We all want a deeper relationship with the Lord. We want to experience His presence in the calm and the storm. But how do you step into the presence of God when life gets busy?
When Life Gets Busy
Whether you are a parent, grandparent, working professional, or retired traveler, you are either in a busy season or have been in one. You can get caught up in the day-to-day tasks, which have the potential to crowd out devotional time with God.
As a result, you can feel…
- Alone
- Weary
- Loss of joy and peace
- Disappointed
- Full of doubt
These are symptoms of not seeking His presence. And we all experience them.
We know that the fruits of an intimate relationship with God are unsurpassed peace, joy, thanksgiving, power, healing, and restoration in every area of our lives. But when life gets busy, these fruits—the blessings of being in the presence of God—start to wither away.
Before we know it, we’re operating out of lack, frustration, and doubt—all because our tanks are empty.
We need to fill them up daily with the Holy Spirit.
Does that mean you need to spend hours and hours reading your Bible every day? Not necessarily. If you can, and are called to do so, go for it. However, there are ways to step into the presence of God throughout your day, any time, and anywhere. He is with you wherever you go, and He wants you to see Him there.
3 Ways to Stepping into the Presence of God
1. Seek First His Kingdom – Matthew 6:33 says:
- “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
After decades of walking with the Lord, I’ve found that this verse is the starting point of everything. “First,” it says.
- First, seek His Kingdom.
- First, seek His righteousness.
What does this look like?
When you wake up in the morning, what is the first thing you do? Do you seek the Lord? Rather than grabbing your phone, grab your Bible, pause and pray, give thanks to God for the day and declare a promise He has made over your life, your spouse, your home, and your family.
Maybe your day starts early, and you don’t have time in the morning to seek Him first. I would challenge you to set your alarm 5 minutes earlier and find a spot to sit quietly—even for a few minutes—and thank Him, praise Him, and honor Him. Decree a dedication of your day to Him and see how this aligns your mind for whatever lies ahead.
2. Pay Attention to Your Emotions – Psalm 19:14 says:
- “Let the words of my mouth and the mediations of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”
Do you ever think about what you think about? God wants you to. The Bible says that how we think and what we think about is who we become (Proverbs 23:7). If your emotions—such as anger, pridefulness, lust, and doubt—are from where you operate, it means you are thinking in ways that feed them.
This doesn’t mean that you must bury your emotions. On the contrary, the Bible instructs us to take our thoughts captive and make them obedient to God. You don’t bury them. You hurl them to the feet of the cross.
A highly emotional response to a situation or a person is an opportunity to give a burden or hurt to God. Taking your thoughts captive and giving them to God is thinking about what you are thinking about. If the fruit of your thought is not in alignment with the Spirit, God is not angry with you. Rather He is extending an invitation to take it from you and wants to replace it with His love and presence.
Simply acknowledge the emotion, repent of it, decide to forgive, give Him thanks for separating your sin from you as far as the east is from the west, and move forward. God doesn’t want you living in a place of emotional defeat. He wants you to activate the freedom you’ve been given through Christ.
3. Pray God’s Promises – Ephesians 1:3-4 says:
- “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love…”
If you’re like most people, when life gets busy, you can forget to pray. And when you do, it’s typically to relieve the stressful situation you are up against. While God clearly tells us we are to “make our requests known,” we are also to declare what He has already given us through Yeshua.
When life gets busy and all you can focus on is what you don’t have, what you can’t do, or what will never get done, start declaring what already is.
In Yeshua…
- You are more than a conqueror
- You have every spiritual blessing
- You have an everlasting inheritance
- You have the authority to tread on the enemy
- You have all things that pertain to life and godliness
- You can be partakers of the divine nature
- You can escape the corruption of this world
In Summary
So then, rather than allowing the enemy to kill, steal, and destroy your peace and joy in the day-to-day, reclaim it. Meditate on the goodness of God as you put gas in your car, wait in line at the grocery store, get your kids ready for bed, and as you wake up in the morning.
Curt Landry, founder of Curt Landry Ministries, and his wife, Christie, travel extensively, preaching and teaching about the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. Together, their passion is to empower families to live and leave Kingdom legacies and understand their own personal heritage.
Bill Wiese 
Paul McGuire 
