Spiritual Solutions

True Life is a Real Awareness of the Presence of God

Jesus said, “I am come that you may have life, and have it abundantly.” He is not talking about mere existence; he’s talking about a vibrant, vital life where we have a sense of the awareness of God.

If we don’t have at least some sense, or some awareness, of God’s presence in our life we are not really alive. We need to awaken to the realization of God’s presence in every part, every event, and every moment of our life. God is ever-present; there is no spot where God is not.

Even though we are inundated with outside influences we can move toward the realization of the greater influence of the power of God that is present in our lives.

We are influenced by outside things, media and all the many things that we are involved with every day. But if we realize God’s presence we can always be influenced in a greater way. We can turn to the greater realization of God’s good in our lives.

We have shared in past messages the importance of meditation. Meditation is really important, because it is what connects us to the realization of God’s presence. We make a direct connection in meditation, in stillness, in the Silence, and our prayers keep us connected to the realization of God’s presence in our life.

But we need more than that; we need to be able to maintain that consciousness in the midst of our everyday activities. It’s all right to have a realization of God’s presence when we have our time of meditation and there’s nothing disturbing us. We feel centered, peaceful, and attuned with God’s presence. But then we go out into our everyday world and sometimes get so caught up in it and in the outer experience of life instead of life itself, the life of God within us moving through 
and underlying every experience. God’s presence is always there, and it’s easy to forget that.

How do we Maintain Awareness of God’s Presence Every Day?

I remember one occasion when we had Janie and Sig Paulson come to share with us at Unity of Roanoke Valley and Janie was giving the meditation. She used a scripture that has always stuck in my mind in regard to this need we have of keeping and maintaining an awareness of God’s presence:

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.’” (Psalms 91:1-2)

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High . . .” I remember that Janie, in her meditation, focused on the word “dwells.” He who “dwells” in the shelter of the Most High, who “abides” in the shadow of the Almighty. There’s a sense of being present all the time, isn’t there, in those words. Most of us for the most part go in and out of the realization of God’s presence, but in the realization of God as our refuge and strength and trust in God we abide in it, we dwell in that consciousness, we dwell in the shadow of the Most High.

So how do we do that? How do we abide in that consciousness?

We can do it very easily in the midst of our everyday activities if we keep remembering God’s presence all the time, if we are going about our activities with the sense that we are listening to God and being guided by God at all times.

We can teach our children in this also and we can have them join with us; it’s like a fun game where God is present in everything. We have to start with ourselves though, to provide an example for our children.

How to Start Your Day

You might start first thing in the morning when you wake up. Instead of saying, “Oh God, it’s morning!” you can awake with the realization, “Oh God . . . it’s morning. What are we going to do today together, God?” Instead of dreading the day ahead, awaken with the attitude “What are we going to do together today, God?”

See God as your friend.

Remember that Jesus said to his disciples, “I have called you friends, because I have shared with you everything the Father has revealed to me.” So, a good thing would be to think of the presence within us as our friend.

I remember asking God in prayer at one particular time, “What shall I call you?” I wanted to know what I should call God. I was a little confused at that time and not wanting to call God “God” because it seemed so remote, and yet not wanting to worship the man Jesus, and “Christ” being a little abstract. And the words came to me, “I have called you friend. Call me friend.” That was a nice realization for me, knowing that I could call God “friend.”

So start off your day with a close feeling of God’s presence. Then as you get out of bed, move a little slowly and realize that God’s activity in you is enabling you to move, and without God’s activity within you there would be no way you could move. So that begins to get you conscious of God’s presence within you.

Then when you shower or bathe, be aware that the water is like the purifying presence of God flowing in and through you all the time during your day. Think about it. You might make an affirmation for yourself, such as “The very presence of God is now cleansing and purifying me in every way, preparing me for my day which will be filled with beauty, love and joy.” In this way you are beginning to determine a consciousness of God present in every part of your day.

As you are dressing, think about not only clothing yourself with your clothes but you are clothing yourself with an attitude of mind, the attitude and thoughts and feelings with which you will go through the day. As you choose your clothes ask yourself if they are worthy of the clothes you want to wear as a child of God. Clothe yourself well as a child of God. It doesn’t have to be ostentatious but needs to be something worthy of a child of God.

Then as you eat, think of the food that you eat as being filled with the vibrant life of God, and as you eat you are blessing your body with that life force. As you drink a glass of water, think of it as living water. Remember when Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well, “The water that I will give you will be living water.” Think of yourself as drinking living water.

Living From a Consciousness of God

As you go off to work, or get the children off to school, or turn to household responsibilities, remember that you are going to share the talent, ability, and purpose that are yours to give to life. Realize that God is expressing through you.

Whatever it is that is yours to do remember that no work is any more important than another, but only that you consider that work sacred; it’s as sacred to be doing one thing as it is another, whether it’s packing sandwiches for a child’s lunch or working in a church ministry. It’s just the same, as long as you hold each one sacred. Every work that you do has the same value if you focus on it as being the sacred expression of God through you in doing that particular work.

Throughout the day, as you meet a difficult task, you might say “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Again you are focusing upon God’s presence, and so you are meeting the task before you from the center of God; you are not only in God but living from God.

It was Brother Lawrence, a 17th Century Carmelite monk, who first inspired the phrase that was built around his experience of “practicing the presence of God.” He first became aware of that when working in the kitchen of the monastery, where his work was to take out the garbage and wash the dishes. He realized that was sacred work and began to understand and feel and experience God’s presence in every aspect of what he was doing. He began to feel a deepening sense of joy in all that he did, no matter the drudgery he was involved in at that time. There were no dishwashers at that time and probably not too much hot water because the only way they had hot water was to heat it over the fire.

Just think and focus on God’s presence, no matter what the task or whether you must meet with a difficult person. Maybe you have an appointment with someone that you are dreading; think of it as a divine appointment and say to yourself, “I go to meet my good.”

One of our long-time Unity ministers, Ernest Wilson, told a story about a man who was coming to him for counseling. He said he just dreaded the thought of him coming because he couldn’t really handle him; it was something he was not able to face too well. Every time he heard his footsteps coming down the hall he thought, “Oh, my God, he’s coming again; I won’t have any answers for him today.”

One day as he was sitting there thinking in this way he said he began to get anxious and to panic, and then all at once he had the realization, “What am I doing? God’s presence is here and this is a divine appointment, and God’s good is coming to me right now.”

He said as he realized this truth, on this day instead of trying to find answers for him out of his anxiety and not coming up with anything, he just turned to God’s presence and looked for the answer from within. The answers were forthcoming and he said the man began to vibrate to a new awareness, a new level of God consciousness.  

Take Time for Moments of Prayer

During the day, take time for moments of prayer, for “minute prayers.” Jim Rosemergy, in his book “A Closer Walk with God,” calls them “monastic moments,” when you get still just for a moment to realize God’s presence in your life. It doesn’t take very long, maybe 30-60 seconds, just to take a moment to refresh yourself and realize that God’s presence is with you in that moment.

At the end of the day, have a little review of the day. Look back, objectively, to when you were feeling and realizing God’s presence, and where perhaps the ego got in the way instead. When you realize that there was a lightening of the ego in some situation, then smile at the realization of God’s presence in that moment.

Some More Things You Can Do

Think about letting your body be an expression of God’s presence. Let your posture be the posture of a queen or king. Hold your head up high and imagine there is a string tied to the top of your head so you move with poise and sit erect. Have the bearing of a child of God. Move with a sense of grace, instead of with jerky movements. If we are centered and feeling in touch with God we move easily, we move gracefully, we give ourselves time to do things.

Be conscious of your breath from time to time. Isn’t it wonderful to breathe? Without the breath you wouldn’t be alive. So be conscious of it, give thanks for it: “I’m breathing, I’m alive. How wonderful it is to be alive, to breathe the breath of God.” You might say, “With every breath I breathe, I breathe the breath of life, I breathe the breath of God.” Breathe it in, feel it, feel that movement of life in and through you. And if you have a cold or something it will also help clear the sinus passages.

Think about your gestures too, a handshake, or a hug, or holding out our hands to someone, or in prayer holding your hands open and loose in your lap, as symbolically opening to God’s presence.

I’ve already mentioned the clothing we wear, but think also about the clothing of our environment. What kind of environment do you move in? How do affect your environment, in a positive way or a negative way? Do seek a positive environment; do you seek to be with people who are uplifting? Or do you continually get dragged into gossip sessions or negative, critical comments about others? Be aware of your environment.

Do little things to remind yourself of God’s presence, perhaps putting your watch on your right wrist instead of the left or vise versa, or putting a Band-Aid around your finger or a rubber band around your wrist.

The foods that you eat are important too. Imagine and feel God’s presence guiding you to eat foods that nourish your body. Before you eat certain foods, is this God’s guidance for that particular food? Do you feel good about it?

Get into the feeling that God is guiding you and leading you at every moment, that you are practicing the very presence of God. Then you begin to enjoy each moment of life itself.

Many years ago, a friend of the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh who considered himself just an ordinary person told of an experience of being more than an ordinary person having ordinary insight; he had the realization of God’s presence. He wrote this simple poem about the experience:

“Standing quietly by the fence
You smile your wondrous smile.
I am speechless
And my senses are filled by the sounds
Of your beautiful song,
Beginningless and endless.
I bow deeply to you.”

The “you” that he is talking about in the poem is a flower, a dahlia, and he is so immediately present in that moment standing by the fence that he saw God smile through the flower.

That is the practice of the presence of God in every moment; we begin to see God in everything.

As you take these little steps every day you begin to practice the presence of God, which is also called “mindfulness.” You become present in every moment. As you are present in every moment, then you know yourself as you really are; you are present in the “kingdom,” you begin to see the kingdom of God. As Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is at hand” and “The kingdom of heaven is within you.”

Begin to look with new eyes and you will see and experience the presence of God in every situation and in every experience.

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

—————————————————————————————————————————Rev. Alan Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-six years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

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