However, he is equally present (objectively) when we have stepped away from our focused time with him to focus and actively engage/love the world for his glory.
To say it another way, God is no less present with us when our focus is on others instead of exclusively on him. It only may be less so subjectively/consciously i.e. we may only have a lesser sense of his presence, however, what has changed is not God's actual presence, only our focus.
In fact, we have reason to believe he's actually as present if not more so (or at least in a different but not a lesser way) when we are engaging/loving the world for his glory. We see this in the following verses in John 14:
This isn't saying he loves us more because of our obedience but that we experience his presence and love in our obedience. When we are loving the world for his glory, our hearts are in unison with his own heart i.e. we are closer to his desires for others who are also in his image.
We usually think of private times with God as those times we refresh and renew ourselves through coming into God's presence. And in fact, these times are just that, but as we come to understand what God has called us to and that he is also with us in our going and spreading his glory by loving others, this is empowering and can also be a kind of refreshing.
We can all think of those times we did something significant and loving for someone in need and the joy it gave them and a sense of God's smile and pleasure we also felt as a result.
We still need those times to draw near to him and be quiet before him, but in scripture, there is an indication that who God is and certain ways he manifests himself to us will only be experienced as we engage/care for/love others for his glory.
God is always present
In fact, we have reason to believe he's actually as present if not more so (or at least in a different but not a lesser way) when we are engaging/loving the world for his glory. We see this in the following verses in John 14:
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”...
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.Both of these verses indicate God revealing himself to us and through us ("...manifest myself to him..." and "make our home with him..." with us) is tied to keeping his commandments i.e. our faithful pursuit of him through obedience. What commands are we to keep? The key commands being that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind and our neighbors as ourselves i.e. loving sacrificially as (in the same way) God loves us. Everything flows out of these two.
This isn't saying he loves us more because of our obedience but that we experience his presence and love in our obedience. When we are loving the world for his glory, our hearts are in unison with his own heart i.e. we are closer to his desires for others who are also in his image.
We usually think of private times with God as those times we refresh and renew ourselves through coming into God's presence. And in fact, these times are just that, but as we come to understand what God has called us to and that he is also with us in our going and spreading his glory by loving others, this is empowering and can also be a kind of refreshing.
We still need those times to draw near to him and be quiet before him, but in scripture, there is an indication that who God is and certain ways he manifests himself to us will only be experienced as we engage/care for/love others for his glory.
God is always present
As his children, God is always with us whether we sense it or not. As we mature, the distinction (or line) between God's objective presence and our subjective experiencing it, diminishes due to our increasing ability to walk with him by faith versus feelings. We actually are more aware of his presence in reality (objectively) as our faith matures. So it's more an internal faith-based awareness of his presence that grows while an external sense or feelings of his presence may actually decline or at least ebb and flow.
More and more we come to see our focus on loving those around us becomes a continuation and extension of our more private focus on God i.e. we come to see these two (focus on God and focus on others i.e. loving God and loving our neighbor) are not as completely separate and distinct as we may have initially believed or felt. They are only separate and distinct in execution (how they are brought about and manifested) but not in our engagement with God and his presence with us.
Conclusion
In some very significant ways we are uniting and cooperating with God more in our displaying his love to others then we are in our drawing away in solitude with him. Focusing on the needs of others is a kind of participation in his presence, just indirectly verses directly. Over time I would suggest we will more and more come to experience God's presence in and through loving others for his glory as our faith matures.
To focus on loving others is just a different kind of focus and a different way to engage in his presence, not something wholly other than focus on God; different only in manner or kind not different in reality.
God's objective presence
God is committed to us at all times in all things. It is in this sense he is always present. This does not mean we feel his present necessarily; it is simply an objective reality that has nothing to do with our feelings or our circumstances. It is a reality firmly rooted in the work of Christ on our behalf and only on that work, not our own work.
God is committed to us at all times in all things. It is in this sense he is always present. This does not mean we feel his present necessarily; it is simply an objective reality that has nothing to do with our feelings or our circumstances. It is a reality firmly rooted in the work of Christ on our behalf and only on that work, not our own work.
Psalm 139:1-18 brings this out best. Emphasis, commentary and highlights added.
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. 5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? (i.e. nowhere) 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you...
Conclusion
In some very significant ways we are uniting and cooperating with God more in our displaying his love to others then we are in our drawing away in solitude with him. Focusing on the needs of others is a kind of participation in his presence, just indirectly verses directly. Over time I would suggest we will more and more come to experience God's presence in and through loving others for his glory as our faith matures.
To focus on loving others is just a different kind of focus and a different way to engage in his presence, not something wholly other than focus on God; different only in manner or kind not different in reality.
Matthew 28:19-20
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
What he also may be saying is an actual manifestation (i.e. sense) of his presence occurs when we are going and making disciples.
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*God also manifests his presence in times of corporate worship. Though this is not engaging the unbeliever to display his love to them, it is also not a time of complete solitude.
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Grace to you
Jim Deal