The Practice of the Presence of God

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If we knew how much He loves us, we should be always ready to receive equally, and with indifference, from His hand, the sweet and the bitter; all would please that came from him. (59) Perfect in that while it can be read in one hour; mastery of its central concept requires a lifetime. Well, at least for this soul ... and a very long lifetime at that. And I write that without the least trace of humility, remorse or even chagrin—as a simple statement of fact. Indeed, growth in virtue does require total commitment and extended preparation time. I'm on at least my seventh reading of this book and each has been a sincere attempt to take in the saint's simple way of constantly living in God's Holy Presence. I just pray I've made some progress! BL writes that to practice the presence of God, the heart must be empty of all else--Christ alone shall dwell there. Read 1 Cor 7:32-35. Do you think that Brother Lawrence had an advantage or disadvantage by living in a monastic community? Do you and I have an advantage or disadvantage, in practicing the presence of God as husbands, fathers, grandfathers? As a humble cook, Brother Lawrence learned an important lesson through each daily chore: The time he spent in communion with the Lord should be the same, whether he was bustling around in the kitchen—with several people asking questions at the same time—or on his knees in prayer. He learned to cultivate the deep presence of God so thoroughly in his own heart that he was able to joyfully exclaim, “I am doing now what I will do for all eternity. I am blessing God, praising Him, adoring Him, and loving Him with all my heart.” Finally, and this strikes at the heart of man’s pride and perhaps at the heart of why I and so many others in our modern world struggle with prayer, prayer is not a matter of becoming smarter or stronger. “Neither skill nor knowledge is required to enable us to go to God…” Rather, this sort of continual prayer can only come by a deep sense of our helplessness and weakness before God. We can’t work our way there, and we can’t think our way there. “The greater the perfection to which a soul aspires, the more dependent is she upon divine grace, and this grace becomes more necessary every moment because without it the soul can do nothing. The world, the flesh, and the Devil together wage so fierce and unremitting a war that, without actual grace and a humble reliance thereon, the soul would be dragged down in spite of herself.”

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Legendary Bible teacher Derek Prince shows the way to victorious intimacy with God. He explains how you can enter into the very presence of God to receive the spiritual, physical, and emotional blessings of true worship. Learn the secrets of: God does all of this so that he can be our God and we can be his people (Gen 17:7; Ex 6:7; 29:45, Rev 21:3, etc.). At the heart of the covenant, then, is a relationship—one that is decidedly on his terms. God enters into his creation to create a people and a place for his presence. And so the covenant is as the Lord declares at Sinai: “I will dwell among the people of Israel and be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them” (Ex 29:45-46). 7. The presence of God is the means and end of redemption. It is not necessary for being with God to be always at church. We may make an oratory of our heart wherein to retire from time to time to converse with Him in meekness, humility, and love. Every one is capable of such familiar conversation with God, some more, some less. He knows what we can do." Don't get me wrong, Brother Lawrence sounds like a great guy. In fact the book is part memoir, part biography, part letters and so on. It's a collection of documents by and about Brother Lawrence who, from the sound of it, was a genuinely humble, dedicated follower of Christ. I think this book may inspire some people; it just didn't inspire me, and probably that's indicative of my own spiritual status (low on the scale). I know I SHOULD practice the presence of God; I'm not sure HOW, and maybe it's one of those things like riding a bike; you try until you get it, and once you get it you don't know how you were ever not able to do it.The name he chose for himself was Lawrence, for St. Lawrence was the Patron Saint of Cooks, having achieved his martyrdom by being cooked to death on a grate. (“Turn me over! I'm done on this side!” St. Lawrence cried out to his torturers, and this dark witticism eventually earned him the additional title of Patron Saint of Comedians.) Coram Deo": to live "before the face of God" best sums up the message of Brother Lawrence. That even the most mundane tasks can be taken up with glorying in the Lord Jesus. At the same time, I found myself troubled by at least three things: 1) On several occasions, Lawrence mentions the need to make satisfaction for his sins. Maybe he means something different than I realize, but if he means what I think he means, I have to wonder if the man even understands the gospel. 2) I don't think Lawrence refers to Scripture even one time in this whole book. 3) Lawrence seems to value a kind of mystical detachment from the present world, as if there is something super spiritual about ignoring the world around us. Nicolas entered the priory in Paris as a lay brother, not having the education necessary to become a cleric, and took the religious name, "Lawrence of the Resurrection." He spent almost all of the rest of his life within the walls of the priory, working in the kitchen for many of these years and as a repairer of sandals in his later years. The Practice of the Presence of God" is also the title of a section of Jeremy Taylor's Holy Living The Practice of the Presence of God Author

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This little book seems to me very much in the spirit of this verse from Isaiah. Return to His presence. Rest in His presence. Be quiet in His presence. Grow confident in His presence. Find salvation and strength in His presence. The Romish errors here are easily enough ignored, so I think I will be revisiting it regularly as a reminder to "set the Lord always before me." a b c Herman, Nicholas, The Practice of the Presence of God, The Christian Classics Ethereal Library . This is one of those places however where we ought to heed the words of Jesus concerning the Pharisees, "do what they say but not what they do" which highlights the great oversight of brother Lawrence.After decades of such service, in his seventies and until his death in his eighties, suddenly he was sought out for what had become his obvious piety. Update: For those seeking more practical direction on HOW to implement these principles in the Christian life, I also recommend "We Would See Jesus" by Roy & Revel Hession, published 1958. This book explores the importance of God’s presence in the Bible and how it relates to his plan for the world, helping readers understand what we really mean when we say God is with us. 9. The purposes of the church are tied to the presence of God.