A Heart Awake
LETTER BY BRIAN MORYKON
“Abide in me as I abide in you,” Jesus says in John 15:4.
This provokes the question, How do we abide with someone who already abides in us?
The Spirit of Jesus lives in those who trust Jesus. Isn’t it, in a sense, impossible not to abide in him?
Yet we know on a human level what it is to be with someone without being with them, to be there and not there, to be present and not present.
One definition of abide is “to continue to be present.” In other words, abiding is about awareness and attentiveness. It is a heart awake.
Some mornings I try to cultivate that awareness of God during that crucial window after waking but before rising. It takes much effort to push back the thoughts that, as C.S. Lewis observed, “rush at you like wild animals.”
The Lord is here, I whisper aloud until my mind quiets and my heart recognizes the reality of that statement. Then I might move into a line or two of Psalm 23 or the Lord’s Prayer. Nothing fancy. I’m simply following the lead of countless practitioners of the Presence across the ages. Awareness of God’s presence is a good foundation on which to build a day. And a life.
In her talk “Doorways to the Prayerful Life,” given twenty-five years ago at a Renovaré conference themed around The Divine Conspiracy, Emilie Griffin offers more insights into building a prayer life with “shape and structure.” At the end of the talk, there is a delightful Q&A with Dallas Willard about prayer, request, and attentiveness.
I’ll leave you with a prayer from John Baillie, who also began his mornings lining his heart up with God’s heart.
O You who alone know what lies before me this day, grant that in every hour of it I may stay close to You. Let me be in the world, yet not of it. Let me use this world without abusing it. If I buy, let me be as though I possessed not. If I have nothing, let me be as though possessing all things. Let me today embark on no undertaking that is not in line with Your will for my life, nor shrink from any sacrifice which Your will may demand. Suggest, direct, control every movement of my mind; for my Lord Christ’s sake. Amen.
Brian Morykon
Director of Communications
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LET’S DIVE IN...
CURATED BY GRACE POUCH
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1.
Trevor Hudson teaches us how to “welcome God into our next task” to help cultivate a more constant awareness of his presence.
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2.
For a helpful overview of why modern technology can interfere with our God-awareness, read Nate Foster’s foreword to the book Everyday Sabbath: How to Lead Your Dance with Media and Technology in Mindful and Sacred Ways Paperback by Paul Patton and Robert Woods, Jr. (and find the book here).
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4.
Regarding how to pray, Ronald Rohlheiser writes, “The spiritual masters offer one nonnegotiable rule: you have to show up.” Here he offers seven tips for cultivating our awareness and “showing up” for a conversation with God.
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5.
In this short excerpt from C.S. Lewis’s satirical novel, The Screwtape Letters, one devil counsels another on how best to draw their human victims out of the hands of the Enemy (God). Their devilish strategy highlights the truth — too great a fixation upon the future distracts us from our present duty and the Presence of God.
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“I will set the Lord always before me.” These words from Psalm 16 are the crux of the Contemplative Tradition, or the Prayer-filled Life. In this 2019 episode from the Renovaré Podcast, Nathan Foster and Richard Foster talk about ways to orient ourselves to God, including “the coffee cup prayer,” that help us cultivate “a mind continually set on God.”
Grace Pouch
Content Manager
WORTH QUOTING
All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day.
– C.S. Lewis
TO CONTEMPLATE
Warm Day
Anatoly Levitin 1957
It’s quite possible to abide with God no matter what we are doing — in the middle of our work, play, and movement. But, as the Psalm says, sometimes we need to “be still” to reconnect with God. To abide with him, we have to remember that he is with us, maybe even go somewhere or get in a position that helps us to turn our attention back to him. I like this painting of housework interrupted, of finding a spot where you can turn your face to the sun, and perhaps let the light and warmth remind you that you are not alone. – Grace Pouch
TO PONDER
What thought or practice helps you awaken awareness of God’s presence?