Dwelling in the presence of God

Psalm 27

Are you feeling lost? Fearful? Lonely? Fear is a dark shadow that envelops us and finally imprisons us within ourselves. We may be fearful of many things, fear of rejection, fear of people and their disapproval, fear of failure, fear of sickness and death, fear of being weak and helpless, fear of letting people see our weaknesses or true self or background or sins... And many times, fear cripples us, causes us to make the wrong decisions. Like sometimes, we choose to hide our fears, choose to act strong, choose to ignore it. But these wrong decisions do not solve our problems, and finally, we may be imprisoned within the fear itself, living life with fear, losing ourselves.

How then? The only solution, is confidence and trust in the Lord, because God says He offers help today and hope for the future. When we conquer fear with God's light, we can stand in confidence and hope. But how to have confidence and trust in the Lord? We cant keep telling ourselves "trust, trust..." Eventually, we will becoming tired, dont see results and lose heart.

That brings us to verse 4. Huh? dwell in God's house? Means we stay in church 24 h? Actually, i love to do that, especially in the past, because church is where i can find my spiritual family who would love and accept me, where i can be in God's presence, cry when i'm hurting, receive peace and don't have to face all the problems and issues. (that's why my greatest wish was to be a tabernacle attendant, everyday just serving in God's house, don't need to face the problems.)

But actually, we don't have to be in church 24 hours in order to be in God's house. Being in God's house also means to dwell in His presence. How can we dwell in His presence? Then answer is given in the verse too.. To gaze upon His beauty and to seek Him. We can focus on Him and look to Him every moment in life, talk to Him, building a relationship with Him. And God's call is "Seek my face". "You shall find me, if you seek Me with all your heart."

Then we may think, we have tried to seek God. But... There is no answer. It seems like God is not answering or don't understand the urgency. God's answer to us is, "In My time, I make all things beautiful." He uses the waiting time to refresh, renew and teach us. So, "Be strong and take heart. Wait for the Lord."

In a world, people are often hurt, esp by people close to our hearts... being forsaken by our own parents, some literally, some cos the parents have different beliefs, addicted to drugs or alcohol, working and thus not spending time with their children, bad relationships.... The pain may linger, But God's invitation is for us to let Him take that place in ur hearts, fill that void, and heal that hurt. He may even place people over us to take the role of father or mother.. (thank God for my spiritual parents. =D) He reminds us again, His love is sufficient for us.