In His Presence

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

IN HIS PRESENCE

Acts 10:30-33

30 Cornelius answered: "Four days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me 31 and said, 'Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. 32 Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.' 33 So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us."

NIV

Peter had just asked them why they had send for them, and now we are seeing Cornelius giving his answer to Peter. The importance of this answer is in the fact that Cornelius told Peter they were in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us. Cornelius knew he was in the presence of the Lord. It is a good thing to know we are in the presence of the Lord, as well as we should know that we have someone to speak everything the Lord has commanded them to speak. The one life lesson we should learn is that we are always in the presence of the Lord. We do not have to gather in some building, although that is surely a great event each and every time we gather to worship the Lord as a body of believers, but where can we go that is not in the presence of the Lord? David knew that truth when he started no matter where he went God was there. The truth of this should shake us to the core, in that we should know wherever we go, whatever we do, God is there with us. This should have a massive effect on how we live each and every day. The other truth we should be aware of is the fact we should know when we have someone who speaks what the lord has commanded him to say. This is important because there are people who speak about the commands or laws of the Lord but speak as men, rather than as commanded by the Lord. We need to know, and that gift of discernment is given so we can know when we are with someone who speaks as commanded by the Lord. It is good to be in the presence of the Lord.