He is, but it does not take that long for us to decide that might be a long shot. There are times in life when we unknowingly experience His presence in our lives, but really do not understand what that is.

We have opportunities to follow like the disciples did, but there again we may not recognize what it was. This is because we do not know about the presence of God. We may have agreed with others that God is everywhere, but we never really considered that God was near or could be near to us. He more than likely was not dear to us. It is possible that He was not really a consideration at all. Even then, Holy Spirit stayed near to draw us into the one thing that we need.

Christianity is really hard without His presence! Jesus invited the disciples to follow Him; this required staying close! If He disappeared, how could they follow? Later, when He talked about leaving, He assured them that He would send another helper. They really had no idea what He meant, but they knew they could not continue without Him.

When we know that we cannot continue without Him, we are in the place of pleasure. When we know we cannot live without Him, we begin to experience satisfaction. That satisfaction is always present in His presence.

Seek His presence. Rest in His presence. Stay in His presence. We will find life. We will realize that His presence is really all we need. Yes, live in the perfecting presence of God. Come Holy Spirit.