I remember a number of years ago when I left my habitual morning quiet time earlier than usual because I had so much to do that day. I walked up to the tractor port to get on the tractor and start some major mowing I needed to get done. I felt bad, and a little guilty, for ditching God so fast…and for something so mundane as mowing! You see, some years prior to that morning I had learned how important it was to spend time with God first thing in the morning. I felt bad about my priorities and also that, having messed up that morning, I would now have to wait until the next morning to do better.
While mowing I suddenly had a revelation! Just because I left my quiet time didn’t mean I had left God or that He had left me. He was with me every bit as much on the tractor as he was with me in the quiet little office chair. Now I know what you’re thinking: that is the most obvious thing you’ve ever heard. And it seems that way to me nowadays too. But I became aware how compartmentalized I was with my spiritual life. God was only present when I asked Him to be present and when I was doing something “religious,” like sitting in a chair with my Bible open? Whaaat? God is THAT stingy with His presence?
Then the words of Michael W. Smith’s song came to mind, “This is the air I breathe, this is the air I breathe, Your holy presence living in me.” Those thoughts took me to Genesis 2:7, “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” So if God breathed life into all mankind, and, last I checked, I was still breathing, He must be continuously breathing His life into me, and that would mean anywhere and everywhere I found myself, He is with me! This opened up a whole new freedom for me. This helped break down the compartmentalization I had lived with all my Christian life.
We read in Deuteronomy 31:8 that God told Moses, “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
And then in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst” – midst meaning in your heart, in your lungs, in your belly, in your gut, in your head, in your feet…in short, all over inside us! We are completely filled with our amazing God.
Doesn’t that make you wonder about us, about our identity? Who are we then? Well, we all know we are not perfect and we are not all-powerful; we didn’t call the Creation into being (If you don’t know this, we might suggest a good psychiatrist for you.) But even in our imperfection and our finite abilities, to know that the Lord God has given us life and breath and lives with us always, must say to us that we are incredibly blessed by the One (who CAN do all things) choosing to live within us, filling us up with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).
In Genesis 1:27 and 31, it reads “God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female He created them …God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.”
Certainly we all mess up and sin, and we need to look into submitting our unwise behaviors and thoughts to God so they can be transformed into the good things He intended, but how about starting from the awareness of our deepest self, our roots, which are very good and made in God’s image? With that perspective, sin loses its place as our primary concern. Our primary concerns then can be praising this amazingly gracious God who loves us so much as to fill us up with Him!
About the Author
John lives in Pleasant Hill with his dog, Gunnar, and a multitude of guests who enjoy the peace and beauty of the Cascade foothills. With three children and three grandchildren all living in Oregon, he is continually blessed with their company and the good food that always accompanies their get-togethers!