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Apr 30, 2025 06:00am

Being Devotedly Aware of God

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The Bible is full of all-inclusive words about our daily relationship with the Father. Everything, always, each day, at all times. These words are given in the most succinct and precise commands, and the most life-changing. “Pray without ceasing,” “In EVERYTHING give thanks,” “Rejoice ALWAYS,” and on and on.

We can do none of these things fully throughout the day unless we fight the constant mundane distractions that pull us away and then consciously draw near to God … entering His presence.

This is only possible with God’s aid. He tells us to draw near to Him, and He will draw near to us. But that approach begins with a plea for His help in this foundational task. It is our most important step of every day and throughout the day. We must be aware of God.

If you have eyes to see, you will read this truth in almost every Psalm of David. It was what made God say of him that he was a “man after my own heart.”

From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised. (Psalm 113:3)

OUR GREATEST NEED

A.W. Tozer, as always, helps us understand this.

“The highest ideal or accomplishment of man is to break from the spiritual bondage and enter into the presence of God, knowing that you have entered welcomed territory.”

Within every human breast rages this desire, driving him forward. Many a person confuses the object of that desire and spends his or her entire life striving for the unobtainable. Very simply put, the great passion in the heart of every human being, who is created in the image of God, is to experience the awesome majesty of God’s presence. The highest accomplishment of humanity is entering the overwhelming presence of God. Nothing else can satiate this burning thirst.

The average person, unable to understand this passion for intimacy with God, fills his life with things, hoping somehow to satisfy his inward longing. He chases that which is exterior, hoping to satisfy that inner thirst, but to no avail.

I hope you will catch the passion and press forward to delight in the conscious, manifest presence of God. (Tozer, “Fellowship with God”)

But then, Tozer speaks of our obstacles to this intimacy.

Every Christian faces some hindrance in seeking the presence of God. Contemporary Christianity is so taken up by the world that pressing on to the deep things of God becomes rather difficult. Our contemporary times stand in the way of anybody taking his or her spiritual life seriously. So many things are thrown at us, it takes a very resilient soul to resist the onslaught.

We cannot praise Him “from the rising of the sun to its setting,” for instance, if we don’t take our eyes off worldly things and place them squarely on Christ. As we do, we become aware of Him and, when aware, we cannot help but praise Him. We long more for His presence and fellowship, and we find the vestibule of heaven.

Tozer says that a constant entertainment of sin “cauterizes the conscience” with each sin. Our choice to sin is never harmless. It carries residual effects, and we must realize that a casual sin (that seems harmless to most) is setting us back in our pursuit of God.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God,” said the One who sits at His right hand. And the more we see Him as we abide in His presence, the greater our joy and usefulness; the more we fulfill our ultimate design.