Thank God for His Presence

We made it home to Austin from Puerto Vallarta at 11 pm last night. We were supposed to have arrived at 6 pm but our flight was cancelled. We were on standby for the next flight but that flight could only take one of us. We turned the offer down.

Finally, we were put on a 9 pm flight that made it to Austin by 10:15 pm. We waited for our luggage, but it didn’t show up with us. And, because it was too late for our friend to pick us up, we used Uber to get us home.

By the way, taking an Uber was new for us – where to go to be picked up, etc., but thank goodness for a young traveler that navigated us to the pickup location.

After just a few hours of sleep, we are both headed to our Election Polls to serve again this year. That’s where we served last year at this time, met, dated, and now married. Thanks be to God for then and even now as we’re up and at ‘em for a 6 am arrival at the polls.

After a little rest, I think I feel a little overwhelmed this morning, Overwhelmed. We all know this feeling. Oh, the weighted feeling of life we often know with pressure, and this morning I feel it. Maybe you can relate?

I learned pressure at a young age when my dad was diagnosed with a brain tumor and then, at seventeen, when I married my boyfriend. I had to quickly become an adult. Being overwhelmed was a part of my every day. Through the years I became my own coach when I needed to.

If my heart was overwhelmed, I suppressed the feeling. If I could just forget why I was overwhelmed, ignore it somehow, it would be fine. I ended up adding on to my overwhelmed mind and heart with more doing.

If I were physically overwhelmed with the doing, I would excuse this feeling as part of my responsibility as someone who gets things done.

BUT, I learned God’s overwhelming presence was where my weary soul would find refuge and rest. With Emmanuel, God with us, I would encounter the peace and wisdom a tired soul required.

Having a close and personal encounter with the Lord – closeness with the Father – a face to face encounter with the King of Kings — always brings His overwhelming love to an underwhelmed people.

I know His presence. It is real and we experience it through our trusting that He is a good God, that He is God with us.

In the Old Testament, God told Moses His presence would be with Him as he was sent into a mission that was hard but holy: “And God said, ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Exodus 33:14).

Moses was to find his rest in God’s presence. This is where his overwhelmed soul met God’s overwhelming love and faithfulness. The same presence is given to us through Christ Jesus. He gives us access to abundant life through trusting and resting in His love.

A desire to rely on our doing versus God’s faithfulness will diminish our experience of God’s presence. God, however, doesn’t want us to live led by the rush of life. Instead, He’s inviting us to trust in His overwhelming presence to guide us.

As we move through our day and invite Him into the spaces that need Him so desperately, may we remember that as we draw near to our God, we are inviting His presence to guide us with love.

This is abundant life: God with us, a mighty and overwhelming presence.