Pastor Ray Hollenbach writes frequently about the disconnect we experience between the promises of Christianity and the struggles that often become reality. How do we bridge the gap between the aspirations of our faith and the distance we feel from God.
Ray offers five first steps toward experiencing God’s presence, and I’ll highlight a few quotes from his post below:
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The first step in experiencing the presence of God is to take the Biblical witness seriously. We are told time and again that God is near—why does he feel so far? Worse still we’ve trained ourselves to dismiss the scripture as inspirational thoughts rather than a description of reality. To know his presence we must honestly evaluate whether our daily life matches God’s revelation of the way things really are.
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Second, we should order our lives in ways that allow us to experience his presence: we must train ourselves to recognize his presence. The spiritual practices of silence and solitude do not conjure up God’s presence; they help us awaken to God’s presence.
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The Contemplative Writer 