Yesterday, we focused on our relationship with the Word of God, today we are going to focus on our relationship with His presence in our daily lives. God wants to be involved in our lives–God has always desired relationship with His creation. God wants us to know Him through the Word and He also wants us to know Him through His presence, through encounters with Him that continually draw us closer into an intimate relationship with Him. 

God wants so much more for our relationship with Him. More than it to be limited to Sunday and Wednesday encounters. God created us for a relationship, to know Him intimately. The first example we see is with Adam and Eve. God created Adam…and God shared creation with Adam.

Genesis 3:19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every wild beast and living creature of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them; and whatever Adam called every living creature, that was its name.

In verses, 20-25, we continue to see this relationship between God and Adam and when Adam realizes he needed someone to compliment him..God responds by creating a woman to meet that need. The relationship continued with Adam and Eve. (Genesis 3:8-11) There was a time, a cool of the day time that God would meet with Adam and Eve. In these verses, we see they knew, and could recognize the sound of God walking in the garden. 

Genesis 3:10 He said, I heard the sound of You walking in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. 

What’s interesting here is God knew of the sin; yet He still came walking to meet them just as normal. God’s presence meets us to keep us going, we can let things push Him away and we can choose to hide, but God still wants to be with us.

Adam and Eve were familiar with the sound of God’s presence entering their day. They had a personal experience with a living daily relationship with God. His presence in our lives is so important for us in understanding who He is and fully experiencing God. These everyday encounters change our perspectives and He becomes more and more real to us.

There have been many times in my relationship with God where His presence just showed up. I learned that God can show up even when I am not expecting Him or seeking His presence. Our day can be normal, then God can invade our normal. 

Another moment in my life that changed my view of God happened on April 25, 2011. I was having a normal day and out of nowhere, I felt a strong pull to go and pray. I didn’t understand what for or why but I couldn’t shake this desire to just be with God. I just knew I had to pray. In turn, because it was a “normal day”, I pushed this feeling to the side, thinking I would pray later when it was my time to pray. Within just minutes of pushing that feeling aside, it came back. I didn’t understand a lot then, but I did understand that God was leading me. 

I knew that I had to follow this leading. I went outside my house and began to pray. The wind was picking up and the smell of honeysuckle was all around me. I started to pray for my parents. I began to pray deep prayers asking God to go before them, to protect them, to honor the parents that gave me my childhood. I reminded God of who they were and who they were to me and to Him. I asked God to keep them safe. This deep prayer went on for a while, then as soon as it came it left, and I continued about my “normal day” not knowing what would come only two days later on April 27th, and I would lose both of my parents to the tornado. It would even be a few more days later before I realized the praying moment I had just two days before.

That day, I saw another layer to God and that is that He is the God involved in our lives that He not only holds us but our families and everything connected to our hearts. That day, April 25th, was a normal day for me with God interrupting it because of our relationship I could sense His presence and because of that, I know that God was ahead of April 27th. Because of that day, every spring when I smell honeysuckle, I am reminded of the God who goes before us. We may not know what tomorrow holds, but we can have a relationship with the God who holds tomorrow. 

Prayer Starter: 

I want a relationship with God with not only Your Word but also with Your presence. God interrupt my normal day. Make Your presence known to me. I open my heart, my ears to hear that I will be sensitive and responsive to hearing Your voice, your leading in my life to follow when I understand Your ways, but also God when I don’t understand Your ways. I am choosing to look for You, to become familiar with the sound of You walking in my life. 

• April Price