ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS to do during the winter months is to find a “fireplace” channel on YouTube and turn it on during my devotions. While I’m reading the Bible or a devotional book, I’ll occasionally glance up and look at the fire. Before I know it, though, I’m mesmerized. Yet my thoughts are still pondering what I just read. In those moments, I’m practicing “presentness” with God. That’s what Stahan Coleman calls it in his book “Beholding.”
Before, I believed that “pray without ceasing” meant that I had to be in constant conversation with God. That I have to always have something to say or to meditate on. I find this can be somewhat exhausting since I’m an introvert and I don’t always have a lot to say.
But Coleman has a different opinion, and one I love immensely. Prayer, he says, is simply beholding God, being with God, even in silence. Because even in silence God is present, and that too is prayer. Presentness, Coleman says, IS prayer.
So, even though you may not have much to say during your times of devotion, your silence says it all. You’re simply beholding God, being present with Him, being aware of Him as you would with a good friend.
In fact, sometimes words aren’t necessary. Sometimes words can actually “ruin” the moment. God may want you to just BE. To just behold HIm. To just be present.
Be willing to accept that just your presentness is good enough for God as prayer.
Be encouraged. Be blessed.
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