Here I am, armed with coffee and keyboard.
My heart has been working and changing and molding and thinking and meditating on God’s freedom and how His presence brings blessing in my life. It’s a truth that I feel I often tell people about without fully understanding. But in order to fulfill my hearts dream of inspiring people to a life of uninhibited freedom in Christ, I must first understand it for myself.
I don’t remember a time without God. When I was six years old, He whispered, “Follow Me,” and I ran to my mom with urgency (something I still do often) saying “I HAVE to become a Christian.” I don’t have very many memories before then.
This is a beautiful thing, and I know that I am extremely blessed to feel this way. But allow me a second to share my struggle.
Because I don’t quite remember what it is like without Him, it is easy to forget the blessing of being with Him. However, quite recently I have been immersed in words reminding me of this blessing.
Let’s start with Scripture. In 2 Samuel, David decides that it is time to bring the Ark of the Covenant back from its roaming amidst other peoples. David defeats the Philistines, takes the ark and brings it back to Jerusalem. He was so excited to bring it back to the Holy City, but then He was reminded of the wholeness of God’s character. When the oxen that were carrying the Ark almost took a major spill, it started wobbling and this guy Uzzah got scared that it might fall, so he reached out to steady it. God saw this as a flippant and irreverent move, and Uzzah was immediately struck down and died on the spot.
This kind of freaked David out. So, he sent the ark to live in the house of a man named Obed-Edom. Not sure who named these guys but I really feel bad for them. Obed kept the Ark of the Covenant aka GOD’S PRESENCE with him in his house. 2 Samuel 6:11 tells us that God blessed Obed and his WHOLE HOUSE during the three months that the ark was with them. That’s a pretty big blessing if you ask me.
Fast forward a hot second and David gets word of this blessing and He’s like, “okay okay maybe I can bring it here.” Yeah.. we see you, David. When David brings the Ark of the Covenant to his house, he begins to understand what a blessing it is to have it there. This excitement in him begins overflowing and emanating from him. 2 Samuel 6:18 tells us that David turns around and starts to bless the people. (You get blessed, and you get blessed, and you get blessed!!)
Not to mention that later God promises that David AND his offspring will be blessed FOREVER because God’s presence will never leave them like it did with Saul. (2 Samuel 7:29).
I think I see a pattern here. God’s presence= blessing. But it requires something of us: reverence.
reverence
[rev-er-uh ns, rev-ruh ns]
noun
- a feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe; veneration.
- the outward manifestation of this feeling:
Reverence doesn’t always mean complete quietness and stillness. In fact, the very definition of reverence is an OUTWARD manifestation of a deep respect and awe. This can certainly include being still (Psalm 46:10), but it can also mean dancing your heart out and promising that you can get crazier because you’re just that excited (2 Samuel 6:22).
This brings us back to freedom in Christ. As one of my favorite teachers, Beth Moore, puts it,
“Shame and audacity cannot coexist….. But if we’re willing to give up our addiction to shame, to believe what He’s done, to receive His full redemption, and the forgiveness of all our sins, and consider ourselves outrageously loved and valiantly pursued, we, my friend, are about to run free in the wide-open liberty of audacity.”
-From Audacious by Beth Moore (pgs 52-53)
Let’s combine our two new terms. When God’s presence manifests itself, not only in our house, but in our HEARTS, blessing is sure to follow. However this requires of us an audacious reverence. Are you willing to become undignified, lose your shame, and receive God’s blessing in the name of reverence for our Lord?
I was refreshed and renewed to acknowledge the wonder of God’s presence in my life, and I pray for both you and me that we find it in ourselves to live in the blessing of freedom.