{"id":6258,"date":"2017-12-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/?p=6258"},"modified":"2024-10-23T12:49:20","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T12:49:20","slug":"end-of-year-reflections-hindrances-to-gods-presence-2-day-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/2017\/12\/25\/end-of-year-reflections-hindrances-to-gods-presence-2-day-4\/","title":{"rendered":"END OF YEAR REFLECTIONS: HINDRANCES TO GOD\u2019S PRESENCE (2); Day 4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\u201cThe good news is that the heart of man truly hungers for God\u2019s presence and that all of the great barriers prohibiting that striving after God have been overcome in Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe most important thing we can devote ourselves to is giving attention to the things of God to save our soul. This must be an active, persistent and deliberate intent on our part, regardless of the difficulties that lie in our path.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt is not a journey for the indolent or for those addicted to entertainment and the coarse pleasures of the flesh. The fact that there are hindrances only emphasizes the value of coming into God\u2019s presence. If experiencing His presence were without obstruction, it would be without enticement as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPenetrating the holy presence of God is the reward of fighting the good fight and overcoming all obstructions in the way. This all-consuming desire for God\u2019s presence goes a long way in tackling the major hindrances a seeker might find. When the goal is in clear view, the obstacles become trivial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf God cannot disturb us, He cannot move us. If He cannot move us, He cannot save us. If He cannot get us concerned about the things of God, He cannot do anything at all for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe ought to put away levity, flippancy and fun. The curse of everything today is that it has to be funny. If it is not funny, it is not popular. But there is nothing funny in God seeing His race wander away in the night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLevity, flippancy or fun has no place when we consider the things of God. We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard. The great labor of the Church has always been to get people to give serious attention to spiritual matters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cContemporary Christianity is so taken up by the world that pressing on to the deep things of God becomes rather difficult. Our contemporary times stand in the way of anybody taking his or her spiritual life seriously. So many things are thrown at us; it takes a very resilient soul to resist the onslaught.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe good news is that the heart of man truly hungers for God\u2019s presence and that all of the great barriers prohibiting that striving after God have been overcome in Jesus Christ.\u201d \u201cThe most important thing we can devote ourselves to is giving attention to the things of God to save our soul. This must [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-end-of-year-reflections"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/End-Of-Year-Reflections_-10-Days-With-Tozer.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6259,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6258\/revisions\/6259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}