That title conjures up fond memories of promises made by a parent, a close friend, a boyfriend or girlfriend or a spouse that they would never leave or forsake me. But, they didn’t\/couldn’t keep their promise. Every one of those relationships DID leave me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aw! But I CAN guarantee that there is ONE Who keeps His promises when He says: \u201cNever will I Ieave you; never will I forsake you.\u201d (Hebrews 13:5)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve prayed for my children: \u201cDear Lord, be with my children today.\u201d But just as abruptly as a referee\u2019s whistle calling foul, the Holy Spirit stopped me mid-sentence. Why do I pray that every day? God IS WITH my children and my grandchildren. Why am I asking for something that God already promises?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I amended that prayer. Now I pray \u201cDear Lord, please help my children to be aware of Your presence today.\u201d The truth of God\u2019s here-ness and nearness is written throughout Scripture. David wrote:
\u201cWhere can I go from Your Spirit?
Where can I flee from Your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, You are there;
If I make my bed in the depths, You are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
If I settle on the far side of the sea,
Even there Your hand will guide me,
Your right hand will hold me fast.\u201d (Psalm 139:7-10)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I heard this old saying many times: \u201cIf you feel far from God, guess who moved?\u201d God isn\u2019t the one who strays. There is nowhere we can go that is away from His presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BUT (a big \u2018but\u2019) is we can feel far from God. I have learned when it feels like God is far off, I need to do a self-check and remind myself that the cure of feeling far from God is in praise, thanksgiving and acknowledging His presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Practicing the presence of God is found in acknowledging His presence in all of life. It is simply getting in the rhythm of God\u2019s cadence. My husband often calls out the cadence \u201ctalk\u201d he and his comrades used when he was in the army. That should be the cadence \u201ctalk\u201d we have as we are constantly aware of God\u2019s presence and identifying His working in us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of us feel closer to God at various times. But it\u2019s just a feeling. The truth is, sometimes I feel closer to my husband than other times, but that doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m any less married. I usually feel closer to him when we\u2019re enjoying fun times together OR when we\u2019re going through a rough patch and walk it through together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not that much different in my relationship with God. I might feel closer to Him when we\u2019ve had a good time together (as in morning quiet times and worship) or going through a struggle and felt His arms wrapped around me when I was concerned about something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What a joy and a comfort to know that there is nowhere we can go that is away from God\u2019s presence. He will never leave us or forsake us. The fact that we live in His presence makes every moment of life meaningful. Being aware of His presence \u2013 24\/7 \u2013 makes the journey so sweet and so comforting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I pray that God opens our spiritual eyes to see Him and our spiritual ears to hear Him. He is HERE; right now! Satisfaction guaranteed!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
That title conjures up fond memories of promises made by a parent, a close friend, a boyfriend or girlfriend or a spouse that they would never leave or forsake me. But, they didn’t\/couldn’t keep their promise. Every one of those relationships DID leave me. Aw! But I CAN guarantee that there is ONE Who keeps…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28633,1,28632],"tags":[1210,17414,1769,28631,1392,28630,2215,2336,40,41,2337,28629,3786,12217,28594],"class_list":["post-19120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-24-7","category-uncategorized","category-where-can-i-gotruth","tag-blog","tag-cadence","tag-christian","tag-comfrt","tag-facebook","tag-gods-cadence","tag-gods-presence","tag-hebrews-135","tag-inspiration","tag-joy","tag-never-will-i-leave-you","tag-practicing-the-presence","tag-relationship-with-god","tag-struggle","tag-where-can-i-go"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19120"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19145,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19120\/revisions\/19145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}