M2-S7: THE PRESENCE OF GOD IN THIS MOMENT
SUMMARY
- Our proximity to Jesus determines whether or not we walk in the light of life.
- Becoming like Jesus means walking in the Father’s presence like he did, all the time.
- Practicing the presence of God is the simplest of all spiritual disciplines (but also very challenging!)
GUIDANCE FOR PRACTICES
- The practice itself is very simple: as often as you can throughout your day, maintain a prayerful posture of mind and heart, subtly aware of the presence of God and his power no matter what else we are doing.
- This is hard to do directly because of our habits of mind, so we have to carve new paths a little at a time.
- The best way to begin carving the path is with a reminder that pings us periodically whatever else we are doing. Some smartphone apps that are helpful:
- Apple iPhone App
- Google Play App
- The point isn’t to read the verse that comes up; the point is to have the reminder direct your attention toward God. We don’t need to stop and pray, it’s just a shift in awareness that we’re after.
SCRIPTURE FOCUS
Psalm 89:5-16, James 4:8
SCRIPTURE FOCUS
- Our key verse in all that praise is v15: “blessed are those who walk in the light of your presence O God”.
- John 8:12: “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.””
- 1 John 1:5-7: “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”
- James 4:8: “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
ABIDING IN JESUS
- We are going to work our way slowly into what is often called “practicing the presence of God”.
- This is the simplest of all the practices we’ll ever attempt, but it is also one of the hardest to fully maintain.
- There’s nothing more transformative we could ever do, no force more powerful on earth than a Christian awake to and walking in the presence of God.
THE SIMPLICITY AND CHALLENGE
- There is little to it: all it really is is to maintain a prayerful posture of mind and heart, subtly aware of the presence of God and his power no matter what else we are doing.
- We can’t let this become an occasion to become angry or to compete with ourselves or others. This perpetuates what we are trying to escape: the prison of self-focus, of living apart from the healing, transforming, life-giving presence of God.
- “If you should forget him for minutes or days, do not groan or repent, but begin anew with a smile. Every minute can be a fresh beginning.” F. Laubach, p. 21.
- This awareness of God doesn’t conflict with what we’re doing, it tends to augment it (because of the inbreaking of God’s kingdom).
- Let’s think through this for a moment in light of some of the Scripture we’ve been working from:
- Seek first his kingdom: Matt 6:33; this must be a continual process, a subtext of the way we go about everything else.
- Living in the Spirit: Gal 5:16-18; life lived in the Spirit is lived in the actual moments, all the time.
- Praying continually: 1 Th 5:17; prayerful mindset should permeate all of life
- Take every thought captive: be transformed by the renewing of your mind 2 Cor 10:5,
- Romans 12:2, be transformed by the renewing of our minds; the key to this is to turn over every thought to Christ, to “think” only in his presence and under his authority
WHAT WE’RE TRYING TO UNLEARN
- The Bible refers to the way most of us live most of the time as “life in the flesh”, where we keep living “as though” what is true is false and what is false is true. Whenever we live as though we are lords of our own lives, as though the experiences or status or possessions we chase will satisfy our need for worth or significance, we live in the flesh.
- “In fact, insofar as we live as though God we’re not present, moment-by-moment, and as though this wasn’t the most important aspect of any present moment, we are living in the flesh. Living as though God was not our only true source of Life forces us to live most of our life in the past or future—as though the present moment was not the only reality. While the true God lives in the now, false gods always live in the past or the future. Chasing them to find our worth and significance always takes us out of the present moment.” Greg Boyd, Present Perfect
- Our past/future oriented thinking revolve around our selfishness and our attempts to feel worthwhile and significant. We savor the past and long for the future that is for us; we ruminate on the past and worry over a future that detracts from us.
- “The very process of trying to acquire life on our own forces us to miss most of life, for real life is always in the present moment. When we live as though we can acquire life from things other than God, we inevitably live as though reality wasn’t always in the present moment. Only a person who is no longer driven by an insatiable hunger can consistently live in the present moment, and only a person who has learned how to find life in the present moment is no longer driven by this insatiable hunger.” Greg Boyd again.