This week and next week, while I am not preaching, I figured we would focus on spending time in prayer and reflection in the Psalms. For this week I want to revisit cultivating an internal life and practicing God's presence. As I was thinking of how to put this week together I revisited the devotionals I did a while back and I don't think I could write them any better now. So these are recycled from a while back so if these sound familiar, they are. The italicized portion will be the same each day for those who perhaps missed the previous days this week. If you've read the previous day's devotional feel free to skip ahead to the bottom sections.
Normally I'm an advocate for doing your devotions at any point during the day, but this week I think it would benefit you most to do your devotional time first thing in the morning as a reminder to reflect on the presence of God throughout your day.
Each morning I would recommend you read Psalm 139:1-12, as a reminder of God's presence in every moment. I will include the text each day. Then I encourage you to take at least 5-10 min each day in quiet prayer. This can be at any time of the day. For this quiet prayer time I will include a line from Psalm 105 for you to focus on.
Psalm 105:4 4 Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!
Seek in v. 4 and v. 5 are actually different words in Hebrew. The word in v. 4 diresh means to seek with care, investigate. The word in v. 5 baqash means to discover, attempt to find, seek, search out, consult. Both words carry a similar meaning and likely are synonymous here. However, it seems as if the second one in v. 5 carries more of the connotation of finding and discovering. Both imply the idea of seeking. We ought to seek for God's strength to meet our needs and deliver us, and we need to seek his counsel to guide us and give us wisdom.
The word for "presence" literally can be translated "face". The idea is to gain his attention and be before him. This the Psalmist implores his readers to do continually.
This is our practice for this week. Be in the presence of God. Sit before his face, in his presence, recognizing his attention in every moment of your day. Today for your quiet time just sit in his presence and seek his strength to do the things you cannot and his guidance in the areas you don't know what to do.