F. B. Meyer said, “There is an experience in which we do not only believe that He is near, but we perceive His presence by the instinct of the heart. He becomes a living, bright reality; sitting by our hearth, walking beside us through the crowded streets, sailing with us across the stormy lake, standing beside the graves that hold our dead, sharing our crosses and our burdens…. Then the believer leans hard on the ever-present Lord.”

From the time he was seventeen until he was thirty, Joseph encountered one heartbreaking setback after another, but we read: The Lord was with Joseph…. The Lord was with him…. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy…. The Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper (Genesis 39:2-3, 21, 23).

You may encounter setbacks, and sometimes you go through heartache. But those are the times to perceive Christ’s presence by an instinct of the heart. Let His nearness be a living, bright reality in your life today.

Lean hard on the ever-present Lord, drawing on His fullness, appropriating His unsearchable riches, claiming from Him grace to turn every temptation into the means of increasing likeness to Himself
F. B. Meyer