Presence vs. Absence

Matthew 7:7-8  7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

There is a great amount of deep meaning in these two verses, but the one truth contained in all the Bible is that God is always ever-present! God is never less present and never more present than He is at any given time. We often think that is how it is but it’s not.

The truth is that sometimes we seek and sometimes we don’t! We tend to turn to God when things are not going well, when we are experiencing deep trouble or heartache, sorrow, or pain, or when we want something.

But we lean towards ourselves when life is going well, when in fact, we should be seeking and praising in the good times as well as the bad, because God is always right there!

The above scripture explains God’s presence very clearly, it doesn’t say seek and I’ll think about it, knock and I’ll open the door when I get around to it, ask and I’ll make up my mind, or when your prayer finally gets to Heaven, it doesn’t say that at all! It says what it says because God is continually present at all times.

I often ponder the nature of man and why we turn from God so often and while I’ve covered this before, it does bear repeating. The reason is a bit obscure but understandable, when the fruit was taken and eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Satan instilled his evilness into man until a time when he no longer exists. (That time will come!!)

We have a sin nature as long as we inhabit these bodies of flesh, but a day is coming when we will be separated soul from body, and if we are truly saved, we will be with the Lord Jesus, and if we are not saved, we begin our eternity in hell!

There is no in-between, no holding place or holding period. It will be in the presence of the Lord or completely separated from Him, according to my understanding of the Word. Satan wanted to be like God so badly that he permanently caused himself to separate from God and angered God so very much that Hell was created to punish Satan and his demons.

Think about that last sentence, if you are not saved, then you will spend eternity in a place that was made to punish the one who was the senior angel in heaven and those that followed him. You will spend eternity there with them! Okay, enough with the doom and gloom, let’s move on to much brighter things.

Matthew 11:28 “Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

What exactly does that mean, I will give you rest? It means grace, help, peace, comfort, and love. That’s what Christ means by rest. We can gain great confidence from this scripture, knowing that the Lord God will give us rest.

Luke 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

Jesus told us to follow Him, not just once when we turn to Christ and repent in our Salvation experience, but every day, taking up our cross as believers and followers! Matthew 12:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

To honestly love the Lord God in the way Jesus said, we should, we must separate ourselves as much as possible from the world—in our hearts, in our minds, and in our souls. This is not as difficult as it may seem if our heart’s goal is to be pleasing to God.

If not and our desires are to serve ourselves, then it is indeed very difficult! So what are your desires? Do you desire to follow the Lord Jesus? Matthew 4:19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Jesus spoke this to Peter and Andrew but it applies to us as well, If we are true followers of Jesus, we will share the Gospel and thus become fishers of men for the Lord, just as we were commissioned.

 I have heard many so-called Christians say that they love the Lord, yet they have no desire to serve Him. This is something I truly cannot understand.

How can you honestly love Jesus and not want to be His servant? In this there seems to be something missing. I can only believe that the claim of loving the Lord was nothing more than empty words and contained no truth.

Just as I have heard people claim to be Christians and yet never pray unless facing disaster. We are told to pray without ceasing (praying throughout our day).

We are told to pray fervently (praying in the depth of our heart). God does not want our words, that is evident when the Scripture talks about the Holy Spirit giving moanings for us in heaven. God wants us completely. He wants to hear the desires of our heart.

There are times we just can’t pray for one reason or another—just call out to God and ask Him to search your heart and to cast His eyes upon you. It is not a sin to lack the words for prayer; just ask God to consider the situation and then trust in Him to do just that!

The Scripture says we have not because we ask not, but there are times we don’t even know how to ask or exactly what to ask for. This is when faith must come into play! Let me ask you—do you have a mustard seed? Of course I am referring to the mustard seed of faith.

To gain that mustard seed of faith, we must come to an understanding of who we are in comparison to God. Then we can have a mustard seed of faith!

I think it is very important for all Christians to go through times of serious self-examination of the condition of our walk with the Lord, examining our motives in our giving of time to study versus other things, looking at our desires and comparing them with the Word of God, and taking a hard look at our goals and service to God.

It is very easy to look at others and speculate where they are in their walk, but if we truly desire to be the Christian the Bible tells us to be, then we must look inward.

The inward look can be difficult as we generally don’t have to look very far to find fault and areas of lack, but this is a healthy thing because it exposes weakness and room for improvement. We cannot afford to be weak Christians—a weak Christian is Satan’s favorite prey.

He loves to devour those that are not strong in their walk with God. It’s hard enough for those that are strong (think of Job).

Job was an extremely strong man in his faith and if you read you will see how difficult it was for him. So how impossible it could be for a person of little faith and who is weak in their belief. I do not want the devil running to heaven and telling God “see how weak and frail your pathetic child is in their trust in You!”

I want to be so strong in my walk and service to God that the old devil doesn’t even want my name brought up!

In closing:

You can Pray, or you can be preyed upon. You can be strong in your Faith, or you can be weak and suffer. You can Believe in the Lord and be saved and live in paradise, or lost and dwell in torment for eternity.

Kenneth Kellar
A Man Called by God to Teach and Disciple