The Presense of God

I've been reading The Practice of the Presense of God by Brother Lawrence, a little here and there, just before bed, and at times on the bus. There is a lot of good advice about prayer and communion with the Lord in these few 62 pages. A lot of them strike a chord with me but here are a couple of quotes just this morning I have enjoyed.

"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."

I think of Micah 6:8 when I read this. And I think how much more pleasant our devotion at church would be if we pressed on being with God while church is out of session.



A little later on the same page it says:

"We have but little time to live; you are near sixty-four and I am almost eighty. Let us live and die with God. Sufferings will be sweet and pleasant to us while we are with Him; and the greatest pleasures will be, without Him, a cruel punishment to us. May He be blessed for all. Amen."

With this I think of 2 Corinthians 12:10 where Paul writes that he delights in weakness, insults, and persecutions. And from a study recently in Ecclesiastes I learned that the richest of experiences without God are meaningless, but going through daily toil with God is a great gift. Our flesh would have us believe just the opposite. So let us remember that our Lord is ever present, and his joy in us and our joy in him will abound.