Living in the Presence of God Daily

For the last few months, I have been practicing living and staying in the presence of God during each moment of the day and evening as well. The thought process is that if I can stay in God’s presence I know that I am not only comforted but also protected and guided in the ways of righteousness for His name’s sake and also for His Everlasting Spiritual Fatherhood. Knowing that you are in the presence of God at all times is knowing that the Creator of the universe, the very One who made all things, He is there with you watching over you as you move through creation… through the world that was formed by God. There is no greater comfort! It is like watching the young ducklings as they gather around the mother duck when they feel frightened. The same as a young doe rushes back into the close protection of the mother deer when they feel frightened. If we keep God’s presence near to us in the front of our conscious minds then we know that there is no greater protector or provider in all of the universe as we are when near and dear to our Heavenly Father.

I learned this practice from a little booklet that I acquired years back that was sitting on my bookshelf for years. I re-read it recently and I am reminded of how real that presence is when you practice this remembrance. The book is called, “The Practice of the Presence of God” by Brother Lawrence. You can find it on Amazon and have it delivered. The booklet cost under $6 but what you gain is priceless should you read this and apply it towards your daily life. With this current calamity we are facing worldwide you have the time to read this booklet in just a few hours and put what you learn into practice immediately. With all this extra time on our hands, we can improve upon how we draw near to God in all we do so once this calamity is over we will have improved upon our personal relationship with God in ways that we never could have imagined otherwise.

I would like to share with you something that I just recently did that amplifies how this practice can be used in daily practice. I had a project to do at home that required me to go up and down a ladder scraping off peeling paint around the eves near the roof. It is about ten feet up in certain areas so on one side of my home there is an additional four-foot lower level on to my neighbor’s property because our property is located in a hillside area where each southern neighbor’s house sits a bit lower and lower.

I am in my seventies now so I have to be very careful taking on such projects. I am no longer able to do many things that I used to do without even thinking about it. As we age our bodies are no longer the same so being extremely careful keeps us from making silly mistakes. This is the sort of thing that your mom or your wife might tell you not to do if they really knew how dangerous it was. Knowing myself how serious this was I decided to pray, asking the Lord to guide me in doing this project? So, once I prayed I placed the ladder in place and prepared my tools and everything I needed very methodically one step at a time keeping the Lord at the helm each step of the way and I was really listening for His quiet whisper just in case He said no to me going up the ladder.

Once the ladder was firmly in place over a certain area I prayed and asked the Lord to be with my every step up the ladder, with me reaching up to scrape the peeling paint of a two-foot section, then carefully coming back down the ladder to the ground where I could move the ladder over to cover another two-foot section. I thanked the Lord for taking me up the previous section and bringing me back safely to the ground in that section. Then I had to repeat that process several times to cover the thirty-foot section of my roofline. After scraping off the peeling paint I had to do the same process to paint the sections that I had just sanded step by step but this time with a paintbrush in my hand that required additional balancing.

This entire project took upwards of four hours to complete but in every moment and each step and each stroke of the paintbrush I had to put God in charge. I had to trust in Him and listen to Him intently in case He instructed me to stop or to keep on moving. Not only that, I actually had to trust in this unseen God by faith that I was doing as He instructed us to do things in life. The point being is that I practiced this presence of being with God for this entire project and in the end, I knew God was with me every step of the way watching over me and assisting me with this delicate and somewhat dangerous project.

Although I have been practicing this for quite a while I had never had to do it so intensely in a moment-by-moment way as I had to do during this home project. It was the same way as Brother Lawrence did in his book working as a chief in a kitchen asking the Lord to be with him in every step of the cooking process throughout the entire day of working in the kitchen and even after work throughout the entire day and evening.

Brother Lawrence was a monk but wouldn’t it be nice if all believers would use this practice as much as possible during each day of their lives. Imagine that God would never be far away from His children and they could rush back under His protective care if they felt frightened at any moment by the cares of life, just as the baby chicks rush back to the mother hen.

This tender loving care provided by God is available to all His children but it would be up to us to keep that presence in our conscious minds as much as possible so it would give us the comfort we need. God is always there for His children regardless but it would be for our peace and joy… not God’s. He already knows these things but we oftentimes forget just how close, how near and dear He is with His children.

There are tons of scriptures that encourage us to keep the presence of God with us always but just how intently do we practice such things. The Lord says that if we abide in Him He will abide in us. He says I will give you a Helpmate to live in you and be with you always. He says that I stand outside your door and knock, if anyone opens the door we will come in and dine with them. The Psalms are filled with how the Lord is our comforter and provider. Christ taught us how to pray as such in the Lord’s Prayer.

God wants His children to know just how much He loves them and wants to be number One in their lives but that is a choice that people have to make regarding how much guardianship they want to turn over to the Lord. Do they want to give Him a little control or do they want to surrender all things over to the Lord? Some ignore Him altogether. We have free will to do as we like but if people desired to keep His presence at all times He would be with them at all times and… they would know that in their conscious minds as He already IS in the lives of His children.

This is like having a Rolls Royce in your garage and not knowing it. When you don’t know what you have how can you know how to use what you have. Having God in your body, mind, and soul is having the most precious commodity in all of existence, right at your disposal but you have to bring that presence to the forefront of your mind so you can reap the full benefit of what the Lord offers to His children. For those who are interested order that tiny booklet and put it into practice. I guarantee that it will improve upon your personal relationship with the Lord if that is what you desire to achieve. The Lord also tells us to ask, knock and seek Him and He shall answer us and deliver upon His promises. You won’t fully realize these things until you fully put His promises into your daily practices. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Selah!