Developing the ability to get into the present moment brings us into a deeper encounter with the Presence of God. We can find the Scriptural basis for this in Heb 3:7-8; 3:15; and 4:7: "Today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,…” Three times this is repeated in the same general passage. There are three parts to this Scripture which if we understand them will take us deeper into spiritual ground. These parts are:
1. Today
2. When you hear His voice
3. Do not harden your heart
The Greek word for “Today,” semeron, is used 41 times in the New Testament and implies the present moment. Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament defines ‘semeron’ as the time at man's disposal…; that is, the time of actual being. The past is gone, the future is not yet; only in the "to-day" of temporally secured or hampered dealings between God and His people (Kittel’s) can we encounter the Presence of God. This encounter is expressed by the second part of the passage in Hebrews: “When you hear His voice.” Thus, says Kittel’s, "to-day" can be the means as well as the content of revelation.
The problem is that it is not easy to get into the present moment. Either we are regretting or lauding the past or we are anticipating or fearing the future. It is not so much a matter of learning from the past or planning for the future, which we can do in the present moment, but we tend to live in the past or future. I can speak for myself and perhaps you can relate. I fear that if I let go of the past or future and live in the present I will be set adrift in an ocean of uncertain temporality. I therefore try to make the future turn out the way I want it by vividly imagining it. I find myself constantly rehearsing the future. Also for me the past holds a lot of regrets. So I try to go back in my mind to work over the memories of the past so as to make them less condemnatory. In effect then, in my conscious self, I am actually projecting myself into either the past or the future. So I have to let go of all that in order to get into the present moment where I encounter the God who was with me in the past and holds my future course in life.
This is why I believe that entering into the present moment requires practice. It is a spiritual discipline. This is the third part of our passage which says, “Do not harden your hearts.” Here is a powerful statement that we will unpack more thoroughly in later posts. The word for “harden,” sklerotrachelos (don’t try to pronounce it), has to do with unbelief. And this is our natural state in our fallen condition (Ro 3:11-12; Jn 3:19). We are hardened into unbelief.
Here I’m going to step out on a limb and make a general statement; that we cling tenaciously to the past and future because we do not trust God with our lives. Let us make no delusions about this. It does require some doing to come into the present moment with God, which ultimately has the effect of softening up the ground of our hardened hearts. And softened ground is what we need to dig deeper and to draw closer to God. How we do this we will address in future posts. Suffice it to say now that it involves making some ‘sacred space’ in our lives where we can begin taking the risk of letting God hold us in the present moment.
1. Today
2. When you hear His voice
3. Do not harden your heart
The Greek word for “Today,” semeron, is used 41 times in the New Testament and implies the present moment. Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament defines ‘semeron’ as the time at man's disposal…; that is, the time of actual being. The past is gone, the future is not yet; only in the "to-day" of temporally secured or hampered dealings between God and His people (Kittel’s) can we encounter the Presence of God. This encounter is expressed by the second part of the passage in Hebrews: “When you hear His voice.” Thus, says Kittel’s, "to-day" can be the means as well as the content of revelation.
The problem is that it is not easy to get into the present moment. Either we are regretting or lauding the past or we are anticipating or fearing the future. It is not so much a matter of learning from the past or planning for the future, which we can do in the present moment, but we tend to live in the past or future. I can speak for myself and perhaps you can relate. I fear that if I let go of the past or future and live in the present I will be set adrift in an ocean of uncertain temporality. I therefore try to make the future turn out the way I want it by vividly imagining it. I find myself constantly rehearsing the future. Also for me the past holds a lot of regrets. So I try to go back in my mind to work over the memories of the past so as to make them less condemnatory. In effect then, in my conscious self, I am actually projecting myself into either the past or the future. So I have to let go of all that in order to get into the present moment where I encounter the God who was with me in the past and holds my future course in life.
This is why I believe that entering into the present moment requires practice. It is a spiritual discipline. This is the third part of our passage which says, “Do not harden your hearts.” Here is a powerful statement that we will unpack more thoroughly in later posts. The word for “harden,” sklerotrachelos (don’t try to pronounce it), has to do with unbelief. And this is our natural state in our fallen condition (Ro 3:11-12; Jn 3:19). We are hardened into unbelief.
Here I’m going to step out on a limb and make a general statement; that we cling tenaciously to the past and future because we do not trust God with our lives. Let us make no delusions about this. It does require some doing to come into the present moment with God, which ultimately has the effect of softening up the ground of our hardened hearts. And softened ground is what we need to dig deeper and to draw closer to God. How we do this we will address in future posts. Suffice it to say now that it involves making some ‘sacred space’ in our lives where we can begin taking the risk of letting God hold us in the present moment.
What a breath of fresh air this blog is... I am stumbling through learning just some introductory bits and pieces of info on spiritual direction from David Benner's book Sacred Companions.... and blogging some of my passion for encountering God in the present moment here at my personal blog: http://kcbutlersatimetolaugh.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteAnyway... just super thankful to have found (and followed!) your site today. Thank you for this!!