One afternoon I was deeply engrossed in a book. With the radio and TV off, the entire house seemed quiet. Suddenly my surroundings went dead, as if something alive had departed. And it had--the electricity had gone off! I had forgotten that some electrical appliances emit a barely audible hum. I had grown so accustomed to it that I had lost my awareness of it.

The Lord used that incident to expose one of my spiritual problems. I had grown so accustomed to His abiding presence that I was taking for granted the dynamic difference He was making in my life. That painful revelation of my spiritual need also became its cure, and I was able to exclaim with Jacob, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it" (Gen. 28:16). But I do now!

Commenting on Jacob's lack of awareness, pastor and author A. W. Tozer wrote, "That was his trouble, and it is ours. Men do not know that God is here. What a difference it would make if they knew!"

Has your spiritual awareness been dulled because you've taken God's presence for granted? May it be so enlivened today that you too can exclaim, "The Lord is here--and I know it!"  — Joanie Yoder