8. The Practice of the Presence of God

The Practice of the Presence of God: A 40 Day Devotional Based on Brother Lawrence's The Practice of the Presence of God (Includes Entire Book). Brother Lawrence AND Alan Vermilye. 1691/2021. 115 pages. [Source: Bought]

First sentence: WHO IS THIS BROTHER LAWRENCE? And, why should I care about what a monk, who lived over 300 years ago, said about creating a closer relationship with God? Afterall, I’m not a monk. I don’t live in a monastery blocked off from the harsh realities of the real world. Things are different today.

I would definitely recommend this one. It offers the best possible introduction to a Christian classic. 

First, it offers readers a forty day devotional. Each devotional begins with an excerpt from Brother Lawrence's letters. A short paragraph--or two--for readers to digest. The devotional then has a Scripture reference or two to look up. (Verses are not included, you'll need to look them up in your own Bible.) Lastly, Alan Vermilye summarizes and concludes the devotion. 

Second, it offers the WHOLE text of The Practice of the Presence of God. After the forty devotions, readers get an opportunity to read THE WHOLE book for themselves. No excerpts. No commentary. No interruptions. 

The book also offers a little background information on Brother Lawrence (aka Nicholas Herman). Of course, I knew he was a monk, an older monk who had lived a long life. But I didn't know that he had been a soldier. And I definitely didn't know that he lived with chronic pain. 

I don't know that I agree 100% with every single thing he wrote in his letters. There are times I wish he was less vague and more practical. Some phrases are just oh-so-mystical sounding and I'm left with BUT HOW DO YOU ACTUALLY DO THAT???? But again, keeping in mind that Brother Lawrence never meant for his letters to be published let alone published widely, it's not really his fault that he didn't deal in specifics. After all, one's relationship with God isn't really a check list. 

Quotes: 

HAVING FOUND in many books different methods of going to God and diverse practices of the spiritual life, I thought this would serve rather to puzzle me than facilitate what I sought after, which was nothing but how to become wholly God's. This made me resolve to give the all for the All. After having given myself wholly to God, to make all the satisfaction I could for my sins, I renounced, for the love of Him, everything that was not He, and I began to live as if there was none but He and I in the world. 

SOMETIMES I CONSIDERED myself before Him as a poor criminal at the feet of his judge. At other times I beheld Him in my heart as my Father, as my God. I worshipped Him the oftenest I could, keeping my mind in His holy presence and recalling it as often as I found it wandered from Him. I made this my business, not only at the appointed times of prayer but all the time; every hour, every minute, even in the height of my work, I drove from my mind everything that interrupted my thoughts of God. I found no small pain in this exercise. Yet I continued it, notwithstanding all the difficulties that occurred. Though I have done it very imperfectly, I have found great advantages by it.

WHEN WE ARE FAITHFUL to keep ourselves in His holy presence, and set Him always before us, this hinders our offending Him, and doing anything that may displease Him. It also begets [creates] in us a holy freedom, and, if I may so speak, a familiarity with God, where, when we ask, He supplies the graces we need. Over time, by often repeating these acts, they become habitual, and the presence of God becomes quite natural to us. 

I took a resolution to give myself up to God as the best satisfaction I could make for my sins and, for the love of Him, to renounce all besides.

AS FOR WHAT passes in me at present, I cannot express it. I have no pain or difficulty about my state because I have no will but that of God. I endeavor to accomplish His will in all things. And I am so resigned that I would not take up a straw from the ground against His order or from any motive but that of pure love for Him.

MY KING IS FULL OF MERCY and goodness. Far from chastising me, He embraces me with love. He makes me eat at His table. He serves me with His own hands and gives me the key to His treasures. He converses and delights Himself with me incessantly, in a thousand and a thousand ways. And He treats me in all respects as His favorite. In this way I consider myself continually in His holy presence.

AS FOR MY set hours of prayer, they are simply a continuation of the same exercise. Sometimes I consider myself as a stone before a carver, whereof He is to make a statue. Presenting myself thus before God, I desire Him to make His perfect image in my soul and render me entirely like Himself.

A LITTLE LIFTING up of the heart and a remembrance of God suffices. One act of inward worship, though upon a march with sword in hand, are prayers which, however short, are nevertheless very acceptable to God. And, far from lessening a soldier's courage in occasions of danger, they actually serve to fortify it. Let him think of God as often as possible. Let him accustom himself, by degrees, to this small but holy exercise. No one sees it, and nothing is easier than to repeat these little internal adorations all through the day.

We must always work at it, because not to persevere in the spiritual life is to go back. But those who have the gale of the Holy Spirit go forward even in sleep. If the vessel of our soul is still tossed with winds and storms, let us awake the Lord who reposes in it. He will quickly calm the sea.

I KNOW THAT for the right practice of it, the heart must be empty of all other things; because God will possess the heart alone. As He cannot possess it alone, without emptying it of all besides, so neither can He act there and do in it what He pleases unless it be left vacant to Him. 

WERE I A PREACHER, I would above all other things preach the practice of the presence of God. Were I a director, I would advise all the world to do it, so necessary do I think it, and so easy too. Ah! Knew we but the want we have of the grace and assistance of God, we would never lose sight of Him, no, not for a moment. Believe me. Immediately make a holy and firm resolution never more to forget Him. Resolve to spend the rest of your days in His sacred presence, deprived of all consolations for the love of Him if He thinks fit. Set heartily about this work, and if you do it sincerely, be assured that you will soon find the effects of it.

I CANNOT IMAGINE how religious persons can live satisfied without the practice of the presence of God. For my part I keep myself retired with Him in the depth and center of my soul as much as I can. While I am with Him, I fear nothing; but the least turning from Him is insupportable.

PERHAPS HE EXPECTS but one generous resolution on our part. Have courage. We have but little time to live. You are nearly sixty-four, and I am almost eighty. Let us live and die with God. Sufferings will be sweet and pleasant while we are with Him. Without Him, the greatest pleasures will be a cruel punishment to us. May He be blessed by all.

I DO NOT advise you to use multiplicity of words in prayer. Many words and long discourses are often the occasions of wandering. Hold yourself in prayer before God, like a dumb or paralytic beggar at a rich man's gate. Let it be your business to keep your mind in the presence of the Lord. If your mind sometimes wanders and withdraws itself from Him, do not become upset. Trouble and disquiet serve rather to distract the mind than to re-collect it. The will must bring it back in tranquility. If you persevere in this manner, God will have pity on you.

SINCE, BY HIS MERCY, He gives us yet a little time, let us begin in earnest. Let us repair the lost time. Let us return with full assurance to that Father of mercies, who is always ready to receive us affectionately. Let us generously renounce, for the love of Him, all that is not Himself. He deserves infinitely more. Let us think of Him perpetually. Let us put all our trust in Him. 

I HAVE NO DOUBT that we shall soon receive an abundance of His grace, with which we can do all things, and, without which we can do nothing but sin. We cannot escape the dangers which abound in life without the actual and continual help of God. Let us pray to Him for it constantly. 

HOW CAN WE PRAY to Him without being with Him? How can we be with Him but in thinking of Him often? And how can we often think of Him, but by a holy habit which we should form of it? You will tell me that I always say the same thing. It is true, for this is the best and easiest method I know. I use no other. I advise all the world to do it. We must know before we can love. In order to know God, we must often think of Him. And when we come to love Him, we shall then also think of Him often, for our heart will be with our treasure.

PLEASE KEEP MY recommendation in mind that you think of God often; by day, by night, in your business, and even in your diversions. He is always near you and with you. Leave Him not alone. You would think it rude to leave a friend alone who came to visit you. Why, then, must God be neglected? Do not forget Him but think on Him often. Adore Him continually. Live and die with Him. This is the glorious work of a Christian; in a word, this is our profession. If we do not know it, we must learn it.

I DO NOT PRAY that you may be delivered from your pains; but I pray earnestly that God gives you strength and patience to bear them as long as He pleases. Comfort yourself with Him who holds you fastened to the cross. He will loose you when He thinks fit. Happy are those who suffer with Him. Accustom yourself to suffer in that manner and seek from Him the strength to endure as much, and as long, as He judges necessary for you. 

TAKE COURAGE. Offer Him your pain and pray to Him for strength to endure them. Above all, get in the habit of often thinking of God, and forget Him the least you can. Adore Him in your infirmities. Offer yourself to Him from time to time. And, in the height of your sufferings, humbly and affectionately beseech Him (as a child his father) to make you conformable to His holy will. I shall endeavor to assist you with my poor prayers. 

Let all our efforts be to know God. The more one knows Him, the greater one desires to know Him. Knowledge is commonly the measure of love. The deeper and more extensive our knowledge, the greater is our love.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: The Practice of the Presence of God

The Practice of the Presence of God. Brother Lawrence. 1691/1982. 96 pages. [Source: Bought]

First sentence from the prologue:

A Pilgrim's Prayer
Lord of all pots and pans and things
Make me a saint by getting meals
And washing up the plates!

First sentence from First conversation:

The first time I saw Brother Lawrence was upon the third of August 1666.

This Christian classic is essentially divided into two sections: "Conversations" and "Letters." The conversations and letters both reveal the doctrines and beliefs of Brother Lawrence. As you might have guessed from the title, these center around the notion or philosophy of practicing the presence of God.

I read this one in one afternoon. I definitely found it food for thought. I am sharing some of my favorite quotes.

Quotes:

That our sanctification did not depend upon changing our works, but in doing that for God's sake which we commonly do for our own. (26)

That the most excellent method he had found of going to God was that of doing our common business without any view of pleasing men, and as far as we are capable purely for the love of God.
That it was a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other times; that we are as strictly obliged to adhere to God by action in the time of action as by prayer in the season of prayer. (26)

That his prayer was nothing else but a sense of the presence of God, his soul being at that time insensible to everything but divine love; and that when the appointed times of prayer were past, he found no difference, because he still continued with God, praising and blessing Him with all his might, so that he passed his life in continual joy. (26)

That we ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed. (27)

That all things are possible to him who believes; that they are less difficult to him who hopes; that they are more easy to him who loves and still more easy to him who perseveres in the practice of these three virtues. (27)

O my God, since Thou art with me, and I must now, in obedience to Thy commands, apply my mind to these outward things, I beseech Thee to grant me the grace to continue in Thy presence; and to this end do Thou proper me with Thy assistance, receive all my works, and possess all my affections. (29) 

This made me resolve to give the all for the all; so after having given myself wholly to God, that He might take away my sin, I renounced, for the love of Him, everything that was not He, and I began to live as if there was none but He and I in the world. (33)

I know that for the right practice of it the heart must be empty of all other things, because God will possess the heart alone; and as He cannot possess it alone without emptying it of all besides, so neither can He act there and do in it what He pleases, unless it be left vacant to Him. (51) 

Let us think often that our only business in this life is to please God, and that all besides is but folly and vanity. (67)

Pray remember what I have recommended to you, which is, to think often on God, by day, by night, in your business, and even in your diversions. He is always near you and with you; leave Him not alone. You would think it rude to leave a friend alone who came to visit you, why, then, must God be neglected? (71)

Comfort yourself with Him who holds you fastened to the cross. He will loose you when He thinks fit. Happy those who suffer with Him. (75)

God knoweth best what is needful for us, and all that He does is for our good. If we know how much He loves us, we should always be ready to receive equally and with indifference from His hand the sweet and the bitter. (91)

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible