Strong and SecureSample

Are You Thirsty for His Presence?

“O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Psalm 63:1 NASB

Michelle

If you spend any time watching the news these days, it’s easy to become anxious. I had a client who lowered her anxiety scale score in half by reducing how much time she spent looking at screens. I asked her, “What if instead of ruminating or obsessing over the problems in our world, you spent at least the same amount of time focused on the bigness of God?” As she worked at balancing her God focus with her worries about our world, she reported back that she wanted God to fill more of her mental energy. She became thirsty for more time focused on her divine Father.

Jerry Jenkins, who wrote the famous evangelist Billy Graham’s biography, once shared in a speech that he’d asked Billy why he had open Bibles all over his home. Billy replied that just like snacking on food throughout the day, he wanted to have open reminders to snack on the Word of God. When I lived in the dorms at Baylor University, we placed transparent page holders in all the bathroom stalls. We took turns writing and printing out devotions or Scriptures to slide in the holders so we could be encouraged throughout our day. I keep devotionals like the one you are reading in our home bathrooms for the same reason. In the counseling office, clients battle worries racing through their heads that feel overwhelming. When we write our negative thoughts out on a piece of paper, draw out future fears with art, or play out past hurts in a sand tray, we become bigger and whatever was running through our head seems smaller. Recognizing that Father God is with us during these exercises shrinks our negativity exponentially. The more we focus on God our Father, the more we want to make Him part of our lives, because all things grow dim in the presence of our heavenly Father!

Experiencing Father God’s Presence

Stop and set a timer for one minute and practice being in God’s presence. As you postpone what you were going to do, acknowledge that God is with you in this moment even though you can’t physically see Him. Take a deep breath and try tuning into His peace and love for you. You can do this by focusing your mind on Him and reminding yourself of truths that you’ve learned in these devotions. Ask Him to help you increase your time focused on Him in the next 1,439 minutes you now have left in a twenty-four-hour period of time.

Growing Stronger

Set three daily alarms on your phone and label them Father. When they go off, set a timer for one minute and practice envisioning your heavenly Father smiling down on you with loving eyes, ever ready to help.