ABIDING IN HIS PRESENCE

Good Morning!!! ABIDING IN HIS PRESENCE Around the Year with Emmet Fox December 4 Read Psalm 27 “When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.” “The wicked” and “mine enemies” stand for our own thoughts, for our fears and doubts of every kind; and truly indeed do they sometimes come upon us as though “to eat up our flesh.” “Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.” The Psalmist reiterates his confidence and makes us, his readers, reiterate that our hearts, too, shall not fear. When you can say quietly and truthfully at any hour of the day or night “my heart shall not fear,” the world has no more power over you. You are free. War of various kinds may rise up against you, but you will be confident, and therefore, you will be victorious. “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.” “For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.” These two verses constitute a remarkable expression of what is often called the second birth. When you have reached that stage you do not allow any external happening really to grieve you, or frighten you, or hurt you, because you know that external things are but passing shadows of no permanent importance. This steadfast determination to dwell in the house of the Lord, to behold His beauty and to learn His secrets, means that you are set upon a rock and there your house of life is secure.