for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” [romans 8:15]
crying out to the Lord.
as i reflect upon the ‘in the presence’ series of writings, i have been so encouraged by the readers and other writers–i have received texts and encouragements from the body, from those who have said they have been helped by these writings–but as much as you have been helped, what writing these have helped me to do is wrestle with a very specific idea–that everything we do is ‘coram deo’–in the presence of God. no matter what difficult passage was my assignment, God speaks in and through all of his word.
and so, as we end the series, i wanted to remind the reader–since we won’t make it to this passage in romans, i thought it prescient:
let us cry out to the Lord: askng for his help is not a burden to him–it is what he commands us to do, it is how we posture ourselves in a place where we show that we need his help and presence.
in the book the the boy, the mole, the fox and the horse the following exchange occurs:
“what is the bravest thing you’ve ever said? asked the boy.
‘help,’ said the horse.
‘asking for help isn’t giving up,’ said the horse. ‘it’s refusing to give up.”
when we think we don’t need the Lord, we won’t ask for help. crying out the the Lord means that we know that he is the only one who can help us–even though God is always present, when we slow our constantly wandering minds and hearts and cry out to him, we are the ones who suddenly aware that he is there and has been the whole time: it humbles us and puts our temptations, our sin, our failures, our joys and our loves in the right place.
Psalm 107 is an amazing reminder of how we wander from God–but how he is steadfast in showing us his presence:
just a small sampling of the psalm:
some were fools through their sinful ways,
and because of their iniquities suffered affliction;
they loathed any kind of food,
and they drew near to the gates of death.
then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
he sent out his word and healed them,
and delivered them from their destruction.
let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
and let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving,
and tell of his deeds in songs of joy! [psalm 107:17-22 emphasis mine]
the christian’s life is filled with crying out.
i want to thank john for leading us on this journey of seeking the Lord’s presence, what a gift for the body to focus on for the last several years. even though there won’t be any new writings, there is a library of over 1500 writings to go back to and be encouraged by–daily take the time to cry out to the Lord in your trouble, cry out to him for his steadfast love, he has not withheld his own Son, Jesus from you–
he who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? [romans 8:32]
this is the gracious God we serve–this is the generous God we seek–we cry out for help from the only true God, God Almighty, our Everlasting Father! seek his presence!
~conor eastman
[reminder: the presence writings will end on tuesday, december 31st. it has been our pleasure to serve the body of Christ with these writings. our prayer: that we would continue to learn to engage the presence of God every day, in every moment, and in every setting.]