Urgency. Immediacy. Insistency. Life has a way of trying to choke out your ability to live fully in the present moment.

Kids always need something. Your boss always needs something. Even your past tries to haunt you playing scenes over and over again in your mind like Groundhog Day. 

But God doesn’t want you living a slave to urgencies nor does He want the past to rob you of the present. In fact, Jesus addressing this saying:

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:33-34

Jesus is urging you to not worry about tomorrow but to seek the kingdom. And finding the kingdom isn’t difficult. From the time after His temptation in the wilderness thereafter He preached where to find the kingdom. He said it was AT HAND! 

At hand, in the present moment there is perfect love. At hand we have an opportunity to bask in what IS. Yesterday is a memory and tomorrow yet exists but the present moment is ripe and bursting with God’s tangible manifest presence if we would just avail ourselves to experience it.

So just how do we lean into the present of His presence? Here are 5 practical tips for living in the present moment.

1. BREATHE – Friend are you oxygen deprived? Don’t feel bad, most people are. Be intentional about your breathing. Are you breathing shallowly? When you focus your attention on your breath, it forces you to slow down and draws attention to the present. As you inhale deeply, expanding your diaphragm, give thanks to God. Thank Him for the Pneuma (breath, wind of God) and ask Him to fill you afresh.

2. BODY AWARENESS – Right now bring awareness to your body. Are your facial muscles tight? Are your shoulders hunched? Is your jaw clenched? Drawing attention to your body brings you into the moment and extends to you an invitation to relax. As you draw awareness to your body and relax, thank God for creating you fearfully and wonderfully. Commit to using all your members as instruments of righteousness for helping to build His kingdom.

3. ENGAGE YOUR SENSES – God created you with a physical body that has senses so that you can engage with all of creation. Fully utilize your senses. Look and BEHOLD all the beauty before you: the blue sky streaked with cirrus clouds, buds on the tree, the wrinkles on the hand of your grandpa and even the crooked grin of a two year old. Listen to a bird’s mating call, the lap of the ocean and the hum of the air conditioning unit. Utilizing your senses is a powerful way to connect with what is happening now. Habakkuk 2:1 says I will stand on my watch to see what He will say. When our eyes are open we can hear from God. Did you catch that? Isn’t God amazing?!

4. BE A NOTICER – Jones, in the book The Noticer by Andy Andrews has the uncanny ability of seeing things others miss. When we lean into God, we can sharpen our discernment, catching things that we may have otherwise missed. Again when we are inundated with the cares of the world, we can miss many God moments. Let us pump the brakes and slow down enough to be a noticer.

5. GIVE THANKS – My, my my! Gratitude is a game changer. Your heart beating in your chest, running water, shelter, provision, creative genius, cognitive function, love, I can keep going and going. One of my children has been struggling lately with serious quarantine fatigue so I had them start a gratitude journal. It’s been going well so far and has been a way for this child to redirect the energy of harping on the past or trying to predict when life will return to some semblance of normal; and turn their attention to giving thanks for what is. 

I’ll leave you with these words from Brian Courtney Wilson in his song Already Here. I love how this song affirms where we find God. Be blessed as you embrace living in the present moment.

“We watch and we wait, Lord, anticipate the moment you choose to appear. We worship, we praise until there’s no debate. And we recognize you’re already here. YOU’RE ALREADY HERE!”

As always, it is my prayer that you’ve been Inspired to Live Fully!