FEELING COMFORTED IN HIS PRESENCE
This is why we are bold enough to approach God in complete confidence, through our faith in him. Eph. 3:12, Jerusalem.
Try to imagine how you would feel if you were a misbehaving student who had just been sent by your teacher to see the principal. Guilty as charged, you stand staring up at his belt buckle, sweaty hands clasped behind you. His voice seems to tumble down from the lofty spaces above. You would probably wish to be just about somewhere else.
Or imagine yourself to be a groom on your wedding day. You have just watched your soon-to-be father-in-law escort the most magnificent young woman in the world down the aisle and place her hand on your arm. Now, staring into her radiant eyes, you stand in the presence of the minister and the wedding party. Can you think of anywhere else in the world you would rather be?
Whenever we approach a person, we feel some definite emotions about being in that person's presence. Some meetings we would like to avoid; others we would like to repeat. It depends entirely upon the interplay of feelings between the two parties. And most of these feelings center around whether we will feel enhanced or diminished in the presence of the other.
Judging from today's verse, how would Paul likely feel in the presence of God? Would he feel tense, restrained, and intimidated before his Lord? Would he come reluctantly to his Father, wishing that he could be almost anywhere else? Paraphrasing his comment to the Ephesians, perhaps we could hear Paul saying, "I feel freedom in my God's presence...because I know Him. I trust His ongoing love and acceptance. I feel no need for impressive pretense, for mental game-playing, for anxious endeavors to endear myself to Him, for I am certain of His attitude toward me. It was portrayed in Jesus."
Some would object to such a view, asserting that sinners have no right to feel comfortable in the presence of a holy God. They fear that such comfort will result in laxness in our endeavors to overcome sin, or that it lessens our perception of God's great abhorrence of sin. But there is a difference between feeling comforted as a sinner by God's presence and feeling comfortable while sinning in spite of God's presence. For He "who comforts us in all our afflictions" (2 Cor. 1:4, N.A.S.B.) heals us by that warm closeness so that we no longer need to sin.
This is why we are bold enough to approach God in complete confidence, through our faith in him. Eph. 3:12, Jerusalem.
Try to imagine how you would feel if you were a misbehaving student who had just been sent by your teacher to see the principal. Guilty as charged, you stand staring up at his belt buckle, sweaty hands clasped behind you. His voice seems to tumble down from the lofty spaces above. You would probably wish to be just about somewhere else.
Or imagine yourself to be a groom on your wedding day. You have just watched your soon-to-be father-in-law escort the most magnificent young woman in the world down the aisle and place her hand on your arm. Now, staring into her radiant eyes, you stand in the presence of the minister and the wedding party. Can you think of anywhere else in the world you would rather be?
Whenever we approach a person, we feel some definite emotions about being in that person's presence. Some meetings we would like to avoid; others we would like to repeat. It depends entirely upon the interplay of feelings between the two parties. And most of these feelings center around whether we will feel enhanced or diminished in the presence of the other.
Judging from today's verse, how would Paul likely feel in the presence of God? Would he feel tense, restrained, and intimidated before his Lord? Would he come reluctantly to his Father, wishing that he could be almost anywhere else? Paraphrasing his comment to the Ephesians, perhaps we could hear Paul saying, "I feel freedom in my God's presence...because I know Him. I trust His ongoing love and acceptance. I feel no need for impressive pretense, for mental game-playing, for anxious endeavors to endear myself to Him, for I am certain of His attitude toward me. It was portrayed in Jesus."
Some would object to such a view, asserting that sinners have no right to feel comfortable in the presence of a holy God. They fear that such comfort will result in laxness in our endeavors to overcome sin, or that it lessens our perception of God's great abhorrence of sin. But there is a difference between feeling comforted as a sinner by God's presence and feeling comfortable while sinning in spite of God's presence. For He "who comforts us in all our afflictions" (2 Cor. 1:4, N.A.S.B.) heals us by that warm closeness so that we no longer need to sin.
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