Lord, in Your presence we see things in perspective, and see better what is important and what is completely unimportant.

There we become quiet and come to peace.

There we discover that all these things that steal our attention all day long are actually not as important as what the world around us wants to make them.

Oh, and all those things that we can worry about so much...!

No wonder You teach me: Seek first My Kingdom and My will, and then all other things will fall into place!

There at Your feet I learn to put down all my worries and fears, to look anew and to think anew.

It is truly as You teach me in Your Word there in Philippians 4:

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

Oh, Your peace, that peace that only You can give, changes everything! It is so overwhelming! How I desire it every day, Lord!

Every morning that I sit in Your presence and calm down by breathing calmly and pleasantly, things happen to me that help me to start this day anew!

There at Your feet I learn to put things down and choose again to look at things with the glasses of faith.

There I discover anew Your unconditional love for me. Which envelops me and becomes for me this safe, soft place where I can just relax and discover anew that Your grace is enough for me.

I am capable of all things through You who gives me the strength!

There in Your presence so many of Your Psalms become the words of my soul.

Like Psalm 23, and Psalm 91.

Every morning, I can only remind myself of Your word of promise to me and my family there from 2 Corinthians 9:8:

“And (my) God is able to give you all things abundantly, so that you, always having all sufficiency in everything, may abound in every good work.”

There at Your feet I discover that I am simply Your earthly steward of Your property. Because everything “I have” belongs to You.

Yes, even the money that comes in from business, or farming, or in whatever way You provide, is a gift of grace, intended to bless me and my loved ones and provide for what we need.

But I can trust You also when there is not always enough for us. Yes, I can trust You to not only always give us what we need, but also so that there will be enough to give generously where You show!

Haven’t You taught me to look at all this with the eyes of Luke 16!

“And I say to you, Make friends for yourselves by means of the unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

“He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If therefore you have not been faithful in handling the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true riches? If you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?

“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will be devoted to the one and despise the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Yes, it's true!

I have experienced in my own time with the Lord that because He loves us, He also sees those times when we talk to Him, whether it's praying or just talking, as an invitation from you to do in your life what He wants to do there!

Of course it's going to be very dangerous for you, for your ego and stubbornness!

If the Lord takes you, then He changes you!

Then He sees it as your invitation to allow Him to do what He does there in Romans 12:2, also in you.

You remember what it says there, right?

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to discern what the will of God is, what is good and acceptable and perfect in His sight.”

That term in the Greek that have been translated as “mind” is not just your thoughts and how you think! No, it is a call to allow God to change you completely, your entire brain with all its parts, your entire nervous system and everything that is stuck in it!

Those of you who have come to visit me and allowed me to help you process things like traumatic experiences that have happened to you, will know that I teach you that much of that hurt does not just lie in what you can remember and can recount. No, much of the trauma and hurt is stuck in your body, as it were.

Our “mind” or brain is so integrally connected to the rest of our body, that part of the healing or change happens when we give the Lord a chance to heal that part of the hurt and trauma too!

I further discovered that this piece of change or healing happens where we as “two or three” believers are together, because as Jesus himself said: This is where He is present in a very special way to do what He wants to do among us and in us!

It says in Matthew 18:20: “... for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

The number 8 always excites me to the core because it symbolizes a new beginning. That is why I would like to talk to you about “being in the presence of the Lord”, about a few almost-obvious things.

Be open and ready for radical change

Before I quote a few verses from Hebrews 12 for you here in this regard, I want to remind you that the God in whose presence we want to be is a loving but also holy God! He is not your “friend”!

As John wrote to us in John 1, being in the presence of Jesus as God the Son who became man was like getting stuck in these two sides of God! Namely getting stuck in His gracious-loving side, but also getting stuck in that side of truth, which takes no nonsense from you and which hates sin and any form of injustice!

So, be ready for radical change in your own life!

God the Spirit's work in you is to change you!

You are not going to stay the same if you want to be constantly in the presence of the Most High, Almighty, Holy God of the Bible!

God the Spirit's work in us, until the last day of our life here on earth, is to change us and sanctify us!

Every part of our life is going to be affected by it. From our intimate relationship with Him as the living God, but also our relationship with our loved ones and the other people around us, to our relationship with ourselves, our own body, our emotional and physical health, our relationship with money and possessions! Yes, everything, everything, everything… is going to be affected by this and begin to change!

With this in mind, let's read a portion of Hebrews 12 and allow God Himself to speak to us through the working of His Spirit, through His Word in this portion!

“Pursue peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord…

You have not come to something tangible, to a burning fire… But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous ones made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks better than that of Abel…

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and through it let us serve God acceptably with reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire.”

So expect the Lord, because He loves you so much, to teach you, encourage and comfort you, but also to discipline you, to train you as a good coach and mentor would do.

Yes, that is why He will purify you like gold and silver through fire to be as pure as possible and so that you will be ready and equipped for the tests that await and for the path you must walk within the greater plan that He has for you in this life.

Sing throughout the day

A tip to help you be constantly aware of the Lord's presence is to worship and praise the Lord through singing and hymns.

This is often overlooked. Few people realize that singing to the Lord is a form of prayer. It is also a way to make your spirit constantly aware of His presence in and with you. In this way, the Spirit of the Lord in you can also guide, minister to and control your life.

Do you also love the Psalms as much as I do? Do you realize that the Psalms are songs with which the writer of that psalm wanted to praise and worship the Lord, or talk to Him?

Every week, in my disciplined daily quiet time with the Lord, I also read a portion of the Psalms. So, this week I am reading Psalm 65. Listen to this for a moment.

“A Psalm of David. A Song.

O God, we will be silent before you; we will praise you in Zion; we will fulfill our vows to you.

You are the one who hears when people pray to you. All people want to come to you and confess their sins. Our sins are too much for us to bear; you are the one who must take away our sins.

It is good for someone when you choose him and bring him near to stand before your temple. He will be satisfied with all the goodness in your temple, your holy dwelling.

When you do justice to us and answer us, you will do wonderful things, you, the God of our salvation.

All people know that you will help, all the people in the farthest parts of the earth and far beyond the sea.

You are strong, you are stronger than all and you have set the mountains in their place. When you speak, the sea and its waves are still, and the nations cease their roaring.

The wonders you do, let the people of the whole earth be afraid.

You make them sing joyfully in the east and in the west.

You take care of the earth, You give the rain, You make the soil very fertile. A great stream of water comes from You and You make the wheat grow, yes, You do all this. You make it rain a lot in the wheat fields, there is plenty of water where the people have plowed.

You wet the hard pieces of ground, it becomes soft with the rain.

You make the plants grow. You make it a beautiful year, everything grows well, wherever You go.

The pastures are full of grass, the hills rejoice. The field is full of sheep and goats, the valleys are full of wheat, the people shout, they sing.”

Does this also sound to you like a song that an Afrikaans farmer somewhere in South Africa could easily sing!

Listen to Paul too. He often used songs in his prayer life. Here are a few passages about it.

In Acts 16:25, the Bible says: “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.”

In Acts 13:2, we read how Paul and others “served the Lord and fasted.” Serving the Lord is simply worshiping God and even singing to Him.

In Ephesians 5:18-20, Paul tells us: “Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”