Benefits Package
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Introduction
Introduction
Every child needs a father who makes a priority of spending
time with them.
A recent study by the Columbia University’s National Center
for Addiction and Substance abuse found that the absence
or presence of a father makes a lot of difference in the
psychological well-being of children. When a father is there to
share meals with his children, take them to church, help them
with homework and spend quality time with them, there are
many desirable outcomes. Such children are much less likely
to become alcoholics, drug addicts or substance abusers of
any kind. Such children are much more likely to complete their
education and fulfill their goals. Such children are much more
likely to be happy, healthy, secure and emotionally stable. The
presence of a father makes a big difference in the lives of his
children, and many important benefits will accrue to them
because they have spent time with him.
Conversely, the absence of the father is usually very detrimental
to the well-roundedness of his children. Of course, the mother’s
role is extremely important as well and cannot be minimized.
But this particular study was focused on how important the
presence of a father is for kids. And that presence was found to
be absolutely crucial.
If an earthly father is so important to his children, how much
more so is the presence of the heavenly Father in the lives
of God’s children! The more we spend time in our Father’s
presence, the more likely we are to find ourselves enjoying all
the wonderful benefits of His proximity to our lives. And the
less time we spend in His presence, the less likely we are to
enjoy and benefit from all that He wants to offer us as a Father
who loves to be with His children.
One of the most important ways of spending time with our
heavenly Father is through worship. It is a primary way of being
with Him and experiencing His presence. And like there are
benefits to hanging out with our earthly father, so there are
even greater benefits of hanging out with our heavenly Father.
When we worship, we open ourselves to receiving more of
what God has to offer us.
Now, let’s be clear. God should be worshipped first and
foremost because He is God. He deserves to be worshipped
because of who He is. We should never make the mistake of
deciding to worship Him because of what we will get out of it.
But when we do worship Him because of who He is and what
He has done, and when we spend time in His presence because
it is what He deserves and what we need, then many benefits
will overflow into our lives from that time spent with Him. We
need time with our heavenly Father, and we can only find the
deepest kind of happiness, purpose and meaning in our lives
when we have a deep and intimate connection with Him.
Worship can be a place where that connection is strengthened,
and we receive so many of the blessings He intends to shower
on us. Let’s explore some of the benefits that come from being
in God’s presence.
THE EMOTIONAL BENEFITS OF BEING IN GOD’S PRESENCE
A Miktam of David. 1 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. 2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” 3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. 4 The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. 5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. 6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. 7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. 8 I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. 10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. 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.
Worship changes our emotional state.
You cannot find joy by looking for joy. You find joy by being in a environment of joy.
As a child of God, if you are feeling emotionally off-center and down, it might just be that you are in the wrong place. You need to gravitate towards God’s presence to find comfort, peace and joy.
4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. 5 Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.
The psalmist goes into God’s presence filled with fears, but when those fears see God, they flee! Instead of fear there is radiance.
9 I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” 10 As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” 11 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
David is an a fearful time and is discouraged, yet he finds his hope is renewed through praise, because he knows that in God’s presence things would begin to change.
When times get hard we have a tendency to look inside, what we should do is look up. We should shift our focus from our problems to God. Only he can meet out every emotional need.
We should hang around what makes us joyful and fulfilled if we want to be joyful and fulfilled. We become what we worship.
15 They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them. 16 And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal.
The Jews allowed what was around them get into them. They imitated those around them and it led to their downfall EVERY time!
THE DIRECTIONAL BENEFIT OF GOD’S PRESENCE
When we are in God’s presence, we are in the best place to receive guidance and direction for our lives.
When Isaiah needs God’s guidance for this life, he gets it by being in God’s presence and being honest about his own inadequacies.
Isaiah doesn’t ask for the advice of a whole bunch of people about what he should do. He goes straight to God.
10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
John receives his revelation from God when he is in worship. ( We don’t have to be in church, in some type of service in order to worship God. It can be done when you are all alone. In fact sometimes the best worship is when you are alone with Him. ) If you are worshiping God all by yourself you don’t have to worry about being on key, you don’t have to worry about the timing about being on beat, it’s just you and Him! In fact you don’t have to sing to worship you can just praise His name. Magnify Him for who He is.
If you are wanting to hear God speak, there is no better place to be than in worship. His still small voice is waiting for you to listen.
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
When we present ourselves to God is when we will be transformed. Sacrifice our bodies, this is sacrificing our desires in order to be closer to him. Make room for him in your life! God’s guidance is given in His presence. God will steer us towards the place He wants us to be.
THE RELATIONAL BENEFIT OF GOD’S PRESENCE
Being in the presence of God with others changes our relationship with them. ( Actually being IN the presence of others! Not on-line! I am not picking on people that are viewing this but there is something about being with other people that are believers that changes us.)
God’s presence can bring harmony and unity.
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
The unity of the Spirit is very important in our lives. It isn’t something that we create, God Himself knits us together. We you rejoice, I rejoice with you. When you hurt, I hurt with you. When you have joy I join with your joy!
14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
They all prayed together, devoted themselves to it! If you need prayer you should always have people around you that will be willing to pray with you and for you!
When you are out in the sun, you cannot help but feel warm - sometimes even hot. When you are out in the snow, you can’t help but feel chilly - maybe even painfully cold. The environment around us makes a difference. Similarly living in the atmosphere of God’s joy will naturally make you more joyful!
THE JUDICIAL BENEFIT OF GOD’S PRESENCE
PSALMS 149 Speaks of singing, praising, and even dancing in worship. And in the midst of that activity the psalmist writes that God will execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples. ( Let God fight your battles for you! Rejoice in what He is going to do now! Give him glory now, sure we will give him glory after He has shown Himself strong but faith is rejoicing before He has done it! )
When we need justice in our lives, the best place for us to go is into God’s presence.
In Matthew 18 Jesus teaches about church discipline, and He says that when two or more are gathered together in His name, He is in their midst.
Understand the context here. This promise comes in a section where He is talking about dealing with people who are sinning. Authority is dispensed when God’s people gather together to follow Him. When we gather under Jesus’ authority, He will bring justice and needed correction. He will execute rightoueness.
THE CIRCUMSTANTIAL BENEFITS OF GOD’S PRESENCE
The presence of God can change your circumstances for the better.
Psalm 66 lists a number of situations that be overcome through praise
If you are lonely, orphaned, or imprisoned you should praise God
If you are poor, surrounded by enemies, burdened or in need of deliverance, you should praise God!
1 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.’ ” 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying,
Hezekiah is told by the prophet that he is going to die. Hezekiah turns toward God and God reverses His decision and Hezekiah lives many more years. In God’s presence you can change God’s mind! There many examples in the Scripture of this occuring Moses, Jonah and more. What kind of God is this! How can someone so mighty and powerful change His mind for us! A God who loves, a God who wants a relationship with you. A God who recognizes when you are truly repentent and is willing to forgive! This is one of the reasons it’s so important for us to be able to forgive. If God can forgive us we should be able to forgive others! If we want to be more like Him we have to take on the same attributes that we benefit from!
THE SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF GOD’S PRESENCE
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
This transformation isn’t about information is isn’t about knowledge. Sure when we come to church we come to learn more about God and His Word. These are good things, however transformation is about us positioning ourselves so that God can do His work in us. To do that we have to be open what the Holy Spirit wants to do within our lives. We have to allow Him to guide us, to correct us, and to change us. This isn’t always an easy thing to do… we have to do away with old attitudes. When we want to be mad the Holy Spirit might hold us back! When we want to revel in some things we might feel Godly sorrow instead. We have to surrender to such a point that when the Holy Spirit wants to take some things away from us…. we relinquish it to Him and don’t look back.
God want’s to make us new and it’s in His presence that this is accomplished. Give Him your worship in all things and let him make you new.
