In the Tent of Meeting [of God with His people], outside the veil which sets apart the Testimony, Aaron and his sons shall keep it burning from evening to morning before the Lord…. (Exodus 27:21)
Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish (thoughtless, without forethought) and five were wise (sensible, intelligent, and prudent). … Watch therefore [give strict attention and be cautious and active], for you know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of Man will come. (Matthew 25:1-2, 13)
Just as the lamps in the Tabernacle had to be continually supplied with oil so they never went out, we have to keep our lamps burning. We have the full supply of the Holy Spirit, but we have to make sure we don’t quench the Spirit. That means listening to His voice and responding in quick obedience.
If we want to be shining brightly when Jesus returns, we must “give strict attention and be cautious and active” every single day.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Parents, I want you to think back to your children asking you for something they really wanted. How many times did they ask? How many different ways did they ask? What sort of strategies did they use? Did you ever sense any hesitation in them coming to you to make their request?
Do you have this firmly in mind? Good, because this is how Jesus explains prayer.
Jesus called God His Father, and when His disciples asked Him how to pray, Jesus instructed them to address God as “Father” (Luke 11:1-2).
Hindus don’t call God “father” but they flip it around by saying, “Father is like God” to teach children to respect their earthly fathers.
Buddhists don’t believe in a God that anyone can worship or even have a relationship.
Islam gives Allah 99 names, but not one of the names is “Father.”
Jewish rabbis don’t see how anyone other than Jewish people can even think of God as their Father, but even they don’t presume to address Him that way in their prayers.
And yet Jesus tells us to come to prayer to the Almighty Creator and Sustainer of the universe with, “Father.” There is intimacy in that title. There is an understanding of knowingness and trustworthiness in that title. There is an implied belief of perfect provision in that title.
We looked at Luke 11:9-10 previously, and we saw especially how the Amplified Bible brings out the idea of asking again and again and again. But is this what Jesus really meant for us to do? Don’t you feel a bit like a pest asking this way?
The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray (Luke 11:1-4), but then Jesus gave them an un-asked-for illustration to make His point (vv. 5-8).
The Greek word for “boldness” in v. 8 is translated “shameless persistence” or “sheer persistence” or “shameless audacity” in various biblical translations. In the Greek, it’s a unique word (anaideia) which means without shame.
The sleeping friend—although he was tired and the request for bread came at an inconvenient time—still wanted to honor his friend. Or more precisely, he wanted to preserve the honor of his friend.
There’s another Greek word (hypomone) that I would define as stick-to-it-iveness. Two great examples are Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52) and the Syrophoenician mother (Matthew 15:21-28).
In light the the story of the Good Samaritan in the previous chapter of Luke, I think this friend was practicing the Golden Rule: he wouldn’t want to lose standing in the community or be embarrassed by being an ill-equipped host, so he helped supply his neighbor.
“Give us each day our daily bread” (Luke 11:3) hallows God as our Father. Our Father is the Bread Supplier and He never wants His children forsaken or embarrassed—
I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. (Psalm 37:25)
The conclusion to the instructions Jesus gives us about prayer are continual asking, persistent seeking, and audacious knocking! P.U.S.H. = pray until something happens!
“Our giving depends much on the state of our minds at the moment. When depressed, we have no pleasure in giving; we either refuse, or we give merely to get quit of the applicant. Darkness of mind shrivels us up, makes us selfish, neglectful of others. When full of joy, giving seems our element—our joy overflows in this way; we cannot help giving; we delight in applications; we seek opportunities of giving. So with the blessed God. Being altogether happy, His delight is to give; His perfect blessedness flows out in giving. We can never come wrongly to such an infinitely happy Being.” —Horatius Bonar
Our importunate requests are opportunities for God to show His unequaled supply to others—to exalt His name. For that request, God will “get up and give you as much as you need” (Luke 11:8).
We are to keep on PUSHing for our Father’s “yes.”
Check out all of the other messages in this prayer series by clicking here.
When we pray the closing words of the prayer Jesus gave us—“For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen!”—we are both acknowledging God’s awesomeness and we are asking for our lives to display this reality.
“He who loves iniquity does not love his fellow man, for ‘he who loves iniquity does not love, but rather hates his own soul.’ And certainly he who does not love his own soul will in no way be capable of loving the soul of another.” —Aelred of Rievaulx (1109-1167)
Steven Lee shows us the biblical principles that God forms us through failure. One passage especially stood out to me because it is a central thought to both of my books. Lee writes, “God measures success according to faithfulness: ‘One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much’ (Luke 16:10). Do we strive for success as defined by God? Are we seeking to be faithful with all that he has entrusted to us—time, talents, and treasure? Or have we adopted the lying weights and measures of our world? Will our labors result in hearing the words ‘Well done, good and faithful servant’ (Matthew 25:23)? Put aside striving for the world’s facade of perfection.”
“The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.” —Vince Lombardi
T.M. Moore teases us with this: “The most important question we can ask guides us in answering many other questions besides, questions such as, ‘Whom should I marry?’ and ‘How can I stop wasting time?’ and ‘What’s the best way to use my wealth?’’ Any question that helps us answer those and a myriad other questions that might arise during the day must be pretty important. Indeed, it must be the most important question any of us could ask.” What is that most important question? Check out his thought-provoking answer.
“Life is not a spectator sport. If you’re going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, you’re wasting your life.” —Jackie Robinson
When God gives you a victory, write it down (see Exodus 17:14). When God gives you a promise, write it down. Then read it regularly so you don’t forget it. This will keep you grateful, it will keep you expectant, and it will keep you dependent on the victory-giving, promise-keeping God.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Last week I asked, “How long do we keep praying?” Answer: Until God answers or until He lifts our burden. In the meantime, the Bible encourages us to…
Keep asking with full confidence that God hears you
Keep expecting an answer
Keep worshiping God for Who He is
Keep trusting that your Heavenly Father wants to give you the very best!
With that in mind, let me ask you another question: What does this look like? How do we wait expectantly for God to answer? I’ve got three thoughts from the Scripture.
(1) Keep walking
Eliezer had a 300-mile journey which would have taken him about 10 days. Abraham prayed for him before he left and Eliezer prayed when he arrived (Genesis 24:7, 12, 15). His expectation that God would answer him kept him walking. The answer came after 10 days—before he even finished praying!
Nehemiah prayed for God’s favor with King Artaxerxes (Nehemiah 1:11) but then he had to keep walking to work every single day for at least 4 months (2:4). All the while he was praying, expecting, and planning, so when the king asked him what he wanted, Nehemiah was ready to answer.
A royal official met Jesus in Cana and asked Him to heal his son who was was sick in Capernaum. Jesus said, “Go! Your son will live,” and that father began walking his 20-mile journey home. Along the way, his servants met him to deliver the good news of the boy’s full recovery. When the father asked, he found out it was at the very moment Jesus had said, “Go” (John 4:46-53).
Faith takes Jesus at His word and starts walking toward the approaching miracle!
(2) Keep waiting
There are two Hebrew words in the Old Testament that frequently are translated “wait”:
qava = expecting in hope
yahal = guarding that hope
Check out how one psalmist linked hoping and waiting—
Out of the depths I cry to You, LORD; Lord, hear my voice. Let Your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. … I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in His Word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. (Psalm 130:1-2, 5-6)
And David wrote how he had learned to quiet himself in God’s loving presence: But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content (Psalm 131:2).
Then listen to the wait-hope-quiet link in Jeremiah’s prayer—
I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. (Lamentation 3:24-26)
In the New Testament, the idea is patience for an expected result is like a farmer who had prepared his field, planted good seed, watered it with his prayers, and is now assured of an abundant harvest (James 5:7-8; Galatians 6:9).
(3) Keep smiling
We put on a smile, not a show!
Contrast what Jesus said about the wrong way to pray and fast…
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. … And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans … When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting… (Matthew 6:5, 7, 16)
…with the God-honoring, God-trusting way—
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen … But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face. (Matthew 6:6, 17)
It’s not a fake smile, but a smile that comes from the joy in our rock-solid expectation in God’s reply to our prayer (Psalm 28:6-7; 38:15)
Pray—then keep walking, keep waiting, and keep smiling in anticipation of what your Heavenly Father is doing on your behalf.
If you want to check out the other messages in this prayer series, please click here.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Last week we saw that if we make prayer our priority, we can expect that our eyes will be opened to the answers that God has for us. Hagar and Eliezer seemed to get pretty quick answers. Nehemiah had to wait four months for the answer to his prayer.
We saw in Psalm 5 that David laid his requests before God first thing in the morning, and then he went out of his prayer closet in expectation of an answer (Psalm 5:1-3). But how long did he wait?
Psalm 6 may not happen historically right after Psalm 5, but listen to David’s heart, “Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am faint; heal me, LORD, for my bones are in agony. My soul is in deep anguish. How long, LORD, how long? (Psalm 6:2-3). And then again in Psalm 13:1-3, David asks, “How long?” four times in the first two verses!
When we read the training Jesus gave His disciples about prayer in Luke 11:9-10, we see how He implores them (and us) to keep on praying. It becomes even more emphatic in the Amplified Bible—
So I say to you, ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking, the door shall be opened.
But once again we have to ask: how long are we to continue asking, seeking, and knocking? This is what Job asked in the middle of his trial (Job 6:8, 11-13).
Charles Spurgeon said, “God has measured the crosses of all His children: Israel in Egypt, 430 years; Joseph in prison, 3 years; Judah in Babylon, 70 years.” That means that God knows what He is doing, God knows His timing for answering, and that our part is to simply to continue to ask, seek, and knock as we throw our total trust on Him!
I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope.Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.” (Lamentations 3:19-24)
During these times of waiting, we need to keep recalling what we know:
God’s love is unfathomable—Romans 5:5, 8:38-39
God’s timing is perfect—Deuteronomy 32:4
God’s method is flawless—Romans 8:28
God’s gifts are good—Luke 11:11-13, 12:32
In Psalms 6 & 13, David doesn’t record any answers from God, but listen to this assurance from Jesus, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).
Jesus doesn’t tell us how or when God will bring us comfort, but He does assure us that we will be comforted!
In a couple of the examples from David, you can see this assurance as he continues his prayers (Psalm 6:2-4, 8-10; 13:1-6). Paul also experienced this confidence (2 Corinthians 12:7-10), and so did Jesus (Matthew 26:38-39, 50-54).
The writer of Hebrews assures us that Jesus was heard in His, “How long?” cries, and therefore He knows exactly how to intercede for us today as we lift up the same cry (Hebrews 5:7-8; 2:10, 14, 17-18)!
How long? Quite simply stated: Until God answers or until He lifts our burden.
In the meantime, the examples in Scripture and the assurance of Christ’s intercession for us us encourages us to…
Keep asking with full confidence that God hears you
Keep expecting an answer
Keep worshiping God for Who He is
Keep trusting that your Heavenly Father wants to give you the very best!
“First, they teach the Word of God faithfully (Hebrews 13:7). They aren’t trying to impress anyone with how clever, witty, or visionary they are personally. Their desire is that the Word of Christ might dwell in people richly, and all their teaching is based on that holy and inspired Word (Colossians 3:16).
“Second, their lives exemplify the things they teach (Hebrews 13:7). True leaders are people whom, as you follow them, you begin to become like in ways that reflect full faith in Jesus Christ (John 13:1-15).
“Third, true leaders care for our souls (Hebrews 13:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13). They are interested in us, want to get to know us, do everything they can to serve and build us up; and they will go the extra mile when necessary to help us become people of full faith in Jesus.”
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
As Paul is on his way to Jerusalem, he makes time to meet with the leaders of the Church in Ephesus. An important reminder Paul gives them comes from the example he lived out while he was in Ephesus: “For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God” (Acts 20:27).
Some translations say “the whole counsel of God,” but I like the simple, straightforward wording in the KJV: “all the counsel of God.” In other words, Paul’s textbook was everything in the Scriptures.
One of Paul’s traveling companions was Luke, who made frequent use of the Greek word boulē, which is translated “counsel.” He is the only Gospel writer to use this word, and then he uses it seven more times in the Book of Acts. Putting together Luke’s usage of boulē with the three other appearances in the New Testament, we can come up with a good overview of what Paul meant by “the whole will of God.”
Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!… (Acts 20:28-31, emphasis added)
In my book When Sheep Bite I have a chapter called’ Driving Away the Wolves.’ In that chapter I point out—
There is a phrase that is often associated with the behavior of wolves: a lone wolf. Normally, wolves travel and live in packs. The phrase “lone wolf” is associated with those who leave in order to find a mate, carve out their own territory, and then form their own pack.
Jesus said that His sheep hear His voice and follow Him. Lone wolves hear the shepherd’s voice but ignore it to follow their own pursuit of forming their own pack. Remember that these lone wolves don’t want to stay alone: they want to build their own following.
Jesus said we could spot imposters—wolves in sheep’s clothing—by their fruits (Matthew 7:15-20). Two evident fruits are:
Mutating the immutable counsel of God’s Word to suit their own needs
Ignoring or criticizing the whole counsel of God’s Word that godly shepherd leaders faithfully teach and preach
For shepherd leaders and their flocks, the whole counsel of God’s Word is the best wolf deterrent you can find! Another passage from my book says—
David’s beautiful description of the Good Shepherd in Psalm 23 has a phrase that sounds unusual to my ears. He writes, “Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” How can such wooden instruments bring comfort to sheep? When the sheep know their shepherd has the rod of God’s Word in his hand and is skilled at using it, the sheep are far more relaxed around the shepherd. This is because a shepherd’s rod is not used against the sheep, but only against the enemies of the sheep.
Throughout the Old Testament, the rods in the hands of leaders were the symbol of their God-appointed authority (think of the staffs of Moses and Aaron). Those rods were symbolic of the words God had spoken to these shepherds to empower them to lead His sheep. In the New Testament setting, the Bible is described in similar terms. Shepherds are directed to correctly handle the rod of God’s Word, knowing that His Word is the only thing that can reliably care for the sheep by teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training (2 Timothy 2:15, 3:16). The sheep will welcome this; the wolves will fight against this.
Pastors, immerse yourself in the whole counsel of God’s Word. Not just the parts that are comfortable for you or pleasant to preach about, but all of God’s Word! This will strengthen the rod of leadership God has given you, it will bring health and comfort to the sheep in your flock, and it will be a strong deterrent against the wolves that would seek to infiltrate your pasture.
I would also humbly recommend that you pick up a copy of my book When Sheep Bite to help resource you to heal from old or ongoing injuries, and to fortify you to remain faithful to the call God has on your ministry.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Jesus said His Second Coming would occur at a time in history that was just like the behaviors during “the days of Noah” (Matthew 24:36-39; Luke 17:26-27).
What exactly did those days look like?
The earth was depraved and putrid in God’s sight, and the land was filled with violence (desecration, infringement, outrage, assault, and lust for power). And God looked upon the world and saw how degenerate, debased, and vicious it was, for all humanity had corrupted their way upon the earth and lost their true direction. (Genesis 6:11-12 AMPC)
Paul describes this same environment to his friend Timothy—
For people will be lovers of self and [utterly] self-centered, lovers of money and aroused by an inordinate [greedy] desire for wealth, proud and arrogant and contemptuous boasters. They will be abusive (blasphemous, scoffing), disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane. [They will be] without natural [human] affection (callous and inhuman), relentless (admitting of no truce or appeasement); [they will be] slanderers (false accusers, troublemakers), intemperate and loose in morals and conduct, uncontrolled and fierce, haters of good. [They will be] treacherous [betrayers], rash, [and] inflated with self-conceit. [They will be] lovers of sensual pleasures and vain amusements more than and rather than lovers of God. (2 Timothy 3:2-4 AMPC)
It seems to me that we are now living in “the days of Noah” and “the last days.” For Christians, I think this means two things:
(1) Be diligent to keep yourself devoted to living for God.Noah stood out in stark contrast to everyone else because of his righteousness and blamelessness “in his evil generation” (Genesis 6:9). Peter wrote,
So, beloved, since you are expecting these things, be eager to be found by Him [at His coming] without spot or blemish and at peace [in serene confidence, free from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts]. (2 Peter 3:14 AMPC)
(2) Be active in telling people about the Second Coming of Jesus and that the only door to salvation from God’s judgment is Jesus Christ. Jude wrote this—
Guard and keep yourselves in the love of God; expect and patiently wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)–[which will bring you] unto life eternal. And refute [so as to] convict some who dispute with you, and on some have mercy who waver and doubt. [Strive to] save others, snatching [them] out of [the] fire; on others take pity [but] with fear, loathing even the garment spotted by the flesh and polluted by their sensuality. (Jude 1:21-23 AMPC)
The time is short. Let’s stay righteous and let’s stay active in proclaiming the Good News that Jesus is coming as the All-Righteous Judge, but He has already paid for our forgiveness so that we can “stand in the presence of His glory, blameless and with great joy” (Jude 1:24).
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Last week I shared this thought with you from Pastor Tim Keller: “Your prayer must be firmly connected to and grounded in your reading of the Word. This wedding of Bible and prayer anchors your life down in the real God. … Without immersion in God’s words, our prayers may not be merely limited and shallow but also untethered from reality.”
“Untethered from reality” means that we determine the manner in which we come to God in prayer, the way prayer works, and the way God must respond to our prayer. But what we read in the Bible is the opposite of this (Isaiah 1:11-15).
I think there are two opposite and equal erroneous thoughts about how we approach prayer:
I’m not worthy to come into the presence of an all-holy God
I can waltz right into God’s presence whenever and however I please
Both are wrong and both are strategies the devil has used to keep us prayerless. Either we don’t go to God at all or our prayers are unheard because the Bible says that our arrogance has made our prayer ineffectual.
Our Prayer Book—the Bible—helps us find the balance. George Whitefield noted, “Reading the Bible is a good preparative for prayer, as prayer is an excellent means to render reading effectual.” So here’s what we read about those two errors.
I’m not worthy. God is unapproachable in His holiness, but Jesus has made it possible for us to enter in through His righteousness (1 Timothy 6:15-16; Isaiah 6:1-5; Hebrews 4:1, 14, 16; John 16:23-24).
I can come anyway I want to. Passages like Psalm 15:1-5 and Isaiah 58:2-4 make it clear that we cannot simply approach God in a way of our choosing.
Let’s unpack that second error a little more. We have to be clothed in righteousness in order to come into God’s presence, but we cannot be clothed in a righteousness that is apart from Jesus. When we say that we are praying in the name of Jesus, it means we are praying in the nature of Jesus and through the righteousness of Jesus. We must be wearing His righteous robe (Romans 3:22-24; Isaiah 61:10).
So I think we need to pray before we pray. Let’s try these actions which are tethered to the reality of our Prayer Book.
Worship. This is a deep pondering of who God is; it is humbly assigning Him the highest worth. In face, the Old English spelling of this word (“worthship”) gives us insight into what worship does. It is this kind of humility that God responds to (Isaiah 6:5-7; 57:15; Luke 18:9-14).
Confession. As we are worshiping, we will see our inadequacies (much like Isaiah did in Isaiah 6, or the tax collector did in Luke 18). We then need to confession these shortcomings. Dick Brogden wrote, “Confessed sin opens the portals of heaven into our darkness, and light and glory overwhelm shame. Confession is our glory for it lifts our heads and eradicates shame.” We see this so vividly lived out in the prayers of David (Psalm 139:23-24; 51:1-2; 19:12-14).
Repentance. I think we could also call this Repair. After confession where we have fallen short, we resolve now to both take a different path and repair what was damaged (Matthew 5:23-24; Mark 11:25-26; 1 Peter 3:7).
Petition. After worship, confession, and repentance / repair, our heart’s attitude is now in the place for God to heed our cries for His help (1 Peter 3:12).
Let’s learn to pray before we pray. Don’t just rush in and rush out of God’s presence. Take time to worship, confession any sins the Holy Spirit reveals, make things right, and then present your petitions.
Our hearts need to be prepared to present our petitions. This is how we know that God will hear our voice.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
The Israelites were barely out of Egypt, freed from 400 years of captivity, and they begin grumbling against Moses, their God-appointed leader—
Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt—we do not know what happened to him.” (Exodus 32:1)
Then later, on the borders of their promised land, they were again doubtful that Moses truly had heard from God. “So they said to one another, ‘Let’s appoint a leader and return to Egypt!’” (Numbers 14:4).
Have you ever wondered why these disgruntled people didn’t just leave on their own? If they truly thought that going to their Promised Land was impossible, why not just pack up their possessions and leave?
Instead, they said, “We need a leader to help us leave.” In reality, they are really saying, “We need a leader that will help us do what we want to do.”
Human nature is always looking for someone to validate their evil desires—to assure them that they are okay.
Except they’re not okay. They are rebelling against God!
⛔️ There is a warning here for all of us. When we are looking for a leader to validate our feelings instead of looking to God for an unchangeable, objective standard to obey, we are in a dangerous place!
Paul warned his friend Timothy, ”For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires” (2 Timothy 4:3).
⛔️ There is also a warning here for leaders. Watch out when people come to you, asking you to lead or teach in a way that sanctions the way they want to live. You are in a dangerous place if you give in to the rabble’s demands!
Paul also warned Timothy, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a worker who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
Leaders, always remember that it doesn’t matter how many people follow you or tell you how wonderful you are. The only thing that matters is hearing the Judge say to you either, “Depart from Me, I never knew you” or “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (see Matthew 7:21-23; 25:14-23).
Godly leaders don’t live for the momentary approval of fickle people, but they live focused on the eternal pleasure that only comes when they stay singularly attuned to our unchangeable God.
If you are a leader, you may also want to check out these two related posts:
In the Tent of Meeting [of God with His people], outside the veil which sets apart the Testimony, Aaron and his sons shall keep it burning from evening to morning before the Lord…. (Exodus 27:21) 
Craig T. Owens 