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- Written by: Don Goulding
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. (Psalms 51:11) (NIV)
I walked in the life-throbbing forest mouthing prayers of thankfulness, and the press about me increased.
Over tuna sandwiches, a friend effervesced about the joy of Jesus’s touch, and the heavenly ether thickened.
A timid inchworm worked his way across my table. I wondered at the diversity of creation, and the spiritual barometer rose.
Dozens of experiences each day add to the quickening pressure of God’s presence. I feel it, revel in it, and hunger for it. The evidence is never direct, and yet, it remains my everything.
It is the pressure of the presence that lifts my head above the clouds. Troubles clamor and clutch, but they do it down below in the thunderheads. Up here, joy, peace, and love hold hands around me. It would be madness to break out of their fun and sink into worldly chaos.
How do unbelievers face life without the Spirit of God? They must be another species—a life form that exists where I cannot imagine. Were his presence to leave me, I would revert to animal life. I could eat, talk, and breathe, yet I’d only be an organism, like a flea or a paramecium.
God, if ever you have to leave me, please erase my existence first so I’ll not have to experience the loss of you. Surround me with the worst of nightmares. Send me to face demons if you must, but I beg you, don’t take your Spirit from me.
Prayer: I praise you again, Holy Spirit, for the pressure of your presence.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the one who was proclaimed among you by us - by me and Silvanus and Timothy - was not “Yes” and “No,” but it has always been “Yes” in him. For every one of God’s promises are “Yes” in him… (2 Corinthians 1:19, 20)
God asked man to love him above all else. Man said no. That no reverberated through time into every crevice of life.
Is nature healthy? No. Will you live forever? No. Are you whole without God? No.
No is the most devastating word in any language. It condemns us to suffer for eternity.
Jesus came so that everyone living in the world might have a second chance at God’s question. “Through my Son will you love me above all else?”
When we say yes, anything a purified imagination dreams is granted with a laughing, almighty yes. God, do you love me? Yes. Do you forgive me? Yes. Are you with me? Yes.
Say yes to God through Christ, and he will say yes to you through eternity. It sounds easy, but this world slams noes into our face with such frequency that we lose hope in the word yes. Rejection is a no. Loss of health and income are more noes. The noes pile up until it’s difficult to see a yes right in front of us.
God’s yes resounds, it knocks down our heap of noes. But He doesn’t merely remove our noes, he converts them into yeses. As we hand each no to him, trusting in his recompense, he redeems them to yeses of eternal reward. Such is his mighty power over every no.
In Christ, life is yes. Yes, yes, and forever yes.
Prayer: Father in heaven, I rest in your yes.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
Whom do I have in heaven but you?
I desire no one but you on earth. (Psalms 73:25)
Desire is a gun fired grappling hook. It defies the gravity of every obstacle, and cuts through space toward its target. The steel hook jerks the rope of my life forward in limp obedience.
If a sea turtle sets her desire on returning to the nesting grounds, or a moth to joining the light, they’ll either satisfy their desire or die in the attempt. I may be more subtle but, when it comes to desire, I’m the same.
My error was never in the strength of my desire, it was in my choice of targets. I was duped into aiming for temporal goals—those pleasures that are, by definition, incapable of giving lasting fulfillment. Now I want to aim my scope at an eternal target. This time I’ll align the crosshairs on ultimate satisfaction—on Jesus.
Flying through life, I find my hook is subject to gusts of distraction and the gravity of discouragement. Landing on Jesus becomes an outlandish ambition. The only way I can hit my target is if my desire has enough weight and a fine enough point. It must fly white-hot.
With the correct bearing, desire is no longer a shamed urging, rather, it’s blessed by the one who gave it. So I’ll not hold back. I’ll allow desire to pull me in desperate urgency. Go ahead, desire, and pierce all other pursuits. Soar with fervor toward the beat of your heart, even to Jesus the perfect one for whom you burn.
Prayer: Jesus, I desire nothing in this world but you.