William Hinson, in his book, The Power of Holy Habits, tells the story of a religious leader who seemed to be very outgoing and charismatic. He was the type that everyone loved to be around and he seemed to be so sociable.

When he retired and was no longer the center of attention, he became very bitter and mean.

One day, two of his colleagues were discussing the change in his behavior and one remarked, perhaps he is now so unpleasant because he had more in his showroom than he did in his storeroom.

Storeroom spirituality is the kind that we build privately. The Master Teacher, Jesus, modeled it for us in that he often took time alone to pray and experience communion with God.

It’s important to note that prior to or just after nearly every major encounter in his ministry, he did so.

He even instructed us to do the same when he said that in our prayer time, we should go to our secret closet and pray rather than making a big display of it like the people he termed hypocrites.

That time of spiritual union is not just about presenting God with a list of our problems and demands. Rather, it involves what mystics down through the ages called practicing the presence of God.

It is about spending time in the stillness and quietness of the moment, away from all of the noise and busyness of our lives.

We can begin our time by reading a calming, inspirational passage, focusing on our breathing and feeling the inner energy field of our body or just simply whispering a prayer in which we ask God to speak.

And then we just become still.

One of the hardest things to realize about it is that we’re not trying to get anywhere or even to make anything happen. It’s about allowing ourselves to just be. In that way, we soon find ourselves open to the power and presence of God.

As distracting thoughts come, and they will, we gently return our mind to the passage we read, to the focus on our breathing or we just simply let the thought arise without resistance to it and then let it pass on through our minds.

The ability to do this grows with practice and patience.

As we continue to do this, a deepening awareness of the presence of God happens. This provides us with our own sense of presence, purpose, and power.

And then we come to know that whatever situation life presents us with, our storerooms are full of the resources we need to handle them.

New Every Moment,
John