Hello, and welcome to Enbolden, living a bold Christian life. I'm Chris Shutter, an ordinary Christian living with and learning about an extraordinary God. Thank you for joining me on spending 30 days of praising God. Today's praise comes out of the verse from Luke 17, 20 to 21.
Once on being asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, the Kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, here it is, or there it is, because the Kingdom of God is in your midst. My BSGs are embarking on a new study called He Speaks to Me by Priscilla Shire. What stood out to me in the first video we watched was her discussion about the Kingdom of God. She shared with the audience about how in the Old Testament the Israelites prayed for the coming Kingdom of God.
It was something they hoped and yearned for throughout their years as a new and developing nation. And right at the beginning of a New Testament, we find John the Baptist proclaiming in Matthew 3, 2, Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near. You see, with Jesus' arrival, the Kingdom of God or Heaven became flesh and was brought to the Israelites, brought to us. And so many of them refused to grasp that their prayers were answered.
And when Jesus was resurrected, the Holy Spirit remained to cover us with that Kingdom. Today, I praise God for His continual presence in our world, in my life and yours. The big word is omnipresent, but I like to think of it more as though I move through and live in God's presence. He's not so much with me.
I am more like a tiny little seed that is buried in a fluff of freshly picked cotton. I am in God's Kingdom, surrounded by Him. When I grabbed this idea about a year ago, it changed my perspective dramatically. I don't need to ask God to come help me or be near me.
I just need to slow down my brain and remember that I am always in His presence. We are all in this presence, whether we believe in Him or not. It reminds me of one of my favorite movies, The Matrix. There are those in the movie whose brains and bodies are hooked up to a virtual reality machine.
They move about in a phony world without realizing its fake character. And then there are the people who have disconnected from the computer and live almost in an alternate space, the real tangible world. When we disconnect from the world of the flesh and recognize that this is God's world, His created space, and that we are in His midst, we start seeing life and how to live it from a new perspective. The Kingdom, Jesus reiterated in our first verse, is not a specific thing to be seen.
It's because it is everything in God's creation. And it is the grace God gifted us through Jesus. It's His holy workings in our lives via the Holy Spirit. The Kingdom is God and God is the Kingdom.
No, and that just a little bit. When I'm struggling with an issue or feel pulled apart by the fleshly world, I now seek that sweet spot, that quiet moment where I can feel nestled in His presence like that little cotton seed. I want to wrap it around me like a warm, soft blanket, and thank God I can call Him home.