In Acts 7, Stephen shows that God is everywhere. This knowledge should greatly enrich how we pray. How, then, do we become more aware of His presence?
We can frequently thank Him for being with us and for us (Eph 5:20), spend a lot of time talking to Him each day (1 Thess 5:17), ask for His guidance during every transition in the day (Phil 3:3, GW), keep humming a favorite worship song (Ps 34:1), and candidly share our thoughts and emotions with the Lord (Prov 3:32, Tanakh). We might also see His Presence in other believers (Jn 14:20), talk to God instead of to ourself, and ask Him to fill us with His Spirit as that sensitizes us to His Presence (Eph 5:18; Lk 11:13). In addition, we can talk to Him about what we are reading (Jn 16:13), continually state that we are utterly dependent on His grace (1 Cor 4:7), and go to sleep with mental words of endearment to Him or with mental singing. Furthermore, we might use different forms of prayer such as just spending time with Him, listening to Him by reading the Bible so as to encounter Him (Jn 5:39-40), and making it a habit to ask “Abba, Father, how can I please you now?” Besides all this, we could talk to the Lord about every task we are doing, reminding Him that we cannot do it in a way that pleases Him without His help (Jn 15:5).
All the aforementioned are ways we can be more attuned to God’s Presence in our life. They won’t be too helpful unless we also renounce everything that does not lead us to the Lord. It can be hard to redirect our thoughts to Him since we lovingly focus on so many other things. We love television shows, we love sports, we love playing games. The list of other loves can crowd out time for just loving the Lord. We need to act like we love the Lord more. Perhaps eat lunch or drive in quiet where we are available should He want to speak with us. Yet, even if He doesn’t speak, we have still sent Him (and ourself) the message that spending time with Him is our greatest delight (Ps 37:4).
Instead of being timid, learn to be appropriately bold.