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Stay With Me
There is something incredible about the presence of God.
I want to talk to you about the power of drawing near to Jesus.
In particularly, I want to talk to you about how the presence of Jesus dispels fear, anxiety, worry, stress and loss.
We have a God who is acquainted with sorrow and suffering (Isaiah 53.3).
He understands extreme stress and pressure.
Because Jesus knows us—He knows our experience—He opens us a way to life and peace.
So when you are facing stressful work environments, or pumping gas for the commute, or dealing with difficult people, Jesus knows what that feels like.
And instead of being overwhelmed and overcome, He brings peace and power wherever He goes.
In His presence we find refuge (Psalm 91.2).
In His presence we find rest (Exodus 33.14).
We find joy in the presence of God (Acts 2.28).
Not In Our Own Strength
God did not design us to manage life alone.
We have been created for companionship, friendship, fellowship.
In the garden, Jesus was about to face the most difficult moment of His life.
Jesus was always our Teacher.
The Scriptures are left to us for our teaching and instruction and for our hope (Romans 15.4).
Jesus’ request reveals our great need.
Under the strain of the weight of the will of God, Jesus wanted His friends with Him.
He often withdrew from the crowds and got alone to pray (Luke 5.16).
But when He was stressed and in great need, what did He do?
He called for His friends.
For me, this is the opposite of what I am naturally inclined to do.
I tend to withdraw when I am facing great challenges or stress or pressure.
I have to fight the urge to deal with it in my own strength.
Jesus’ request for His friends reveals our need for others.
We were created for God.
We were created in His image and likeness.
God is forever in fellowship—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
When God saw man alone, He saw something was wrong.
He said it was not good for man to be alone.
It is not good for you to be alone.
We were designed for fellowship.
We were meant to experience the presence of God.
And that happens when we are alone with Him, and when He is in our midst with others (Joel 2.27, Matthew 18.20).
What We Need
In Jesus’ request to the disciples that we find His wisdom and His way of managing stress and anxiety as well as sorrow and grief.
It is in this moment, He was showing us the way to face the will of God and to overcome resistance to God’s purpose in our lives.
There are three things that we will find significantly helpful in difficult seasons that we can learn from this moment with Jesus.
We Need to Watch
The word that Jesus used for watch means to be awake, or to be vigilant and ready.
It means to stay awake and not go to sleep.
What we need is to pay attention to God.
When you set your focus and attention on God, He will keep you in perfect peace.
When we are with others, focusing our attention on them we connect with them more deeply and more powerfully.
What Jesus wanted was for others who would notice and be with Him to support Him in His distress.
We need to watch, alert and awake, setting our mind and attention on God.
This will give us perfect peace.
It will sustain us in trouble.
And, we need to do this for others.
When other brothers or sisters, or even our broken and fallen neighbors, are struggling they need us to watch with them.
To pay attention to them and focus on what they are enduring.
This is what Jesus wanted from the disciples.
This is what He needed in His humanity.
We Need to Stay
One of the most important things we can do is just stay with someone.
There is something powerful about sitting with and abiding with a person.
Your physical presence, your being there brings comfort and peace.
A big part of Jesus request was “stay here…with Me.”
There is nothing more life changing than the presence of God.
What Jesus wanted, and what He needed, was for His friends to be with Him.
We need the presence of God.
We need to abide in Him and spend time with Him.
When we do, His life flows to us.
It empowers us and enables us to bear fruit.
We need to abide in God, to stay with Him in His presence.
And like Jesus, we also need to have friends that will stay with us.
We need people in our lives who will sit with us and be with us in our times of need.
This is part of why fellowship is so powerful and important.
Taking time to be with someone in their moments of need communicates God’s love to them and values them.
When you are struggling, you need the presence of God and others in your life.
You need to abide with Him and you need others to stand with you and encourage you.
We Need to Pray
A large part of prayer is communication.
It is talking with and listening to.
It is the act of sharing your heart with God.
When we face the weakness of our flesh, we need to talk to God.
We need to listen for His voice and find strength in His word (Luke 4.4, John 4.34).
When you need grace and help in times of need, pray…talk with God (Hebrews 4.16).
When you are overwhelmed and in need of encouragement, draw near to Him and He will draw near to you (James 4.8).
And not only do we need to pray, we need each other.
We gather together with others so that we might encourage one another and stand with one another and bear one another’s burdens in prayer (Hebrews 10.25, James 5.16, Galatians 6.2).
Conclusion
The promise of Jesus is a powerful one: He is with us.
God’s presence in our lives changes everything.
It transforms our circumstances and brings righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14.17).
If we will learn to watch—setting our focus on God and paying attention to Him and setting our mind on Him, we will find peace.
If we will learn to stay—to sit with Him and abide in Him then we will experience His presence in a life-changing way.
If we will set ourselves to pray—to talk with God and listen to His voice we will find wisdom and knowledge and anxiety will go.
And, if we can do these things for others, like the disciples were should have done for Jesus, then we will be used by God to help bring encouragement, peace, and strength to them.
Our relationships will reveal God’s presence.
We need God’s presence in our lives.
In the face of difficulty and suffering, only God’s presence will secure us and keep us.
God is with us through His Spirit in us and His people.
Look for Him.
Stay with Him.
Talk to Him.
And find rest for your soul (Matthew 11.29).
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