Learning to Practice the Presence of God
By David Faust
When people ask, “Where is God?” they’re not looking for a road map. You can’t locate the Lord with a GPS. The question “Where is God?” is about relationship, not geography.
David asked the Lord, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7). Travel with astronauts to the moon or descend in a submarine to the ocean floor, and God is already there. Wander away like a stray sheep, and the Good Shepherd searches for you. Sink into despair, and he reaches for you. As Jonah discovered, God can even hear the prayer of a hopeless rebel sloshing around in a fish’s belly.
AWARE OF GOD’S PRESENCE
A cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night guided the Hebrews while they wandered in the desert. In Jerusalem they built a temple where they could celebrate his presence with singing and sacrifices. But God “does not live in temples built by human hands” (Acts 17:24). No building can contain him, and no cathedral can fully capture his glory. Paul reminded first-century believers, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1 Corinthians 3:16).
God is omnipresent and inescapable. The trouble is, we can be oblivious and distractable. We are like Jacob, who awoke from sleep and thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it” (Genesis 28:16). The problem isn’t God’s availability, but our awareness.
When have you been especially mindful of the presence of God? Several years ago I stood in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park gazing across a canyon, amazed by the Creator’s artistry. It was as if God had painted a beautiful canvas, covering it with mountains, boulders, trees, wildflowers, streams, birds, and wildlife under a clear blue sky. I sensed the presence of God amid the mountain grandeur.
In a very different setting, one evening my wife and I stood by the bedside of a dying minister who had devoted his entire adult life—more than half a century—to the Lord’s service. As the three of us quietly read Scripture, sang hymns, and prayed, that lonely hospital room became holy ground. It was the last time we saw our friend on this side of Heaven, but our little bedside prayer meeting provided a foretaste of glory divine.
COME NEAR
Brother Lawrence was a 17th-century monk who described himself as “a great awkward fellow who broke everything.” He labored in the kitchen and repaired sandals, but during his daily tasks he learned to pray without ceasing. After he died, his spiritual reflections were collected in a short book called The Practice of the Presence of God. If your mind tends to wander when you pray, Brother Lawrence suggested a solution: Don’t let it wander too far at other times. If you think of God often, he said, “you will find it easy to keep your mind calm in the time of prayer, or at least to recall it from its wanderings.”
James 4:8 exhorts us, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” Do we intentionally recognize and pursue the presence of God? Christ came to earth as Immanuel—“God with us.” The question is, Are we with him?
Personal Challenge: Create two lists on a piece of paper that answer these questions: (1) What makes you aware of the presence of God? (2) What prevents you from recognizing God’s presence? Write down as many answers as you can to those questions, and discuss your lists with a trusted friend.
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