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Contents
High Notions Of God
The Living God
The Shortest Way
In His Name
High Notions Of God
"We should feed and nourish our soul with high notions of God which yield us great joy in being devoted to Him."
... Brother Lawrence
1. Living in God's presence is the ultimate gift of God. Better than anything in the world, living in God's presence combines the greatest features of earthly existence with all we can understand of heavenly existence. We live in the world but are not of the world, because we are of God's kingdom. Right here. Right now.
When we live in God's presence, we are not what others usually mean by other-worldly but, rather, we are heavenly-minded. We die to selfishness and become empty of worldliness to be God-enlivened and God-contained.
God is everything and all we need. Perfect parent, faithful friend, delightful companion; God is the only one whose guidance is always completely in our best interest. He is the only one whose counsel is always practical and reliable. God's very nature is self-giving, wholly loving and completely fair.
When we live in God's presence, when we are in the all for the All relationship, and surrender our own will and ways to God's will and ways, only then, no matter our physical and material circumstances, are we truly and fully alive. Only in God's presence are we able to enjoy the unique experience of holy freedom.
2. Many who claim a belief in God do not know Him. Their view of God is based on information and impressions from early learning, training, and education; then colored by worldly and cultural influences. Many accept this kind of learning about God and call it belief. And, of course, many reject it and call it unbelief.
Those who claim a belief in God but do not know Him sometimes pay a kind of lip service to a being they perceive as the God in whom everyone else believes. Those who claim a belief in God but do not know Him often attempt to bring God down to the worldly level.
In other words, many attempt to fashion God in their own image! The result of this often leads to anger and hostility toward that worldly God. When we are, often unknowingly, caught in this snare, it is very easy to, likewise, treat God in worldly ways. We may be unkind. We may use cleverness and manipulative ploys. We may ignore, neglect, and even
abuse God. Or, caught in this trap, we may conclude we just do not need this God of man's making.
While these approaches may seem successful, they are, though very common, shallow and worthless. They simply do not work. Instead, they create the void that we attempt to fill with more worldliness.
God, the Good and Merciful God, the ever-patient God, who wants His children to personally know Him, has many ways of drawing us to Him. He also has many ways of showing us that we have to take the time to let Him reveal Himself to us.
When we, at last, arrive at the realization that everything we think we know about God is only hearsay; when we arrive at the realization that no one, except God, can reveal the true God to us; when we arrive at the realization that we can and must have a personal relationship with God; we discover that all else is irrelevant.
Where before we thought we did not have the time, resources, energy, or even, interest in knowing God; now, in fresh possibility, we find we have an abundance of everything we need and our only desire is to personally know God, who has been patiently waiting for us with open arms.
The constant feeding and nourishing of our soul with high notions of God is essential. The moment He draws us to The Gospel, we need to drink deeply of this best of all possible resources. This is especially so when we read the books of The Gospel as personal letters to us. In this way, we easily see that The Gospel is a mirror image of today and its application to each of us as individuals almost jumps off the page and into our heart. Now engaging in a continual conversation with Our Father becomes very natural.
At the same time, we must renounce all that is not of God. We have to rid ourselves of things, avoid places, and distance ourselves from people that distract us from our focus on God. We must renounce those things, places, and people that enslave us or rob us of the time and energy that belongs to God. This, of course, happens only with God's help and in His time. Our care and feeding also happens in God's way, because we seldom see clearly and usually underestimate the impact of outside influences. We are each far more impressionable and far more sensitive to the people, places, and things around us than we are aware.
Also, we may have responsibilities, obligations, and ties that seem impossible or unthinkable to break. Here, again, we must trust God and accept His will just as it comes. As we begin to speak plainly and openly, we learn to honestly share our troubles and pain with Him.
In suffering, He comforts us. In our troubles, He brings us peace. As we become better able to put self aside, we gradually come to see that in our pain, in our suffering, and in our doubts, God gives us His light.
For as difficult or complicated as it may appear, we can look at it in a simpler way. Brother Lawrence's approach of turning our attention to God, conversing with Him, and keeping God as our primary focus demonstrates a basic principle.
The principle is simply this: if we turn toward something, we turn away from something else. When we turn to face God, we turn our backs on that which is not God. And, in this way, Brother Lawrence's holy habit can be practiced by anyone, at any time, and in any circumstance.
3. "The end we ought to propose to ourselves is to become, in this life, the most perfect worshippers of God we can possibly be, and as we hope to be through all eternity." Brother Lawrence, who held God in such lofty esteem, beautifully states the goal of practicing God's presence. This is a key to understanding the words of Our Lord to His disciples recorded in Matthew, chapter five, "Be ye as perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect."
Our Father is perfect. He is the whole and complete God. He is all and needs nothing added. His will is supremely holy and good. Thus, Jesus told His close ones, that, as Our Father is the perfect God, whole and complete; we must become His perfect children, whole and complete.
As to how we accomplish this, Brother Lawrence said that "faith was sufficient to bring us to a high degree of perfection. We ought to give ourselves up to God with regard both to things temporal and spiritual and seek our satisfaction only in the fulfilling of His will."
In faith, we must learn to rely completely on God. In faith, we must learn to simply and humbly obey Him. In other words, we go about our day, conducting our common business and ordinary tasks simply for the love of Our Father. We do all we do to please Him and Him alone.
The longer we practice God's presence, the more we understand the difference between worldly perfection and Our Father's heavenly perfection. Worldly perfection revolves around getting and having. Heavenly perfection is based on giving and being. The difference between worldly perfection and heavenly perfection is the difference between mammon and God.
Our early time in the practice of the presence of God is a period of adjusting our views, attitudes, and actions to His will and way. Over time, as we continue living in God's presence, we regularly offer ourselves to God for refinement to His satisfaction. We discover that God's way of fine-tuning us is to our great satisfaction, also.
The Living God
1. Through our conversation with God and walking with Him in faith, love, humility, and simplicity, we daily experience life in God's kingdom, because that life is Our Father's presence.
We come to see that God is a living God, an everyday God for anyone, at any time, and in any circumstance. If He is a presence for each of us, He is a presence for all of us.
Our Father sent His Son with a most important message, even, to many, a revolutionary message: Our Father is the Living God. This one message marked a major departure from the Old Testament, pre-Christian view of God. Jesus introduced the notion of God as Father; a Loving Father whose presence is within each of His children; the Person Divine whose will is for us to live in close relationship with Him right here on earth.
Some who first heard this message were, understandably, confused. They were used to a father named Abraham and the great deliverer of God's commandments named Moses. Others were shocked and judged as blasphemy Jesus' message of a living, personal, and loving Father of all. Our Lord met with great resistance even unto physical death.
Yet, for many others, Christ's message that the Father was accessible to each and every one of His children, the words were welcomed and embraced. For many, who awaited the fulfillment of what was foretold by the prophets, Christ's message was new life. We see this in both Simeon and Anna, who immediately recognized that the baby brought to the temple was the Promised One.
Many of God's children realized that truly Jesus was the Son of God. Many of God's children realized that following in the ways of the Son brought their lives into the unspeakable peace and gentle joy of Our Father's kingdom. They heard and understood when Jesus said that if we know Him, we know Our Father.
Brother Lawrence wrote that he could not understand how one could live without practicing the presence of God. When we, too, understand the Son of God's message, we cannot help but share Brother Lawrence's sentiment. When, two thousand years after Our Father sent His Son to live among us, so many are still living the arms-length relationship of the Old Testament God, how can we ever thank God enough for drawing us into His presence?
A most beautiful phrase that expresses God's presence is the secret place of the Most High. In the Old Testament this was often associated with the Holy of Holies, a place reserved for only an elite few. At Christ's physical death the curtain that served as a covering and boundary was torn from top to bottom. The Holy of Holies, the secret place of the Most High, was opened to all.
The secret place of the Most High is no longer hidden behind a curtain and reserved for the elite. Within each of us is the secret place, the personal and private place of the Most High. With the Son of God came the new possibility -the opportunity to live a life that is hid with Christ in God.
When we follow the simple approach of Brother Lawrence, we recognize Our Father wants His children to make His presence a home. There is no need to save the secret place of the Most High as a last resort or refuge for dire need when Our Father's will is for His children to be constantly with Him. Through the practice of God's presence, we enjoy this place as our dwelling place, our everyday living space.
While many of us first found the secret place of the Most High in our own time of dire need, we learned, through God's compelling gentleness, that His presence is our permanent shelter. In practicing God's presence, we come to see that God is within when we want nothing but to do His will. As we live in God, so He lives in us.
2. "I know that some charge this state with ... delusion. Yet, I cannot see how this could be called delusion, because the soul which enjoys God in this way wants nothing but Him. If this is delusion, then only God can remedy it."
... Brother Lawrence
In the beginning of our practice of God's presence it is not at all unusual to experience an occasional sense of unreality. We may feel at odds with what is going on around us. This may be described in many ways, but, overall, we are troubled, disturbed, and shaken-up. Sometimes it seems the more we develop a distaste for worldly ways, the more we are confronted or surrounded by them. We become anxious, irritated, and impatient. Our worldly conditioning is strong. The shell of our identity is difficult to shed.
Many of us have learned to place more value in the concrete, material, and physical than the non-material and spiritual. We may have come to believe that if we cannot see, hear, taste, touch, or smell a thing; then it is just a figment of the imagination. Or we may display an opposite tendancy to daydream and dwell on the fanciful and fantastic.
Perhaps we have come to look at things by their money or financial value. How much is it worth? Or we may think about investing, not only time and money, but ourselves, so that, the longer we invest ourselves in certain ways, the more importance we place on the investment.
Most of us come to the practice of the presence of God with various combinations of these worldly attitudes. None of these views are necessarily bad or wrong. However, they are also not necessarily real. In fact, our confusion and a crisis in our preconceived notions and cherished beliefs helps us to turn to God in search of the truth.
When Our Father calls us to participate in His larger vision, we will almost certainly have to go through a major and painful period of adjustment. After all, it takes time to begin to know His will and see with His vision, before we understand how to live in the freedom of obedience to Our Father. As Brother Lawrence wrote, "One does not become holy all at once."
When we persist in our practice of the holy habit, eventually a shift occurs. Now the only thing that seems real is that which is of God. Here, in His kingdom and presence, we find all that is lasting, solid, and practical.
Brother Lawrence wrote, "I know my weakness is so great that, if He left me one moment to myself, I would be the most wretched man alive. Yet, I do not know how He could leave me alone because faith gives me as strong a conviction as reason. He never forsakes us until we have first forsaken Him. Let us fear to leave Him. Let us always be with Him."
In a world that so often seems upside-down, a world of illusion, deception, and trickery, where appearances are not what they seem, God is real. He created, and allows to exist, all of it, both good and bad, so we may learn to depend on Him alone for all our needs.
When we are established in the practice of the presence of God, we feel compassion for those who view this state as delusion, because we have been in both places. The gift of God's presence is seeing, knowing, and understanding that only His will and ways are real.
3. Chapter eleven of the Book of Luke contains many insights into God's will and ways. In it we find these words of Our Lord: "No one with a lighted candle, puts it in a secret place or under a bushel. It is put on a candlestick so those who come in may see the light. The light of the body is the eye. When your eye is single, your whole body is also full of light. But when your eye is evil, your body is full of darkness."
"Take heed, therefore, that the light that is in you be not darkness. If thy whole body is full of light, with no dark parts, the whole shall be full of light, and, like the bright shining of a candle, it gives off the light."
In our human understanding, we can say that God created two kinds of light and darkness. The first kind is natural and the second is supernatural or spiritual. The natural darkness, the color of the night, is infinitely divine and beautiful. The spiritual darkness of sin is most ugly and repulsive. It is, of course, this second kind of darkness to which Christ refers.
Just as the moon, which has no light of its own, can only reflect the natural light of the sun; we have no spiritual light of our own and can only reflect the light of God. The light of God's spirit is essential to our well-being. When the eye, the human reflector of light, is single; when our focus is concentrated on the things of God; when our only aim is to do His will; Our Father, the Living God, radiates His spirit through us and we become reflectors of His well-being.
"Take heed, therefore, that the light that is in you be not darkness." At first, this part of Our Lord's words may appear a bit puzzling. How can light be darkness? Can we mistake one for the other?
Light becomes darkness and we confuse one for the other when we perceive ourselves or act in a way that is separate from God. Light becomes darkness and we confuse one for the other when we act on our own behalf without regard to Our Father. Light becomes darkness and we confuse one for the other when we begin to believe in our own power and strength.
Our light becomes darkness when we begin to value our virtues and strengths as our own, when we begin to compare ourselves to others, when we begin to congratulate ourselves or begin to feel deserving, or when we start to count ourselves worthy. Our light very quickly becomes darkness when we act out of any of these attitudes. How easy it is to confuse this artificial light of self with the true light of God!
Self-love and worldliness, sin and evil, have myriad and very subtle ways of sneaking up on us. Thus Christ reminds us that we must take heed. We must remain alert. We must continually surrender our little self to Our Father because, in the words of Brother Lawrence, "the least turning from Him is insupportable."
Brother Lawrence practiced God's presence for almost forty years. In a letter, written near the end of his earthly life, he wrote, "I am sometimes filled with shame and confusion when I reflect, on the one hand, on the great favors God has done and continues to do for me; and, on the other, on the ill use I have made of them and my small advancement in the way of perfection."
May each of us often experience that same realization and ask Our Father to rid us of any dark parts. May each of us often express that same sincere sentiment as we recognize that the only light is the light of the Living God.
4. "I am praising God. I am thanking God. I am worshipping Him as I hope to do throughout all eternity." These words of Brother Lawrence were softly spoken at the very end of the physical part of his life. In God's presence, the greater part of us, the indwelling spirit of Our Father, lives on. We do not have to know the details. In all probability, the scope and quality of the afterlife, the kingdom of heaven, is beyond our understanding.
Yet, Our Lord said that, for those who seek to do the will of Our Father, the hereafter is good. And, from our earthly experience of living in God's presence, can we have any doubt that it must be very good? We now understand that, if God is the God of the living, and our spirit never dies, our hope is for the continuance of our intimate and sacred relationship with Him for eternity.
The Shortest Way
Brother Lawrence found that the shortest way to go straight to God was by a continual exercise of love and doing all things for His sake. He said "the greatest pains or pleasures of this world were nothing compared to what he had experienced of both kinds in a spiritual state. As a result he feared nothing, desiring only one thing of God - that he might not offend Him."
When we have a good and loving relationship with God, we have a light and happy way with ourselves and everything around us. If the world is in discord, we know God brings balance. If there is outer confusion or chaos, in Our Father's presence we find harmony and peace.
Our Creator has every right to interrupt our lives for His purposes. When we surrender ourselves to Our Father, in simple faith, we trust and obey. In humility, we give thanks for showing us His will.
Sometimes, despite our best intentions, old habits intrude and lure us away from God's direction. We may try to act based on our own past experience. We may try to speed up or slow down the pace. It is easy to get on an old track. If we find ourselves spinning our own wheels or going in old familiar circles, it's because we are attempting to do the impossible. We are trying to get ahead of God!
If we go back to the basics of practicing God's presence when we find ourselves on the wrong track, Our Father will gently return us to His way. He will bring us back into the rhythm of His graceful steps.
As we practice God's presence, we become very familiar with the ways God reveals Himself to us, especially through His Living Word of The Gospel. If an interruption, a change, is the working of God's will in us, we clearly know it. We do not need to see or understand every last detail. In obedience, we take what He gives now and depend on His instructions just as He needs us to have them. In this way we remain steady in God's will and flexible to His ways.
How often God interrupts us only to show us an easier way. This often happens with something we have been doing the same way for a long time. It often happens with little things we do routinely. Suddenly He shows us a new way, a way that is so simple we wonder why we never saw it before. Dear One, we have a Father whose nature is to present us with serendipities, those surprises that make doing the little things for Him so delightful.
Short and sweet. Simple and direct. When we adopt this way of living in God's presence, Brother Lawrence's holy habit of continual conversation with Our Father, we find peace, joy, and gentleness in each day. As did the men and women who were close to Christ when He was on earth, and those who, over the last two thousand years, we, today, enjoy the companionship of Our Lord and Teacher and the radiant love of Our Father.
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Lord, you are my life and joy.
Nothing else deserves the name.
Lord, you are my life and joy.
No one else is near the same.
All in All, forever be,
Lord, you are the life of me.
All I care for, all I do,
Centers on the joy of you.
Lord, you are my life and joy.
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In His Name
"There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God; those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it."
... Brother Lawrence
Practicing God's presence is dwelling in the kingdom, being in the all for the All relationship, and living in God's name. As we mature and become established in the practice we do begin to comprehend this because we have experience and a personal history with God.
In the beginning, most of us have a very superficial understanding of 'in God's name'. Part of the problem is one of language. There simply is no way to get a precise correlation to the original. Like the opening of John's gospel, "In the beginning was the Word," to which the Greek term 'logos' has a far broader meaning than our literal use of 'word'; so, too, "in His name" is inadequate to express the true meaning of this phrase.
Also, through the centuries, 'in God's name' has been used carelessly and inappropriately. History chronicles all manner of ungodly things done 'in God's name'. Today, 'in God's name' is all too commonly misused. Often, we take it for granted that we know what 'in God's name' means until we stop and try to explain it. However, though we may not be able to put it into words, we recognize when someone else misuses the phrase. In practicing God's presence, we become careful of thinking, saying, or doing anything that may displease God. If we are uncertain, we wait for Him to enlighten us.
Only through the individual experience of a personal relationship with God do we come to discover that 'in His name' means "in Him" as in 'He is in us as we are in Him'. We begin to see in practicing God's presence and our experience in the continual conversation of the soul with Him, that God acts within us. God is within us. As our little self shrinks and decreases, God's presence expands and increases.
In the beginning and in our initial steps in practicing God's presence, our belief is based on faith alone. We demonstrate our trust through obedience. One of the biggest stumbling blocks we face in obeying God is doubt. This is a very busy time for the evil one to work on us to create complication and confusion. He will try every trick to work his way into our mind. He will use everything possible, including other people, to get us to hesitate and question God. In obeying Our Father, the devil knows how effective it is to get us to ask 'why?'. The sinister one is even more pleased if he can get us to selfishly ask, 'If I obey, what's in it for me?'.
In practicing God's presence, it is very helpful to know that this is not the working of God within us, but the voice of the devil operating on our worldly self. This is the time to turn away from the evil one and turn to God with, "Lord, increase my faith." This is the time to vigorously repeat silently, "Thank You, Father." until our mind and heart becomes filled with God's light. As we develop the habit of faith and obedience to God, we become increasingly able to distinguish God's voice and really know Him.
Our actual knowing God and becoming established in the practice of God's presence is based on experience in our relationship with Our Father. We comprehend, over time, the experience of God's presence and living in His name when we realize we have no will but God's will. We think, say, and act in a way that is pleasing to God because His thoughts, words, and actions become our thoughts, words, and actions.
Dear One, consider this: Our Father does not only give us life, He is our life. Not only is God all we need, but the very nature of God, His boundless and self-giving love, assures us that there is always more of Him at the next step, in the next hour, over the time to come. Just as it is impossible for darkness to overcome His light, so it is impossible for us to exhaust or deplete His love.
The longer we practice God's presence, live in His name, and engage in the continual conversation with God, the more we comprehend Brother Lawrence's saying that, "There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful ..."
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