Standing In God's Presence

 Today, my reading in God's Word stressed the importance of us being holy before the Lord. I am afraid most of us, as believers, don't take this subject seriously enough. God is holy. He hates sin. He doesn't allow sin in His presence. Therefore, if we want to enter His presence, we must have confessed our sins, so we are clean before Him.

The men of Beth-Shemesh were not careful to obey the Lord when the Ark of the Covenant returned from the Philistines, and 70 men looked inside the Ark. God killed all of them for touching the Ark which He had forbidden. (I Samuel 6:20) Then, they asked, "Who is able to stand in the presence of the Lord, this holy God?" We need to make sure we know the answer to this question or similar things could happen to us.

When we are saved, all our sins (past, present, and future)  are forgiven, but any sins we commit after salvation still must be confessed, or else they affect our relationship with God and our ability to enter His presence, (I John 1:9) We are still saved, but we have made God sad or upset by our sins. We need to be cleansed to be close to Him again. If not, we get farther and farther from Him.

Let's make sure we are not like Ananias and Saphira in the book of Acts, whom God killed for lying to the people and the Holy Spirit. Let's beware of taking the Lord's Supper in vain, like those in Corinth, who died for doing just that. Let's stay clean before the Lord and be ready to experience His powerful presence in worship and in daily life any time He comes to reveal Himself to us. Let's strive for holiness every day, as God commands. 

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Tomorrow, I intend to read I Samuel 7-10.