A Prayer for God’s Presence

 

 

Almighty God, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, we are tempted to lift our words heavenward knowing that You dwell on the throne of heaven, and yet this week we wish to remember that as the Omnipresent One, You are also with us, closer than hands and feet.  You are the ever-present One.  And even as we say this, we know that what we desperately need of You is a healthy consciousness of Your presence.  We ask for a healthy sense of Your presence because we are fully aware that there are those who have an unhealthy consciousness of Your presence.  There are those who think of You as a heavenly policeman who is always trying to catch us doing something wrong.   Or who think of You as the eternal judge, ready to sentence us to eternal damnation.   We know of those who have said, “God is out to get me.”  

 

Father God, we ask for a healthy consciousness of Your presence, a consciousness of Your loving concern, of Your protecting care and of Your forgiving grace.   May we know You to be with us when we  are walking and when we are talking, when we are working and when we are resting, when we are tempted and when we are tried.   Help us to see You in every experience, whether great  or small, joyful or sorrowful,  expected  or  unexpected, ordinary or unordinary.  Help us to know You to be not only with us but for us.       

 

We are reminded of the prophet Elijah whom You asked to confront the most wicked of all the kings of Israel.  It was his consciousness of Your presence in his life that made it possible to carry out his assignment.  It is recorded that he said, “As the Lord, the Almighty lives, before whom I stand, I will surely present myself to Ahab this day.”  We are equipped to face the greatest of challenges if we know that we stand in Your   presence.  We can face the most dreaded diseases, the greatest disappointments, the most trying times if we can say, “As the Lord, the Almighty lives; before whom I stand,” we will surely be able to face any and every challenge that we will face today, tomorrow or any time in the future.  It is not that we will never face giant challenges, but rather,  when we face them we know that You will be there at our side, giving us the courage, the strength and the will to fight through even the greatest of them.  You will be there urging us on, quickening our spirits, recording even our tears on the scrolls of heaven, helping us to be faithful to the Lord who has redeemed us and empowered us.

 

We think of the words of the poet who wrote: “I could see You, if my heart was right; if all the rubbish in my soul was cleared away; by being whole, my breast would thrill in glad surprise to all the wonders of my eyes.  If my heart was right I could see You.  And in the radiance of Your face, I’d flame with light and fill this place, with beauty and the world would know, Your face down here below,  if my heart was right."

 

This we pray in the name which is above every name, the name of Jesus.   Amen