The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. (Psalm 145: 18)
Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. (Philippians 4:5)
What leads you to the sense of the nearness of God? Do you equally sense His absence? There are times when I sense His presence, and times when I sense His absence, but I can’t tell you what characterizes either for me. I suppose it’s like the kinetic sense we have when there’s someone nearby, even if we don’t see, hear, feel, or smell them.
But you’ll notice, today’s passages don’t say that we will feel Him near. They say He is near. This idea brought to mind a book I’ve owned for years and never managed to read: The Practice of the Presence of God, It’s a tiny book, fewer than 100 pages in paperback.
One of the keys shared in the first conversation is that in order to practice the presence of God, it is necessary to form the habit of talking to Him continuously throughout the day. If we are distracted, as soon as possible, we should go back to discussing everything with God.
I don’t do this as much as I’d like. I’m easily distracted by things around me. A nice aspect of this is that it forces us to get away from intercession. Don’t get me wrong – we are supposed to intercede on behalf of others. Intercession is good unless it results in our treating God like a vending machine or short order cook. According to Brother Lawrence, praying continuously breaks us away from mechanical prayers.
Even apart from intercession, I can relate to the idea of mechanical prayers. Sometimes, I think my prayers are mostly copy-and-paste and fill-in-the-blank. That might not be so bad if I were praying about significant things, but I’m really just praying my “what if?” anxiety litany.
How about you? Do you have any bad prayer habits that might be broken if you just held day=long conversations with Him?
But you’ll notice, today’s passages don’t say that we will feel Him near. They say He is near. This idea brought to mind a book I’ve owned for years and never managed to read: The Practice of the Presence of God, It’s a tiny book, fewer than 100 pages in paperback.
One of the keys shared in the first conversation is that in order to practice the presence of God, it is necessary to form the habit of talking to Him continuously throughout the day. If we are distracted, as soon as possible, we should go back to discussing everything with God.
I don’t do this as much as I’d like. I’m easily distracted by things around me. A nice aspect of this is that it forces us to get away from intercession. Don’t get me wrong – we are supposed to intercede on behalf of others. Intercession is good unless it results in our treating God like a vending machine or short order cook. According to Brother Lawrence, praying continuously breaks us away from mechanical prayers.
Even apart from intercession, I can relate to the idea of mechanical prayers. Sometimes, I think my prayers are mostly copy-and-paste and fill-in-the-blank. That might not be so bad if I were praying about significant things, but I’m really just praying my “what if?” anxiety litany.
How about you? Do you have any bad prayer habits that might be broken if you just held day=long conversations with Him?
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