presence

exodus 33.15
then moses said to Him, "if Your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here."

here in lies my heart.

i. will. not. walk outside of obedience to the leading of God's Spirit.

moses understood this idea well. without God's presence, failure was definite. with Him, a constant enveloping of love and peace. not necessarily ease and luxury and happiness. but JOY. the only kind. and this is the testimony that we read throughout the OT...and the NT (although kent would prefer me to call them the OC and NC)

deut. 4. 32-39
32 Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? 33 Has any other people heard the voice of God [a] speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? 34 Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

35 You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other. 36 From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. 37 BECAUSE HE LOVED YOUR FOREFATHERS AND CHOSE THEIR DESCENDANTS AFTER THEM, HE BROUGHT YOU OUT OF EGYPT BY HIS PRESENCE AND HIS GREAT STRENGTH, 38 to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.

39 Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. 40 Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time.