January 12-Practice the Presence

Happy Friday to you. How has your week gone? Here, the bottom fell out of the temperature yesterday so it’s cold and so many people are sick with something. It’s wintertime in Oklahoma. 


I have several items that I’m praying about just now and that’s led me to thinking and reading about prayer. 

One of the most famous books on prayer was written 300 years ago by a French monk (Brother Lawrence), who learned to practice the presence of God at all times. We we are told to pray without ceasing, to pray all the time. Obviously, you can’t “our Father” 24/7 but we can stay in the presence of God at all times. It is something that takes lots of practice and work to keep your mind clear of things that discourage the presence of the Holy One but if it wasn’t possible, we wouldn’t have been told to do it. 

Have you noticed that so many times when folks are in the same room these days, they really aren’t in each other’s presence. You can walk into a living room and there 4 or 5 people will be tapping away on their phones and trying to be more than one place at a time. You see couple out to eat and not talking to each other because there in something on their phone. How very different is is when everyone puts aside the electronics and has a conversation? Becomes in the presence of each other? We used to tell students to “Be where you are when you are there.” The idea is that unless you practice being in the moment, you never really engage fully anywhere. 

That’s the same principle of being in the moment with God. Rather than reciting the list of wants and asks, we spend conscious time conversing with Him and being with him. 

Brother Lawrence says that the time of doing business does not differ from the time of prayer. That is something by to wrap your brain around. 

“Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.”

‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5:16-18‬ ‭MSG‬‬

When you pray all the time, prayer becomes so much more than just asking God to do stuff for us, to bless us or to open doors for us. There is nothing wrong with asking God for help, in fact, we are encouraged by Jesus to ask and keep on asking (Matthew 7:7). But when prayer becomes the actual practice of the presence of God, prayer has so much more meaning. So many times we pray on the go, or we are tired and ready to go to sleep or we want to be doing something else. Whatever the reason, we all have experienced rushing prayer at some time or another. Practicing the presence of God means that I have to take time to sit, pushing aside everything else, ready to engage in conversation giving God my full attention. 

Today, when you pray, consciously enter into His presence. Sit and dwell there and experience the Almighty. And then, begin to learn to live there. 

Love you dear friend,

Pam

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