Practicing Being Present With God

Simple (not easy) discipline: Practicing being in God's presence

I.  The present moment is all that is real

   A.  Focus from past and future to now

        a.  How we see time

   B.  Focus from our efforts and desire to God

        a.  How we see our efforts

II.  Praying without ceasing

   A.  Focus on prayer as an open conversation

   B.  Types of prayer

       a.  Breath prayer (meditation/centering)

       b.  Listening prayer (contemplative/receiving)

       c. Conversational prayer (interactive)

       d. Petition (Bringing your requests)

III.  Seeing your life as ministry

   A.  Relationships are crucial

      a.  Love is not pushy

      b.  If you judge them, you have no time to love them

      c.  An eternal perspective

   B.  The work of your hands

      a.  Fulfill your obligations

      b.  Need little, travel light

Source material: From Present Perfect (by Greg Boyd)  he draws heavily from Frank Laubach, Brother Lawrence and JP de Caussade:

"I realized my trivial, self-centered mental chatter about the past and future- like a dark cloud blocking the sun- had kept me from seeing the glory of God that surrounded me every second of every day. Never before had I realized the extent to which our focus determines what we experience - and do not experience- in any given moment. Never before had I seen how being absorbed in the past or the future causes us to miss the wonder of the present. This realization began to move me toward what I've since come to believe is the most fundamental truth a person can ever embrace: The present moment is all that is real.

The past is gone. The future is not yet. We remember the past and anticipate the future, but we always do so in the present. Reality is always now. And the single most important aspect of reality is that God is present in it every moment. To forget that God is present in any given moment is to forget the most important aspect of the moment. God is the God of the living, not the God of the already past or the not-yet-present. He is the great I AM, not the great I was or the great I will be. He's been present in every moment in the past, for which we can be thankful, and he'll be present at every moment of the future, which gives us great hope. But he is only alive and active now, in the present- which is, once again, the only thing that is real."

God is closer than the air we breathe, exhale the noise and pollution that keeps you from realizing God in the now.