Fasting Day 19 - January 20 - to experience God’s presence and power

Psalm 43:3-4: Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.

As I look back over my life there have been so many times that I have experienced God's presence and power. So many times in fact, that there have been occasions to take His presence and power for granted.

I know that we all get busy, there's so much to do with work, family... you know life.

But then, I am reminded of my need for His presence and power in my life. In His presence is fulness of joy and at His right hand pleasures forevermore. It's in His presence that I find a peace that this world cannot give. It is in His presence that I exchange my weakness for His strength to carry on. It is in His presence I am restored, I am rejuvenated, reenergized.

Yes, everything that we need is found in His presence and it is something that we should find time for daily - take time out to experience God's presence and power in your life.

reflect:

• Have you met and encountered the Holy Spirit of God? When and where was that? What led up to that encounter?

• How are you different because of that moment? What has changed in and around you because of that?

• As we begin to draw our time of fasting to a close, where has God shown up?

prayer:

God, I pray that Your Spirit comes down in real and powerful ways in my life. Come alongside me today and demonstrate who You are. Show me the power of Your radical love, show me who I am because of what You have done, and show me how that can impact those around me with Your will and love. Come alongside me in my interactions with others, in my conversations with You, and in how I treat my family and my friends. Be near to me, show me Your presence and Your power, and make me a different person because of how You love me. But more than anything, I pray that You show up in my life. I acknowledge that there is no church, there is no faith without You, and so I pray that You are present and vibrant in all that I think, say, and do. Amen.

journal:

Take the time as you pray and worship today to write down anything that you sense the Spirit speaking to your heart.

Listen to and let the words of this song become your prayer today.

"Breathe" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5w7MgTgVVs