Personal Development on God's Absence

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Leader: We are people of the

Author

Scripture

1 Corinthians 15:20-22, Romans 6:4, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Psalm 32:5, 1 John 1:8-9, Philippians 4:6-7, Hebrews 13:5-6

Leader: We are people of the resurrection. Witnesses to God’s glorious victory in Jesus Christ, which brings peace and transforms the power structures of this world. But we also know that we live in ...

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Adapted from Psalm 22

Author

Hughes Oliphant Old

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 22:null

Have you really forsaken us? Why are you so far away from where we need you? Why do you not pay attention to what seems to us So alarming? Why are you so otherworldly? Day and night we have cried...

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Lord God Almighty: our Creator,

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

Isaiah 41:13, John 14:26-27, Psalm 34:18-19, Philippians 4:6-7, Matthew 11:28-30, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Lord God Almighty: our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer: There is no place where You are absent. There is no corner of our world that’s hidden from You. There is nothing about us You do not know, no ac...

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Reaching Further than your Grasp

Author

Darren Pollock

Keywords

Scripture

Mark 7:24-37, 1 John 5:14-15

Once when my daughter was six and my son was two, my mother-in-law noticed my daughter holding a favorite toy just out of my son’s standing reach, and she gently scolded her for teasing him that way. ...

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Jesus, Could you Hand me the Broom?

Author

Justin Sedgewick

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 28:20, Isaiah 41:13, Psalm 121:7-8, Psalm 4:8, Joshua 1:9, Deuteronomy 31:6

A little boy is afraid of the dark. One night his mother tells him to go out to the back porch and bring her the broom. The little boy turns to his mother and says, “Mama, I don’t want to go out there...

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The Ministry of Absence

Author

Ruth Haley Barton

Keywords

Control

Scripture

Isaiah 30:15, Psalm 46:10, 2 Corinthians 4:18, Romans 8:26, John 14:26, 1 John 16:7

The other thing that helps me deal with my compulsion to control things through my direct involvement and my fear of missing out is what Henri Nouwen has called “the ministry of absence.” Jesus modele...

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One Dark Night: A Deeper Work of God

Author

Alan Fadling

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 27:1, Isaiah 50:10, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Romans 8:18, James 1:2-4, Isaiah 50:10

[These thoughts come from a journal entry of about 10 years ago when I was experiencing a deep and dark night of faith] I have found insight and wisdom for my journey with Christ in the writings of J...

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Author

Christine Pohl

Keywords

In Scripture, remembering falsely or forgetting entirely is often associated with an absence of gratitude. One of the saddest judgments passed on people in Scripture is that they didn’t remember God’s...

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Author

Max Lucado

Keywords

Does God guarantee the absence of struggle and the abundance of strength? Not in this life. But he does pledge to reweave your pain for a higher purpose.

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Author

John O'Donohue

Keywords

Presence

May you know that absence is alive with hidden presence, that nothing is ever hidden or forgotten. May the absences in your life grow full of eternal echo. May you sense around you the secret Elsewher...

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Even in our moments of doubt, our lack of faith

Author

Jacob Traeger

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 8:38-39, Mark 6:1-13, Romans 5:1, Psalm 139:1-18, Matthew 6:14-15, Mark 11:25-26, Acts 5:31

Even in our moments of doubt, our lack of faith, and the blindness which means we fail to see God amongst us, God is still at work. God is still healing. God is still forgiving. Even when you fail to ...

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The Love of God Wrapped About Him

Author

Thomas Kelly

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 4:1-3, Psalm 30:5, Romans 8:28, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Psalm 34:18, Isaiah 43:2, Psalm 23:4, Job 1:, Job 2:, Job 42:, 2 Samuel 11:, 2 Samuel 12:, Genesis 37:12-36, 1 Kings 17:8-24, Daniel 6:, Psalm 34:18

The sense of Presence! I have spoken of it as stealing on one unawares. It is recorded of John Wilhelm Rowntree that as he left a great physician’s office, where he had just been told that his advanci...

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Adapted from Psalm 73:1–28

Prayer of Confession All: Certainly God is good to his people, to those pure in heart, but as for me, I nearly stumbled; I nearly lost my sure footing. I struggle with envy as I look at the those in ...

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Author

Sinclair B. Ferguson

Keywords

Scripture

2 Samuel 22:31

Appearances can be deceptive. The fact that we cannot see what God is doing does not mean that He is doing nothing. The Lord has His own timetable. It is we who must learn to adjust to it, not vice ve...

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Lord, You answer our pleas for help.

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Keywords

Lord, You answer our pleas for help. You draw near to us when we are hurting; You save us when we are crushed by life. Your Psalmists declare it on every page. Yet we often feel abandoned and alone. W...

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Eternal God, we recognize that Your

Keywords

Eternal God, we recognize that Your ways are mysterious. Teach us to be still and to wait for You. We confess our sinfulness, our need for control, and our discomfort with the unknown. Instead of turn...

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Author

Mike Cosper

Keywords

This is an age where our sense of spiritual possibility, transcendence, and the presence of God has been drained out. What’s left is a spiritual desert, and Christians face the temptation to accept th...

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Inspired by Amos 5:18-24

Author

Jacob Traeger

Keywords

Scripture

Amos 5:18-24

God has come to us and revealed Himself fully to us Yet too often we hide ourselves from His love and salvation Instead of focusing on you, Lord God, we focus on ourselves Instead of trusting yo...

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Lacking Presence

Author

Alan Fadling

Keywords

In his excellent book, An Unhurried Life, Alan Fadling describes the challenge of experiencing God’s presence, even in the relatively slow world (in comparison to our own) of the fourteenth-century: ...

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We desire your presence with us, O God.

Keywords

We desire your presence with us, O God. Still our restless spirits, that with quiet minds and reverent hearts we may hear your voice and worthily worship you. Amen .

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Almighty God, we too often live in

Author

Scott B. Bullock

Keywords

Almighty God, we too often live in fear. Fear drives our self-preservation, our self-centered decisions, and prevents us from comprehending the wonder of your presence among us. Like Peter, we would d...

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Author

Belden Lane

Keywords

Scripture

2 Samuel 7:null

Yahweh, unlike the mountain and fertility gods of the ancient Canaanites, refuses to be bound by any geographical locale. All of the 'high places' pretending to capture the divine presence mus...

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Author

Meister Eckhart

Keywords

The reason we are not able to see God is the faintness of our desire.

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Author

Alisha Illian

Keywords

Attention

When God doesn’t have your attention, He’ll often disturb what does.

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God of the Impossible – Father, Son and

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

Jeremiah 32:17, Luke 1:37, Isaiah 43:25, Romans 8:38-39, Psalm 139:7-10

God of the Impossible – Father, Son and Holy Spirit: There’s nothing too hard for you to do, Nothing too complex for You to understand, No place we go that You’re not there, No sin too heinous tha...

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Adapted from Isaiah 35:1–10

Author

Kimberly Bracken Long

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 35:1

God of majesty and glory, we are thirsty for your grace. You made a way for us in the wilderness, and still, in our foolishness, we go astray. We hide our eyes from your presence. We do not listen to ...

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Author

A. W. Tozer

Keywords

Waiting

[God] waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain.

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The Absence of Success

Author

Bruce Larson

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 11:13, John 15:15-16, Isaiah 6:8, Galatians 6:9, Exodus 4:10-12, 2 Timothy 1:9, 1 Corinthians 1:26-27

Quite often the absence of immediate success is the mark of a genuine call., My Creator, My friend.

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Almighty and Everlasting God, in whom

Author

John Watson

Keywords

Scripture

Acts 17:28

Almighty and Everlasting God, in whom we live and move and have our being, who has created us for yourself, so that our hearts are restless until they find rest in you, grant to us purity of heart and...

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Author

William Barclay

Keywords

Compartmentalization

Here is an eternal truth. Life cannot be divided into compartments in some which God is involved and in others of which he is not involved... The fact is that God does not need to be invited into cert...

personal development on God's Absence

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