In His Presence enough?

I was praying this morning. As usual , I was going through this list of requests, all good ones i'll admit. It occurred to be though, Is His presence enough? God tells us to make our requests, but I just wondered, for me, am I content to know His presence. I immediately recalled a verse, however I was not sure what that verse was, ( Does this ever happen to you?) So I combed the scriptures and in Jude I found a verse that really seemed to fit.

Jude 24-25, " Now to Him that is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen"

Wow! we get to stand in His presence. My mind finds it difficult to wrap itself around that truth, but just the knowledge that in His presence I am safe and secure, makes me want to stop and always make sure that I never leave His Hands.

A Formula for Prayer

Jesus is Here (Matthew 18:19-20 )

Help me, Lord ( James 5:13-16)

Thank you , Lord ( Philippians 4:4-7)

Help my brother ( Mark 11:22-25)

This is one of many suggestions for guiding our prayer life. There really is no right way, this is just a suggestion. The key, I think is to place yourself( mindset) in the presence of God. Think of Christ as standing at your side, sharing your experience.

These ideas came from a book on prayer that I have been reading by Philip Yancey
"Prayer: Does it Make Any Difference"

This weekend, we will be asking the ? Who lives in you? What a great question for us to ponder. As I was studying this week for sermon, I noticed the calmness and confidence Micah has. In Chapter 7:7 He says, " But for me, I'm not giving up. I'm sticking around to see what God will do . I'm waiting for God to make things right. I'm counting on God to listen to me." Do we have that confidence? When everyone else around us fails and even, we have failed ourselves, God is there. Micah, walked so closely with God that he knew sticking around long enough, would be opportunity to see God at work. God works in His own timing, (don't we know that) Let's practice " sticking around" and " waiting" God will show up and as always will make things right.
Pastor Greg