Why don’t we intentionally experience God’s presence more than we do? After all, he’s everywhere and always with us. How do life’s distractions drown out God’s voice? How should we cultivate a life living in God’s presence?

Bible Gateway interviewed Ken Boa (@KennethBoa) about his book, Life in the Presence of God: Practices for Living in Light of Eternity (InterVarsity Press, 2017).

What is a Christian’s “quiet time” and why are you saying it’s not enough?

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Ken Boa: Believers are often encouraged to spend some time each day alone praying and reading the Bible. This is a good thing, modeled by Jesus himself. But too often people view this time with God as sufficient, and as separate from the rest of their lives; they essentially leave Jesus on their bedside table and ignore him the rest of the day. This is a far cry from the ongoing walking in the Spirit, abiding in Christ, persevering, praying, and rejoicing presented in Scripture.

All of life is to be lived in the presence and power of God, not just for a few minutes or even an hour in the morning. It’s as though we want to take a tiny nibble of spiritual food and hope that sustains us for a while; then we wonder why we’re so weary and unable to live as Christ calls us to live. To truly enjoy the abundant life Jesus invited us into, we need to be more aware of God all the time, in every circumstance and every encounter, just as he was. We need that regular, focused quiet time, but we also need to take our awareness of and commitment to God into our more numerous “noisy times.”

How does the Bible describe “life in Christ”?

Ken Boa: Jesus used the analogy of a vine in John 15. A branch that abides never leaves the vine. It’s constantly drawing health and energy from the vine. When it stops doing this, it loses its vitality, fails to produce fruit, and eventually withers and dies. Jesus, who called himself the “true vine,” was showing us that we either stay with him, drawing our life from him, or we wither and die. We don’t connect to the Vine briefly and then depart; we stay, we abide. This is ongoing, not a once-and-done action, and not something we just do for a few minutes a day or a couple hours on a Sunday morning. It’s a dynamic, ongoing process that never ends in this life.

Is this what Paul means when he says, “pray without ceasing”?

Ken Boa: Yes, this is part of it. The idea isn’t just to utter words repeatedly but to meditate on and remember Christ, always having one ear cocked to him, while we go about our daily activities. There’s an attitude of prayer—of openness to God and his promptings—that we can have all day long (after all, prayer is not only us talking to God, but God communicating to us). In addition, I talk in Life in the Presence of God about “habitual recollection” of God, which is a less-than-conscious awareness we have of someone or something that’s always there in the background (much as I’m conscious of my wife even though I may not always be thinking conscious thoughts about her). This is in contrast to a more conscious “actual recollection.” Experiencing God’s presence involves both. And both will naturally increase as our relationship with Christ deepens and he becomes more integrated into who we are and everything we do.

What do you mean, “the destination you choose will define your journey”?

Ken Boa: How we live is determined by what is ultimately fueling us—our deepest desire or end goal. Do we really want to know and follow God, or are we more interested in a comfortable, pleasurable life for ourselves? Do we really believe God offers “eternal pleasures” that are better than anything this world can offer, or do we think the pleasures of this world are a bit more satisfying? Jesus asked his disciples early on, “What do you seek?” And he’s still asking that question today. To be motivated to live in the presence of God, we have to believe that “the good life” is really found in him and him alone. With him is true freedom and “fullness of joy.” Far from being scary or boring or an angry tyrant, God is Life itself, and life in him is the most fulfilling one we can live. If we truly believe this, we’ll make adjustments in our daily walk to enable us to get there.

Explain how a person should “trust and train” to live in the presence of God.

Ken Boa: Trusting God means transferring our confidence and hope from ourselves to him, acknowledging that we have no ability in ourselves to live in a way that pleases him. Only he can change us by the power of his Spirit in us. This trust is manifested in a context of obedience in our lives to the biblical mandates God calls us to pursue. Training means acting upon that trust by doing things that help us rely upon God more and live out his desire for us (including loving and serving others). When we think of training ourselves in godliness (1 Timothy 4:7), we usually think of the traditional spiritual disciplines (prayer, Scripture reading, fasting, etc.), but it can also be practical activities like taking a nature walk or listening to music—whatever helps us draw closer to God. God hardwired our brains and bodies in such a way that spiritual training, combined with God’s work in us, has the very real effect of making us more attuned to spiritual reality and our true identity in Christ.

Who are people you point to in the Bible and how should they be emulated to live in God’s presence?

Ken Boa: Jesus is the prime exemplar of life in God’s presence. He lived out of an awareness of the identity God had given him (not the identity the world wanted to give him); he led an active, ongoing prayer life; he took time apart from the world to be with his Father; he made his Father’s agenda his agenda; he made his Father’s love for people evident in tangible ways; and so on. These are all characteristics that we should emulate in our lives. I also call attention to Abraham, Enoch, Moses, and David, all of whom demonstrated a closeness to and friendship with God. David is a great example of a man who could’ve allowed grievous sin (namely, adultery and murder) to drive him away from God’s presence; but instead, he modeled how the best course of action when we become conscious and convicted of our sin is to run to God and hide in him, not from him.

How should a person re-see the world to be continually conscious of God?

Ken Boa: When we see through the lens of God’s truth, revealed primarily in his Word, everything comes into sharper focus. Suddenly, we’ll see that everything is integrated and overlapping—that the world is not divided between the sacred and the secular, but there’s one life, and God is the Master of all of it. He’s as present on Monday morning as we commute to work as he is Sunday morning in a worship service. God knows all things, past, present, and future, and is all-wise; when we train ourselves to see more as he sees, we’ll pursue the things he values and seek to live before him as our primary audience. We’ll have a whole new vision for our lives because God always enriches life for us.

What are some practices you recommend for living in light of eternity?

Ken Boa: We’ve produced a companion training guide for Life in the Presence of God that contains 104 exercises in a 52-week guide. The exercises are broken down into eight categories, one being Scripture; however, at least half of the exercises contain some reference to Bible verses. Bible-related exercises range from meditation on verses on 3-by-5 index cards and setting smartphone alerts for one-minute meditations in the middle of the day, to using specific verses to remind of wise approaches to living—for example, playing to an audience of One (Galatians 1:10), living in light of wanting to hear God’s approving words “well done” at the end of our lives (Matthew 25:21), and considering God’s intimate provision and care by (literally) “considering the birds of the air” when outside (based on Matthew 6:26).

There’s a host of other types of exercises to capture the diversity of human personalities and approaches. Others involve nature, physical movement, relationships, time and work issues, music, art, and more—all with the goal of helping people not only develop new habits but also see how they can integrate the spiritual into the ordinary things they’re already doing each day.

What is a favorite Bible passage of yours and why?

Ken Boa: Given the manifest wealth of the precepts and principles of Scripture, my answer to this would likely change each time the question is posed. At this moment, Philippians 4:6–8 comes to mind, given the profound importance of choosing to dwell on truth, goodness, and beauty in a world that seduces us away from this transcendent wealth.

What are your thoughts about Bible Gateway and the Bible Gateway App?

Ken Boa: My staff, editors, and I greatly appreciate and frequently use Bible Gateway for developing resources. It’s an invaluable tool!

Is there anything else you’d like to say?

Ken Boa: This book is intended to be accessible to anyone, no matter where they are in their Christian walk. There’s an impression, I think, when we hear the phrase “practice God’s presence.” It conjures up images of a monk isolated in a prayer closet or monastery. But it’s so much more than that. Practicing God’s presence is not something we do only by ourselves. In fact, most of our lives are lived with people all around us, and it’s there, in community, that we need to learn to cultivate an awareness of our Creator in addition to doing so individually. My desire is that this book helps expand our view of what it means to live in Christ, and that people realize this is not about legalism or mechanics; it’s about doing things that will help nurture our relationship with God just as we do to deepen any relationship.

Bio: Kenneth Boa is engaged in a ministry of teaching, writing, speaking, and relational evangelism and discipleship. He has authored, coauthored, or edited more than 70 books, including Rewriting Your Broken Story (IVP, 2016) and three Gold Medallion Award winners (now the Christian Book Awards): Faith Has Its Reasons: An Integrative Approach to Defending Christianity, the NASB Zondervan Study Bible (editor), and An Unchanging Faith in a Changing World. He holds a BS from Case Institute of Technology, a ThM from Dallas Theological Seminary, a PhD from New York University, and a DPhil from the University of Oxford in England. Based in Atlanta, Dr. Boa is the president of Reflections Ministries, an organization that seeks to encourage, teach, and equip people to know Christ, follow him, become progressively conformed to his image, and reproduce his life in others. He is also president of Trinity House Publishers, a publishing company that is dedicated to the creation of tools that will help people manifest eternal values in a temporal arena by drawing them to intimacy with God and a better understanding of the culture in which they live.

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