A few weeks ago, Claudine shared how she learned to worship God in person. We might call that a practice of being in God’s presence. It’s much different from corporate worship where we come together to praise and celebrate, even confess. A personal practice seeks to listen and respond to God in solitude.
Today, we’re going to look at another way to practice God’s presence.
Colossians 2:6-7 says,
And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
We grow from the roots . . . and specifically being rooted to Jesus, knowing the Truth of the Gospel. My relationship with God deepened dramatically when I got to know Jesus better. I started by reading the Gospels and my first stop was reading John in a modern translation. I wanted to read new words because I had a lot of dull Bible phrases that I knew by rote, but didn’t understand by heart.
Look with me at John 1:1-5, NLT:
In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
In looking at that description of Jesus, what do we learn about God?
Do you see that He’s relational, conversational and creational?
What does Jesus do?
He is the active expression of God’s character, the image of our invisible God, and the very light of life that extinguishes all darkness.
Further along in that chapter, John makes it even more personal:
So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. John 1:14
I encourage you to take some time today to read over those passages and list the qualities of God that Jesus expresses. Make it a practice of prayer to discern which qualities of Jesus you might root yourself in today.
Equip Her 