Living in the Present Presence of God

I was expressing to a close friend my desire to live for God better. This friend told me a story about how he learned to live in what he called the present presence of God.

A call from a stranger on Judy’s cell phone told him that she had been in a traffic accident. When he arrived he saw the large pickup truck that collided into the passenger side of Judy’s Honda Civic on its side in the intersection. He said that Judy was stretched out on her back with a paramedic kneeling at her head stabilizing her neck. She recognized his voice, when he came to her side, so he was encouraged that she was alert and speaking, but she was more concerned and upset for the other driver who, according to a police officer next to her, said was trapped in the pickup. Right away, my just took Judy’s hand and prayed with her. “But I was just speaking words. I didn’t even sense I was speaking to God.” Like myself, he found himself doing the Christian thing: living for God, but living by faith.

What he learned was the Bible doesn’t speak about a Christian life, but speaks of a life of faith. We fall into the Christian lingo instead of being filled with the truth of the Word. We need to take heed from James; we need to live our lives by faith; faith without our works is dead faith, but works without faith are dead works, and so we are admonished to pray in faith, not doubting, but believing. (Jas 5)