living in God's presence

I often catch myself thinking that I need to "come into God's presence" when I want to dialogue with him, experience what he has for me and so on. Of course when I quiet myself and put other thoughts and activities aside I feel that I am more fully in God's presence. Isn't that the same with other things and relationships too?

But God is always present. He is here and now and will always be. So what is there for me to "come into"? Isn't it more about me being aware of his presence and living in it? Yesterday I read these words in Deuteronomy:

"So now Israel, what do you think God expects from you? Just this: Live in his presence in holy reverence, follow the road he sets out for you, love him, serve God, your God with everything you have in you, obey the commandments and regulations of God that I'm commanding you today -- live a good life." (10:12-13)

What if I lived every day remembering that I'm always in God's presence? What if I remembered I am in his presence when I'm at work, when I'm running errands, when I'm interacting with my family or anyone else for that matter? Yesterday I started reminding myself at times that I am in God's presence. I even whispered it to myself a couple of times: "I'm in God's presence". Suddenly I feel like I should approach every situation with holy reverence. Even my thoughts are occurring in God's presence.

And then there's that last sentence in verse 13 that ends with "live a good life". It's part of what God expects from me. And living a good life means living it in his presence. What if we each did that today? What if even once today, we remembered to tell ourselves that we're living in God's presence? What would we notice? What might we do differently? How might we perceive our present situations?

-Candice