Episode #307 Staying Connected to God Through Busy Days – Unforced Rhythms of Grace

Hey friends, it's Jen. As someone who helps people experience daily life with God, one of the most common questions I receive is “how do I actually live in God's presence all day long? I mean, I have stuff to do. I have errands and work and family that keep me so busy. How can I actually stay aware of God? How can I actually remain in his presence?”

That's the question that I'm answering in today's episode, and I don't say that like, oh, this is easy. I do this perfectly all the time. I don't. It's something that we all get to continually grow in because God makes himself available to us as humans.
Relationships grow for us in two main ways. We cultivate healthy relationship with each other, human to human, by shared experiences and healthy communication. And that happens with God, too. Every moment of our day gets to be a shared experience we have with him as we learn to stay alert, to notice him, to see how he is active there. To invite him into what we are doing, the things that are requiring our time and energy and attention. And talking with him about what we're doing and what he's doing as we go about our days.

Richard Foster's talking about this a little bit in his book, the Celebration of Discipline, and he's quoting a few other well-trusted voices. He says, “The writings of Frank Laubach are filled with this sense of living under the shadow of the Almighty. ‘Of all today’s miracles the greatest is this: to know that I find Thee best when I work listening. . . . Thank Thee, too, that the habit of constant conversation grows easier each day. I really do believe all thought can be conversations with Thee.’

Think about that. All thought can be conversation with God.

Foster also says that, “Brother Lawrence knew the same reality. Because he experienced the presence of God in the kitchen, he knew he would meet God in the Mass as well. He writes, ‘I cannot imagine how religious persons can live satisfied without the practice of the Presence of God.’

Now that's what we're doing here on the podcast. Our short episodes leave you with a conversational question to go ask God, as a way of practicing the presence. He is here. We can respond to him believing that, believing it's true that God is here with us. Believing he hears us when we talk to him and he wants to engage in conversation with us.

In 1 John 4:16, it says, “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (1 John 4:16 ESV)

Now, I read that from the ESV, but I wanna read part of it again in the NIV and it says, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” (NIV)

We're talking about living aware of God's presence, living in his presence. As we go about all of the things that we need to handle that are good and right to be on our calendars and our to-do lists, we get to be those who stay in God's presence, who abide there everywhere we go. We can stay attentive and alert to him because we know and believe the love that he has for us.

Because we know and rely on it. We can live accordingly. We can come with that holy expectancy. That here too. At my home here, too, at the grocery store here, too, at my kid’s school or at my desk at work. God wants to engage with me.
This is a learning process. Practicing the presence of God doesn't mean we're practicing God's presence. We're practicing staying aware of God's presence because his presence is always there. We're practicing engaging with him, believing and relying on his truth.

Now this is a learning process and I was really convicted about how easy it is to fall into old habits when I was reviewing my notes for this episode. Because the question I was going to leave you with today was, “God, how can I keep our conversation going all day long?”

It's not a bad question, but that's not the ideal question either. It puts the ownership on me, doesn't it? Or on you as you ask God the question, “God, how can I keep this going? I don't wanna lose sight of you. What can I do?” But the reality is God wants to keep the conversation going with you all day long. His ideas are far better than what we could come up with. And it's not about us striving, it's not about trying to maximize the most of every moment. It's about a way of living, believing that God wants to have relationship with us, believing he is always ready to be active and engaged with us in what he's doing and in what we are doing.

And so here's the actual question I wanna leave with you today:

God, how do you want to keep our conversation going all day long?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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