The Light of His Presence

My heart…your heart…all our hearts have suffered much this year. Undoubtedly, much, too much angst has hit us in 2020. Yet those of us who know the Lord have a place to take our “angst”—the Throne, where the writer of Hebrews (4:16) tells us that we can receive mercy and find God’s grace to help us.

We come to this place via our prayers of faith. Sometimes that prayer is in the form of words. Sometimes just tears. But, when we can put our prayers into words, especially written words, there’s just something more impactful that happens.

That is what Anne Graham Lotz did with her prayers—she journaled them. And some of those prayers have now become her new book, The Light of His Presence.

I have been reading an advanced digital copy of her book which has now launched and is available for purchase. I’ve found the prayers she journaled and shares with us are so applicable to what I am facing in this season, what many of us are facing. Without question, her book is for such a time as this.

 

God put this book in my hands, so to speak, to give me encouragement and to remind me that He is—He is always current. He is always powerful and merciful to my needs, to what is happening to me, and to what is happening to others across this world. Anne’s book is perfect to read and pray along with no matter your circumstance, i.e. prayers for peace and protection, for cleansing and revival, for deliverance, for strength to stand, etc. One prayer that struck me was a prayer for restored beauty in the body of Christ.

 

As Christ followers, we have a huge responsibility to be His (beautiful) Presence through living in His Spirit among the people who walk this land of the living with us. We can do that by reflecting His image, as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:18, from glory to glory, and, as Anne wrote, by bowing down in joyful, humble surrender to the Living God with our allegiance declared to Him alone. That joy is a beauty that reflects His glory, especially in these times when we have to choose to keep standing in His truth without allowing popular opinion or cultural norms to be deciding factors in how we live life.

I would echo Anne's prayer—Lord, “Call out for Yourself a remnant of followers who will stand firm on the truth, and having done all we can do to impart it to others, may we still stand even if we are the last ones to do so." In the Name above all names, amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Normal

The storms reveal the lies we believe and the truths we need.

Susie Larson, "Fully Alive"

 

Susie's words made me think about the storms we are currently in, particularly the storms the Church is facing. The thunder of storms is what wake us up to the danger of lightning. It causes us to pay attention. We need to wake up and pay attention. It's time to identify the lies we believe.

 

Is it possible that one of those lies is the "normal" we've been taken out of and that we are now seeking to return to? Could it be that our "normal" is a comfort zone that the Lord wants to shake us out of?

 

Sometimes things become so normal to us that we forget those things aren't normal at all.

 

But, praise be, God works in our storms. He uses them to catch our attention. Storms drive us to cry out to Him from the deepest part of our hearts. The Gospels record that Jesus personally stormed the Temple with a whip to remind His people that this dwelling place of God was/is to be a house of prayer. It’s that important.

 

Prayer itself, though, can be a stormy place. It is a place where God will shake us out of our norm, where the lies are hidden, into the truth we need. And sometimes, like any storm, that can be scary.

 

Perhaps that is one reason we don't pray as we should. It's discomforting. But then, like when the sun comes out brighter after the clouds have fled, we find that prayer is the place that renews our lives and gives us more than normal ever offered.

 

One thing I know is that a return to normal is not what God desires. Normal will not make the Church strong enough to face what is coming.

 

And it is coming.

 

But until that time, these intensified birth pangs—storms—are meant to get us out of normalized comfort. They're meant to get us on our knees so we can endure. 

 

 

But keep your hope to the end and you will experience life and deliverance.

Matthew 24:13 (TPT)