God’s Presence
I was finishing work one day in a trailer at one of the refineries, changing my boots and cleaning up, when one of my co-workers came up to me and asked if he could talk to me for a minute. It seems his family was going through a difficult time, and he needed to vent and wanted me to pray for him and his family. He told me the reason he was coming to me was that he knew that I had a relationship with God and that God would hear my prayer before He would hear his. I told him I would absolutely pray for him, but a prayer from him would carry the same weight as a prayer from me. I continued to tell him the only difference in our prayer is that I recognize that I have a relationship with God. You have that same relationship. In fact, I think God would love to hear from you more than from me over your situation. God was present to him as much as he was present to me. We don’t pray to make God present to us. God is already present, always present – everywhere. We pray to make ourselves present to God. This is the secret to prayer.
Jesus was always pointing to the relational nature of everything He did. When He did a miracle, He would say “your faith has saved you.” Recognizing that Christ is always with us allows Him to work within our lives. Faith is the first ingredient of that relationship. Faith is the rich soil that lets God be planted in and flourish within our lives. Without faith we are not giving God a place to plant His seeds.
Saint Augustine wrestled with this very topic. Saint Augustine had been searching for love and God. Eventually he found them in the most unexpected of all places, inside of himself. He said, “In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things that you created. You were with me, but I was not with you.” (Confessions 10:27) Saint Augustine realized through faith that Christ was always working in his life. Always present.
At the beginning of each class at LaSalle High, the students start with a prayer and each time they pray, it always begins with, “Let us remember we are always in the presence of God.” Indeed, miracles are always present within our lives. Are we ready to have such faith?
May Jesus live in our hearts forever.
Deacon Chris