The Power of Presence: Finding Strength in Stillness
You’re standing in line at the grocery store, scrolling through your phone while mentally running through your to-do list. The kids are arguing in the cart. Your phone buzzes with another urgent email. The cashier asks if you have a loyalty card, but you can barely hear her over the noise in your head.
Sound familiar?
Life has a way of pulling us in a dozen directions at once, leaving us scattered and exhausted. We move from one task to the next, convinced that doing more will finally bring us peace. But what if the answer isn’t found in doing more? What if the secret to real strength and clarity is found in being still?
The False Pursuit
I spent so much of my life scurrying around, trying to meet the expectations of everyone around me. Hustling to prove myself, to be seen, to be enough. Maybe you can relate. Maybe you’ve felt the pressure to measure up, to check every box, to please everyone and be everything.
But the more I tried to keep up, the emptier I felt. And the more I accomplished, the more disconnected I became—from myself, from others, and from God. It was like running on a treadmill that kept speeding up, but I was getting nowhere.
I didn’t know that God already knew me. I didn’t know that God saw me. I didn’t know that He was already there, waiting for me to stop striving and just be still.
How many of you have had those moments when you were face to face with God? When He broke through the noise, the distraction, the chaos, and suddenly everything else faded away? Those moments are powerful, aren’t they? But what if they could be more than just moments?
The Anchor of Presence
Psalm 16:8 says, “I have set the LORD continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”
There is such a profound simplicity in this verse. The psalmist makes a choice. I have set the LORD continually before me. He didn’t say, “When life is easy, I remember God,” or “When I’m in church, I remember God.” No, he said, continually.
It’s the practice of presence—a steady, intentional act of placing God at the center of every moment. It’s like planting an anchor in the midst of life’s storm.
When the psalmist says, “Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken,” he’s not saying that life won’t shake him. He’s saying that in the shaking, he won’t be moved. Why? Because he’s anchored in the presence of God.
Brother Lawrence and the Practice of Presence
This reminds me of Brother Lawrence, a 17th-century monk whose life was anything but glamorous. He wasn’t a preacher or a scholar. He was a cook. A dishwasher. And yet, he wrote some of the most profound reflections on the presence of God.
Brother Lawrence called it “practicing the presence of God,” and he learned to do it in the mundane moments. He said, “The time of business does not differ with me from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament.”
Think about that for a moment. If Brother Lawrence could find God in the clatter of a busy kitchen, how much more can we find Him in our everyday lives? In carpool lines, in meetings, in the silence of a sleepless night.
The Power of Presence – What It Produces
What happens when we set the LORD continually before us? The psalmist tells us—“I will not be shaken.”
But let’s unpack that.
Clarity: When we live in God’s presence, we gain clarity. The chaos around us may not change, but our perspective does. We see life through God’s eyes. We hear His voice above the noise. We’re not driven by every distraction, because we’re anchored in the One who is unchanging.
Confidence: “Because He is at my right hand…” This isn’t just a poetic phrase; it’s a position of strength and honor. The right hand signifies power, protection, and closeness. When God is at our right hand, we don’t have to be our own defender. We don’t have to fight our own battles. We can rest in the assurance that He is holding us steady.
Courage: “I will not be shaken.” Notice that it doesn’t say we won’t face storms. It says we won’t be shaken in the storm. There is a divine steadiness that comes from practicing God’s presence—a confidence that whispers, “God is here. I am not alone. I will not be moved.”
Two Practical Starting Points
So how do we begin to live this out? How do we practice God’s presence in a world that is constantly pulling our attention away? Let me give you two simple starting points:
Morning Anchor:
Before you do anything else in the morning—before the emails, before the to-do list, before the coffee—take a moment to set the LORD before you.
Pray a simple prayer: “God, I set You before me today. You are at my right hand. Help me to see You in every moment.”
Write down a verse, like Psalm 16:8, and keep it where you can see it throughout the day. Let it be a visual reminder that God is with you.
Pause and Recenter:
Throughout the day, when life gets loud and stressful, take a moment to pause. Take a deep breath.
Close your eyes and say, “You are here, Lord.”
Let that phrase be your anchor—a tether that pulls you back into God’s presence.
The Unshakable Life
What would happen if we really lived this way? What would change if we walked through each day with the awareness that God is right here, at our right hand?
Friends, when we practice the presence of God, we become unshakable. The world may tremble, the storm may rage, but we will not be moved. We will stand firm, anchored in the One who is with us, who is for us, and who will never leave us.
And that, my friends, is the true power of presence. Amen.
