Desiring the Very Presence of God...

To My Beloved Daughters,

Thinking on Jesus this morning in the Garden of Gethsemane where He went with His disciples to pray before His crucifixion.    It was here that Luke tells us that Jesus' sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

 And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”  Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

In Matthew 26:38 Jesus says this: Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”

What was it that caused Jesus to say that His soul was sorrowful even unto death?  What was it that caused Him so much anguish?  It wasn't the fear of man or the physical suffering that He was about to endure that caused Jesus such anguish...so what was it?  Here's the beautiful answer:  It was the inevitable separation from His Father in Heaven that would occur as He drunk the cup prepared for Him.   

It was that for the first and only time in eternity Jesus would be separated from His Father in Heaven.   It is also the only time on record that Jesus did not address God as Father.  Read His last words directly quoted from Psalm 22.

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”--Matthew 27:46

He who knew no sin became sin for us and had the fullness of divine wrath poured out upon Himself.   Our God is holy and cannot look upon sin. The Father forsook the Son because the Son took upon Himself our sin.  He became a curse for us.  He became the propitiation for our sins.  I don't pretend to understand how the full fury of God's wrath was poured out upon Jesus in those hours on the cross...I can't even begin to explain or understand the depths of the anguish that this separation caused my Jesus....but here is how this particular passage spoke to my heart this morning.

Separation from His Father in Heaven caused Jesus much distress...it caused Him to sweat droplets of blood...it caused Him to be sorrowful even unto death.  Oh, Father, may my one desire be live in unbroken fellowship and communion with you here on earth.  I want to abide in the beauty of Your presence.   May the overwhelming desire of my heart be to dwell with You, the most High God, and take shelter under the shadow of Your wings.  Help me to surrender to all that You have for me as Your Son Jesus did knowing that I have nothing to fear...You are on my side.  Knowing that when I cry out to You...You answer me and  set me in a broad and safe place.   You are FOR me and there is nothing that can separate me from You.  

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shalltribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.--Romans 8:31-39

PSALM 27

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked came against me
To eat up my flesh,
My enemies and foes,
They stumbled and fell.
Though an army may encamp against me,
My heart shall not fear;
Though war may rise against me,
In this I will be confident.

One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.
For in the time of trouble
He shall hide me in His pavilion;
In the secret place of His tabernacle
He shall hide me;
He shall set me high upon a rock.

And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me;
Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle;
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.

Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice!
Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
When You said, “Seek My face,”
My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”
Do not hide Your face from me;
Do not turn Your servant away in anger;
You have been my help;
Do not leave me nor forsake me,
O God of my salvation.
When my father and my mother forsake me,
Then the Lord will take care of me.

Teach me Your way, O Lord,
And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.
Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries;
For false witnesses have risen against me,
And such as breathe out violence.
I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.

Wait on the Lord;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord!