I'm afraid I have no formula or direction about feeling or knowing 
the presence of God. This is why I wanted to actually talk rather 
than type in skype last  night and attempted to contact you that way.

Being with God or in God is not about feeling or knowing. It is about 
being. "God is in the middle". he is. it is where he belongs. he is 
in and around within and without. it is like with air. You can 
breathe it. it sustains you. you know it is there but you cannot 
touch it or feel it or rationalize it. it just is.

I am not a very religious nor a very pious person. I am not a strong 
believer at all. I get frightened easily. I like to have t hings 
planned and set out and controllable. More often than not, God says 
"no" to that sort of thing. And, yes, I can choose to trust him, but 
I do not do that often, not consciously. and not even when I accepted 
Christ, I never did formally in some 4-step prayer. My journey of 
faith is a process. AS a very little girl, I read the Bible stories 
along with fairy tales and folk tales. My parents are/were nominal 
church tax paying members of Germany's Protestant Established Church. 
"Religion" in Protestant and Catholic flavors is taught in school 
here and I pparticipated until sleeping in an hour longer twice a 
week was more appealing to me. My folks did not care.

I graduated to a "real" Bible from my children's Bible in 2nd grade 
and plodded along till the stories started to repeat in Chronicles 
and I decided I probably had a misprint of the Bible that had stuff 
double.Later as a teen, I read some of of Revelation because I had 
seen some horror movies that had Revelation as the background.

As a young adult, finally, I began reading the Bible for language 
enjoyment because my 9th grade English teacher had mentioned that the 
KJV Bible's language was very similar to that of Shakespeare's who I 
loved. It was there in passages from the Psalms and the Prophet 
Isaiah that I had my first glances of the Messiah that touched my 
middle and had me seek more.

Add to that a car accident that I was involved in at age 18, being 
out of work after graduating high school, and I was looking for my 
purpose in life and my place in the world and I was getting about 
ready to harvest. Yet it wasn't for another several years until I 
actually committed to the Lord , not in a one-time decision but over 
a period of time. And my background is as colorful here as all the 
rest of my walk with the Lord. The resources I had was a pre-Vatican 
II Catholic Cathetcism, the Lutheran (ELCA) supported American 
International church I attended, , friends from all kinds of 
different backgrounds.

The color in my llife and walk with the Lord extends to this day. 
During our first time in the U.S., Chris and I managed to run into a 
group of Christians blacklisted with the leadership at the college we 
were staying at because they did not confirm to that denomination's background.

It's not how we do it nor always why we do it though our motivation 
should be to place God first. It is just us being really, me being.

A book Chris and I are currently reading together hits upon this 
subject but I'll post about that separately.

In His Loving grip!

Doris

s


At 02:03 PM 8/3/2013 -0600, you wrote:
>Doris, I like hearing about how people feel concerning the 
>experience of being present with God at all times and in every are 
>of their lives.  I ask you the same question I asked Rhonda; how do 
>you know this is happening and how would you explain to others just 
>exactly how this works in a practical way.  In other words, how do 
>you get to that point you describe?  Is it how long you have been 
>born again, how much you read the Bible, how long you pray, is it 
>going to church, just what allows this awareness to be active?
>
>Phil.
>
>
>
>
>
>----- Original Message ----- From: "Doris and Chris" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Saturday, August 03, 2013 1:00 PM
>Subject: Re: Pray Without Ceasing
>
>
>>I'd agree with this. The longer I know the Lord, the more I become 
>>aware of him and hope his presence to permeate every moment and 
>>area of my life and as long as I let him have control of my life, I 
>>should be in him and living for him and have my thoughts directed 
>>towards him and controlled by him.
>>
>>Doris
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>At 02:25 PM 8/3/2013 -0400, you wrote:
>>>Isn't praying without ceasing more an attitude of  experiencing 
>>>God's presence in every moment, not just the action of saying a 
>>>ver or unspoken prayer?
>>>
>>>Rhonda