Prioritize the Presence
Go to the 48:00-minute mark to listen to the sermon that goes along with this devotional. I know you’ll be blessed.
Read Time: 8 mins
“How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of Heaven’s Armies. I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord. With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young at a place near your altar, O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, my King and my God! What joy for those who can live in your house, always singing your praises. A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked.”
Psalms 84:1-4, 10 NLT
In 1995, Louie Giglio started a movement that would be known as Passion. Rooted in Isaiah 26:8, passion is a movement that has had a singular mission—calling students from campuses across the nation and around the world to live for what matters most, the name and renown of Jesus. I’ve dreamed of going since I heard about it and I finally got a chance to buy tickets and fly down to Atlanta where I and 65,000 young adults from hundreds of campuses and countries sold out the Mercedes Benz stadium for the sole purpose of glorifying the name of Jesus. They famously do not promote who the singers and speakers will be so that the event will not be personality-driven. Yet, thousands of college students take time out from class and work to spend hundreds on event tickets and plane tickets just so that they can be in the presence of God with like-minded believers.
It’s amazing to be among thousands of people going after the same mission. It’s hard to explain the feeling but it reminded me of driving down from Ohio to Tennessee around the same time as the many University of Tennessee Knoxville fans who traveled home after playing Ohio State University. It was great to have my Tennessee license plate and orange hat as I drove on the highway that day. I instantly felt the excitement as I was pulled into a community of crazed fans infiltrating a city. The excitement grew each time you became instant friends with someone after making eye contact with them and realizing you were on the same team.
That’s how it felt going to Passion. As soon as I got to the airport, I knew who else was a part of this mission. As we shared glances at each other, you could tell by the expression of longing on their face that they were there for the same desire. As we flew to Atlanta, the crowd kept getting bigger. As flights landed at the airport, you could tell who had come for the sole purpose of worshipping God for the next few days. The excitement was palpable. The sense of community was evident.
As we got closer to the stadium, the feeling intensified as thousands of college students waited outside of the stadium in the January rain. People were so excited that they waited outside in the cold for hours just so that they could be the first to make it into a place of worship.
It was truly beautiful. However, it’s kinda funny because, on paper, I wasn’t supposed to be there. Being from Atlanta, my fiancée, Taelyn knew someone from the church in charge who got us connected to the church's college ministry so that we could sit in their section during the conference. This is important because Passion is for college students, and we were not in college at the time. When we had time for prayer and discussion with the people around us in the stadium, we quickly realized that we were among the oldest in the stadium.
While Passion is designed for college students, they recognize that people like Taelyn and I still desire to be among those who desire God. Passion asks the older (that’s the first time I’ve ever said that about myself lol) people who have been inside and experienced God for themselves to volunteer as “door holders” as other, younger worshippers seek God. This concept is taken from Psalm 84 when the writer says they’d rather spend a day as a door holder in the house of God than one thousand years anywhere else.
It wasn’t just the regular attendees who modeled an excitement for God’s presence. While it was one thing to see the students worshiping God, it was a different type of inspiring to see the doorholders—the chaperones, parents, and volunteers who were serving as ushers and welcome staff laying prostrate, falling to their knees, lifting their hands, and crying out to Jesus in the hallways of the stadium. They just wanted to be in the room.
I’m not longing to spend $300+ on event tickets and take off work to fly back to Atlanta the next time and I don’t think you have to either. While I don’t want to be the thousands of kids who stayed outside in the rain from 6 am to 8 am waiting to go inside and I likely won’t sign up to be a door holder so that I can be in the room one more time, my question is this. Do you desire the presence of God like that?
I’m not talking about a fancy church service, good music, or anything flashy. God does inhabit the praises of His people and pushes us to seek Him with excellence in art and liturgy. Our traditional models of church and worship are like that of excellence seen in how heaven is described in Revelation 4 or how the temples and tabernacles were described in the Old Testament. I don’t want you to mishear me and think I'm against great displays of beauty and liturgy in church. I love them. They are tools to target our focus and shift our hearts. But I’m not really asking about that. I’m wondering if you crave the presence of God in its purest form.
I’m wondering if you have a hunger that sends you to your knees throughout the day to simply get another taste of His presence. Are you still embarrassed to worship when worship isn’t scheduled? Can you touch heaven without a praise team or band? Is Bible study a chore or a delight? Are you at a point where you remember that God is with you and can’t help but lift a hand in gratitude? Do randomly dance around your house when flashbacks of His glory come to mind. I'm not saying you have to be exuberant in your expression but do you sense it? Do you find yourself falling to your knees in silence and solitude as His presence fills your room and tears fill your eyes? Do you get excited when plans are canceled because it means you have more opportunity to sit with Him uninterrupted? When friends ask you to pray and fast with them, do you get excited? Do you have a taste for it? Are you addicted to it yet?
Psalm 16 says that in His presence is fullness of joy. The greatest, unparalleled joy is found in His presence. Hebrews 4 says that there is mercy and grace in His presence. You are seen and still loved. Exodus 33 says that rest comes from His presence. Matthew 11 says that His rest will be the lightest burden you’ve ever carried. His presence is truly the prize. That’s what heaven is at the core.
His presence is good enough for you. It satisfies. In His presence is the rest, revelation, and reassurance that will revolutionize your world. Yet, many of us think what I’m saying is crazy because we haven’t tasted and seen for ourselves. I can get that and to those people, I invite you to keep reading. The Bible says that when you seek, you WILL find.
However, there is another group reading that is more interesting. This is where I fall in and I assume many of you do too. We know and have experienced the benefits of time with Him but still prioritize our own way ahead of being recharged with Him. We recognize how stressed, anxious, and lost we are without Him. We recognize that time spent in His presence is the only difference between our lives and others, yet we insist on fitting Him in last. We don’t budget Him into our schedule yet we say He’s our prized possession. And that doesn’t make sense.
How to Build a Desire
If we are honest, many of us don’t desire intimacy with God enough for it to show in the way we prioritize Him in our lives. Yet, the good news is that It's easy to feed an addiction that motivates itself. When you’re addicted to a drug, your use increases your tolerance and your tolerance increases your desire. The more you want, the more you get, and the more you get, the more you need.
I’m letting you know that if you want to desire more of God, the key is to start where you are. Seek Him now. Start now by adding time to your schedule, little by little. And as you build a habit, you will build a desire. And as your desire increases, so will your motivation to increase the habit. Just start. Be intentional. Prioritize like you would work for your job or school. Prioritize like you would a date night with the love of your life. And as you build moments, the desire for moments will increase. And as that desire increases, it will be easier for you to seek God.
Touch Points
Create touch points. All through the Bible, God ordained everything from dress to nature to memorials to be reminders of His presence for the people. You can build the queues to seek Him into your day and build a muscle of desire that will lead you to want more and more. You can set your alarm to be a song that reminds you to seek God’s presence. I have a friend who dedicated study sessions to God and would experience the presence of God as they did their work. You can go for a run, sit out in nature, or dedicate your gym time to God. It’s so peaceful and rejuvenating. You can put a Bible study or devotional in your bedroom but leave your phone in another room so that when you wake up, you remember to seek God first.
Paul refers to the Christian journey with the phrases “glory to glory” and “faith to faith.” This helps explain the sense of hunger that should accompany the Christian life. We should never be satisfied with yesterday's encounter but always be after the next hit. We should be always seeking and searching for more. We should be looking for opportunities of both quantity and quality in God's presence.
Your Ambition
The Bible says that God will give you what you desire if you delight in Him. As you seek Him, your ambition will be for more of Him. Your ambition and drive were crafted to be strong in you as a way of pulling you to your Creator. The things you chase and fight for are typically you searching for an aspect of something God wants to give in higher quality or grow you to a higher calling through. The women, the weed, and the money. Everything you fight for and long for is giving you something that God wants to fulfill in totality in His presence. If you want intimacy, peace, or protection, it’s all found in Jesus. Even the things you can’t yet name. Jesus has it and will interpret your desire. Everything else is merely a preview of what God wants to do in His presence.
His Heart over His Hand
SEU Worship has a song called What a God that I’ve had on repeat for days. The chorus says, “If the highest place I reach is at Your feet, then I've done it all. If the best thing that I've seen is Your glory, then I've seen it all. Your love has changed my life, forever satisfied. God, You are my everything.” It continues, “If one word is the only thing You speak, then I've heard it all. If I feel Your heart and never see Your hand, I still have it all. No treasure of this life could ever satisfy. God, You are my everything”
I want this song to be my story. I want to live like His presence alone is enough. Heaven won’t be worth it if it is not. Building the habit and desire of seeking God will lead us to not just desiring God for the superficial things He can do, but genuinely delighting in who He is.
Cody Carnes in his song Nothing Else says, “I’m caught up in Your presence. [And] I just want to sit here at Your feet. I’m caught up in this holy moment. [And] I never want to leave. I’m not here for blessings. Jesus, you don’t owe me anything. More than anything you can do, I just want you.” If you want that to be your story, seek Him. When you seek, you will find and the fire for more will be ignited in your soul.
I’ve personally been prioritizing more uninterrupted time to sit in the presence of God a few times a day and it's revolutionized my life. I feel energized. I feel at peace. I feel healthy. I have more confidence and wisdom. It’s life-changing. I’m getting more and more addicted. I want you to experience what I am experiencing. Do it now. Pause and seek Him.
“As long as I have life, and favor in your sight, I already have it all.” “So set a fire down in my soul that I can’t contain and I can’t control because I want more of you God.”
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