Do you hate Mondays? We want you to have a joyful Monday no matter what! Won’t you consider joining the community of Trinity Presbyterian Church of Norman? We encourage one another with the promises of God. We worship God corporately each Sunday in order to begin the week of work, witness, and worship. Last week at worship, our children’s sermon explored the meaning of the question, “Can you see God?” The answer is, of course, “No.” However, the author doesn’t stop there. He says, “I cannot see God, but He always sees me.” This question gets at the omnipresence of God. He is here! And He sees me. “That I cannot see Him, but He always sees me,” has profound implications. This means that no living person will see God today (unless Jesus returns or the person dies and enters into the immediate presence of God). However, because God is omnipresent but not visible to our eyes, it is likely that a person will wake up, eat and drink, work, play, learn, grow, etc. and be tragically unaware that God sees him or her and provides all things. Don’t be that guy.

Often we foolishly count on joy occurring through our circumstances. but due to God’s presence, we have a joy that defies whichever circumstance which we find ourselves. God’s presence is one of the central and great blessings and promises to God’s chosen people. Even in the tabernacle/temple structure of the old covenant was a bread of presence and a mercy seat upon the ark to physically represent God’s throne on earth. Scripture tells us that Jonah the prophet was intentionally attempting to flee from the presence of God (Jonah 1:3, 10). While God is always present, scripture speaks of people either embracing or fleeing from God’s presence, see Psalm 16:11:

  "You make known to me the path of life; 
  in your presence there is fullness of joy; 
  at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." 

The presence of God in Psalm 16 is parallel to the path of life and is equated with the fullness of joy. Therefore, I submit to you that your heart’s orientation toward God will manifest itself for you today in bringing life and fullness of joy to you if you approach him according to his commands and ways or heartbreak and misery if you flee from Him by disobeying and ignoring Him. Our lives will some days look like Jonah and somedays look like the Psalmist in Psalm 16. Because of the active obedience of Christ and his death for our sins, we have by faith a Savior who “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Timothy 1:10),” and who promises He will be with His church always (Matthew 28:19), our fullness of joy lies ahead after our death when experience God’s immediate presence at his right hand and we gaze upon His glory with unveiled faces. You see, God is always present, but we can’t see him, so the problem is not that God is invisible. The catechism never says that God is invisible, it only states that we can’t see Him who is present. You see, the problem is not with God, rather the problem is that due to sin, our faces our veiled. In the early chapters of fifth Harry Potter book, two characters discover that they alone have the capacity to see creatures of which none of their other classmates are aware. How different we would be from our neighbor who is unaware that God is present if we had the fullness of joy knowing that God is there and sees us.

God is there and sees us!

The gospel promise is that our faces will one day be unveiled and eyes open to His glory, but joy is available to the believer today even though we do not see him with our physical eyes. We walk not by sight, but by faith in his promises.

We Walk Not By Sight, But By Faith in His Promises.

God is always there and always sees you. Therefore, seek Him who is present, ask Him for help, ask Him to fill you with joy today. And no matter where God calls you to go, today will be a joyous day.

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