A Life With God: Rediscovering the Simplicity of His Presence
The following is a transcription of a talk I shared at my church’s women’s retreat. Our theme for the weekend was WITH, inspired by the book With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God by Skye Jethani—which explores what it means to live in relationship and communion with God rather than striving for Him.
Genesis 1:1–2 tells us:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
And in John 1:1–2:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.”
Then in Genesis 1:26, God says,
“Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…”
This is how Scripture describes the beginning of all things.
Before time or space—God lived in eternal communion with himself.
Then he made everything
Then he made us, and breathed life into us.
And he lived with us.
Genesis describes God taking us to the Garden of Eden and instructing us to care for it. God is directly speaking with man and also walking with man.
God has always been about relationship: with himself and then with us.
Throughout Scripture, we see this theme of “with” repeated over and over again:
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9)
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)
The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means “God with us”). (Matthew 1:23)
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. (John 14:16)
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)
We know God is with us. He’s in us and all around us. It’s a relationship.
But relationships can be hard.
They take work.
They’re inconvenient and time consuming.
At least that’s often what we experience in our human relationships, but is that true of a relationship with God?
This leads to the bigger question:
What does it actually mean to be with God? And what does that look like?
I’ve read books and listened to podcasts—all by well-meaning Christian leaders telling us we need to have a quiet time.
We need dedicated time set aside every morning to be with God in prayer.
It should be the first thing we do when we wake up. Before we start the day, before we go out into the world. Which means we probably need to set an alarm and get up extra early.
We need to be praying for ourselves, our family, our friends, our neighbors, our work, our government, the people in our small group, and our aching world.
We need to be praising God, confessing our sins, and asking for things.
We need to be praying for so many people and so many things that we should probably be writing it down—either in a prayer journal or on prayer cards—and keeping track of other people’s prayer requests too.
And we need to take all of it to God. Because we’re supposed to pray about everything right? That’s what Paul tells us.
And we should pray at specific times throughout the day, maybe set alarms for fixed hour prayer.
And we also need to be quiet.
Meditate.
Sit in silence.
We need to make time for that too.
And I think we’re also supposed to pray before bed? Go through some kind of list? A prayer of examen.
And then thank God… fall asleep… and do it all over again the next day. While also doing all of the other things we need to do in a 24 hour period.
sigh
If you’re like me, you’ve done some or maybe even all of these things. Perhaps with some “success”.
But it’s exhausting. Isn’t it? How do we keep up?
And what happens when we can’t?
Or what happens when we miss a day?
Or get busy?
Or life shifts and our capacity changes?
Are we all of a sudden not as connected to God? Because we’re not following a certain prayer routine?
And is it even working? What’s the point?
Henri Nouwen says,
“For many of us, prayer means nothing more than speaking with God. And since it usually seems to be a quiet, one sided affair, prayer simply means talking to God. This idea is enough to create great frustrations. If I present a problem, I expect a solution. If I formulate a question, I expect an answer. If I ask for guidance, I expect a response. And when it seems increasingly that I am talking into the dark, it is not so strange that I soon begin to suspect that my dialogue with God is in fact a monologue, then I may begin to ask myself, to whom am I speaking, God or myself?”
Our connection with God does not depend on anything that WE say or do. Whether or not we spend time in any kind of spiritual practice doesn’t change the fact that God is WITH us.
In John 15 Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Remain in me and I in you.”
We are connected to our creator. And it's not something that we can escape.
If you’re a Christian and you’ve said yes to Jesus—then it's just a fact. You’re in relationship with him.
But it's just our human nature to complicate that.
Surely I have to do something. Surely I have to work hard at this.
But we don’t! Because Jesus already did that for us.
Life with God is made possible because of Jesus.
Through the cross, He removed the barrier of sin and death. We’ve been united with God through Him.
And Jesus says it's easy and light.
His yoke is easy and his burden is light.
It's not meant to be complicated. Come to me he says, be WITH me.
This is good news.
Now please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying to stop doing your morning quiet time or throw away your prayer journals or stop doing fixed hour prayer or whatever your routine is. If it’s working for you, and it’s fostering a healthy communion with God. That’s great. And that’s between you and the Lord.
But if it’s not working or it feels like you’re just checking a box or following some kind of rule or doing it because you think you have to—then this is your permission to pivot.
Jesus says that when we pray we don’t need to use a lot of words, because our father knows what we need before we even ask. And in Romans, Paul talks about how even groaning is considered prayer.
So if we don’t need to use a lot of words, and groaning is considered prayer, then what’s stopping us from praying all day long?
I think we’ve mistaken prayer to be some kind of escape from the busyness and noise of the world. Or we see prayer as a way to empty our minds, release our burdens, or replace negative thoughts.
While these things can be good and may happen as a result of prayer, the purpose of prayer is simply to be WITH God.
Henri Nouwen describes it this way:
“To pray, I think, does not mean to think about God in contrast to thinking about other things, or to spend time with God instead of spending time with other people. Rather, it means to think and live in the presence of God.”
So it all comes back to a relationship. Doing life WITH God.
Because if the Spirit is in us, and we have the Divine DNA, then we can literally walk through our entire day in prayer, and “pray without ceasing” like Paul says.
There’s this interview from the early 80s where a news anchor is interviewing Mother Teresa and he asks her, “When you pray, what do you say to God?”
And she says, “I don’t say anything, I listen.”
And the interviewer says, “Ok, well when God speaks to you, what does he say?”
And she responds, “Well he doesn’t say anything, he listens… and if you don’t understand that, I can’t explain it to you.”
I think this is what Paul talks about what he says to pray without ceasing.
And I think this is how Jesus lived in constant communion with God.
And this is possible for us!
Gosh, doesn’t that sound so freeing?
A Life WITH God.
Where relationship comes before routine.
Where God is the end, not the means to an end.
Where obedience flows from love, not our desire to control outcomes.
Where we can carry the presence of God into all that we do.
We’re going to break off here in a moment and go meet with our small groups. We’re going to read scripture together, discuss, pray together, and then spend some time in solitude and silence. Not because we have to, or because we’re trying to get something out of it, but hopefully for the sole purpose of just being WITH the Lord.
Because we’re on a retreat, we have dedicated time set aside to be WITH God, but I hope that what you experience here doesn’t just stay here or feel confined to a moment.
My hope is that you become more aware of God’s presence in and around you throughout all the moments of all the days.