{"id":6576,"date":"2024-09-29T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-29T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=6576"},"modified":"2024-09-19T20:54:01","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T01:54:01","slug":"gods-presence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=6576","title":{"rendered":"God’s Presence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From God comes\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

From God comes His presence. Of course, God\u2019s presence is everywhere (Psalm 139:7-12) However, when we surrender to Christ, we get the added bonus of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us (1 John 4:13). As we yield to God, His presence transforms us to be more like Him (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There may be times in our lives when we actually feel God\u2019s presence. I\u2019m reminded of the old hymn Surely the Prescence of the Lord Is in This Place. The lyrics say we can feel God\u2019s power and grace. There have been times when I\u2019ve sung this hymn with a multi-denominational group and actually felt God connecting us all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes we do not feel God\u2019s presence immediately. The scriptural passage that inspired this hymn is about Jacob awaking from an inspiriting dream and saying, \u201cSurely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it\u201d (Genesis 28:16).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes we don\u2019t feel it at all. Some Christians want a feeling instead of a relationship, so they search high and low for something that is already with them. People who base their relationship with Christ on their feelings, seldom have a stable Christian life. They have not learned that whether we feel it or not, God is with us. Whether we feel it or not, God loves us. Whether we feel it or not, God will never leave or forsake us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The classic poem Footprints in the Sand illustrates this point. It is about a man who dreamed he was walking on the beach with God. He could see two sets of footprints in the sand. One belonged to him and one to the Lord. However, there were troublesome times in his life where he could only see one set of prints. When he asked God where He was when he needed Him most. God answers, \u201cMy dear child, during times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God\u2019s presence helps us survive the storms of life. Most people don\u2019t know that ships have a little gadget called a gyroscope. It helps stabilize the vessel and keep it on an even keel even though storms are raging. That is what God\u2019s presence does in our lives. When the storms of life begin to rock our boats, God\u2019s presence keeps us stable so we can have peace. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Jacob realized God\u2019s presence was in that place, he said, \u201cHow awesome is this place!\u201d (Genesis 28:17). How awesome that we have God\u2019s presence with us all the time, whether we feel it or not!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

~James 1:17 (NLT)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From God comes\u2026 From God comes His presence. Of course, God\u2019s presence is everywhere (Psalm 139:7-12) However, when we surrender to Christ, we get the added bonus of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us (1 John 4:13). As we yield … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6576"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6581,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6576\/revisions\/6581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}