I've been thinking a lot about God's presence lately, as you can probably tell from my previous blog entry, and wondering what exactly gives us a sense of His "being there" in the room with us. Is it entirely His initiative to manifest Himself, entirely our perceptions, or a combination of both? And if there are ways to position ourselves to sense His presence more, how can we do that?

I know several ways we can "practice His presence"—even though we know He is always there. One is to ask Him to make His presence known and felt. Another is to make ourselves conscious of Him, to remind ourselves that He is with us and focus our minds and hearts on that fact. Worship and gratitude cultivate that sense as well, as does reading His Word with an intent to hear His voice in it. In fact, the more I think about it, the reason we feel distant from Him is most often by our own choice, or at least by our own default in not choosing to pursue Him. If we pursue Him, He responds. That's the kind of God He is.

I don't mean to imply that if we always seek His presence then we will always "feel" something. There will still be times when we have little sense or awareness of Him, even though there's absolutely nothing wrong in our relationship with Him. Still, we crave those moments of His palpable presence, and I believe He wants us to experience Him in tangible ways. And I believe we will if we make that the desire of our heart and seek Him more zealously.