{"id":9024,"date":"2021-07-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dumc.my\/tm\/the-quiet-presence-of-god\/"},"modified":"2022-06-15T17:14:07","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T09:14:07","slug":"the-quiet-presence-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dumc.my\/tm\/the-quiet-presence-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"The Quiet Presence of God"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Posted by Pastor Mike Ngui \u2022 Jul 31, 2021<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

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Our Best Thought is a weekly devotional thoughtfully penned by leaders in DUMC arising from their daily devotions. The devotional’s title, “Our Best Thought” is taken from the hymn, “Be Thou My Vision” as a reference to God: “Thou my best thought, by day or by night.” Publishes on Sundays.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Scripture:<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.<\/p>\n

1 Kings 19:3-5 (NIV)<\/p>\n

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Observation:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In chapter 18, Elijah had just proven himself to be prophet of the Lord, Yahweh. Yahweh reveals Himself in consuming fire in response to Elijah’s prayer. Elijah then kills all 850 prophets of Baal. He then prays for rain and the drought ends. He supernaturally outruns King Ahab’s chariot to get to the royal city of Jezreel.<\/p>\n

In Jezreel however, the wicked queen Jezebel – chief sponsor of Baal worship in Israel – sends word to Elijah swearing to kill him (19:1, 2). “Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.” He ran from Jezreel to Beersheba, from northern kingdom to the southern kingdom. Over 170 km away. At Beersheba, he walks a day into the desolate wilderness and in despair, prays – “I have had enough, Lord. Take my life.”<\/p>\n

A somewhat inglorious twist to the narrative.<\/p>\n

Yahweh responds with sleep and food for Elijah twice, before he embarks on a long quiet walk of 40 days. This ‘retreat’ culminates in a demonstrative, noisy and then quiet and personal encounter with the Lord of the earth. Yahweh responds in a gentle whisper to Elijah’s repeated self-pitying words: “Go back the way you came.”<\/p>\n

Yahweh gives Elijah clear assignments and then assures Elijah that it is not as he sees it – “I am the only one left” – but instead that there are many others who remain faithful.<\/p>\n

The swing in emotions experienced by Elijah is real. The exhilaration of victory followed by fear-fuelled despair and defeatism. The explosive pin-prick on the inflated sense of self-importance following a public accomplishment.<\/p>\n

Yahweh’s remedy for Elijah’s feelings of despair and defeatism? Rest and recuperation. Withdrawal and waiting. Silence and solitude. And in the end, what Elijah needed was to hear Yahweh speak not in the roar of earthquake, gale or inferno but in a whisper … to quiet his soul. Elijah knew the power of Yahweh – he had experienced, seen and heard it on Mount Carmel and Mount Horeb. He needed now to know the quiet Presence of Yahweh. In stillness and quiet, to hear Yahweh’s gentle whispering Presence.<\/p>\n

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Application:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It is all too easy to crave the exhilaration of the power of God, when what our Father in heaven desires is for us to be in His presence. It is in His presence, that a right perspective is obtained of the situation we are in. It is in His gentle whispers that we are assured of His Presence and power.<\/p>\n

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Prayer:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Lord, quiet my soul. Let me hear Your whispers.<\/p>\n

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Pastor Mike Ngui is Pastor of Equip.<\/p>\n

Our Best Thought is a weekly devotional that follows DUMC’s Bible Reading Plan. Posts on Sundays.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In chapter 18, Elijah had just proven himself to be prophet of the Lord, Yahweh. Yahweh reveals Himself in consuming fire in response to Elijah\u2019s prayer. Elijah then kills all 850 prophets of Baal. He then prays for rain and the drought ends. He supernaturally outruns King Ahab\u2019s chariot to get to the royal city of Jezreel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dumc.my\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9024"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dumc.my\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dumc.my\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dumc.my\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dumc.my\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9024"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/dumc.my\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9474,"href":"https:\/\/dumc.my\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9024\/revisions\/9474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dumc.my\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dumc.my\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dumc.my\/tm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}