At work I was on a production line that I haven’t been on for a long, long, long time. Coming back to this part of the facility for me though was like ‘riding a bike’. Not much had changed except that maintenance had implemented a few improvements that made it rather easy to get right back into ‘the swing of things’ there. The night shift operator had told me that things were running well and so I took his word for it; why should I doubt it. He was right. Not only was it running well but it was running ‘par excellence’. (Excuse my transliteration here please ~ I’m not French.) It was running very, very well.
Since it was my birthday I had already declared the day a ‘No Stress Day’ and so-far so-good, there was very little to get worked up about. In fact I had already rearranged things to make sure my area was more work-atomically correct (that is my own made-up word ~ it means ‘as little work as possible’. While I don’t mind hard work I do believe strongly in working smart first.); so I made sure things were ‘work-atomically’ correct or (to use the proper phrase) ergonomically correct and then I began to check over the line to verify that it was indeed running well. As I said, “it was.” As I walked through the line, doing a few quality assurance checks, I was recalling something I heard Charles Stanley say over twenty years ago.
Dr. Stanley said that the great men of the Bible were great because they “walked with an awareness that they were walking in the presence of Almighty God.” As I look back over the years and think about my life, I think that it was this very simple yet profound statement, and the idea that I too was walking in the presence of Almighty God, that has been foundational for any growth and maturity in my Christian life. It had such a big impact on me that in my mind I was “casting down imaginations”, “and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” (2 Corinthians 10:3-6) My heart frequently cried out, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:” I wanted God to “see if there were wicked ways in me,” and I wanted Him to “lead me in the way everlasting.” (From Psalm 139)
I have developed the habit of thinking this way over the years so now, as I daily, in the morning, as I walk along whatever line I happen to be working on I “walk with an awareness that I’m walking in the presence of Almighty God.” And as I walk back-and-forth sometimes what seems like a hundred times in a day I keep that in mind. That I’m “walking in the presence of Almighty God.”
Not only do I “walk with an awareness that I’m walking in the presence of Almighty God.” But I also “work with an awareness that I’m working in the presence of Almighty God.” When I visit other churches I “worship with awareness that I’m doing it in the presence of Almighty God.” Every morning I try to “wake with an awareness that I’m waking in the presence of Almighty God.”
Sometimes as we walk, work, and worship we become wearied. We sometimes can begin to worry and wrestle with issues that God told us not to. And even though His presence is a very real thing as Paul said to the Athenians “For in him we live, and move, and have our being”; even though His presence is very real we forget He is there, we forget He is here. When we forget we also often begin to whine. (Thou Shalt Not Whine) When we worry, wrestle, whine and otherwise respond in a ‘worldly’ fashion we are doing it in the presence of Almighty God. Albeit, when we do these things we are not doing them with an awareness of His abiding presence. (If we did we would soon repent.)
Even though we do these things His love for us His believing children is not diminished one iota because of our lack of faith. He is grieved by our lack of faith but this by no means has any bearing on His love for us. He wants us, He ‘wishes’ (Boulomai ~ it’s His desire, His wish) for us to have His love, joy and peace and the other six fruit of the Spirit to be an ever abiding part of us. These things can be only as a result of faith, faith which works and is ‘others’ focused by and because of the love of God that should be flowing through us. These things can be only as a result of our “walking with an awareness that we are walking in the presence of Almighty God.”
God asks in Isaiah 40, verse 28 “Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding.” He understands that we sometimes get weary, but He never does.
Then God says, to Isaiah and to us by inspiration, preservation, and illumination of the Word; He says “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
Wait on the LORD. And as you do, “wait with an awareness that you are waiting for and in the presence of Almighty God.” Know that He will not let you down lower than you can get without enabling you to get back up. Wait on the LORD. “Wait with an awareness that you are waiting, walking, working, and worshiping in the presence of Almighty God.” You (rather HE) shall renew your strength; you will mount up with wings as eagles; you will run, and not be weary; and you will walk, and not faint.”
Walk the line. Walk the straight and narrow line. As you walk ask God to do some quality assurance checks in your own heart, mind, and soul. So you don’t walk too close to the ‘edge’.
“He must increase, WE must decrease!”
And ironically when we have this mindset
He enables us to increase.
We “mount up with wings
as eagles.”
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