So I agree with him that being with God can make paradise available even for the sufferer, not because the suffering is a gift, but because God's presence is the ever promised gift even despite suffering. I first read this book 26 years ago, and now I must atone for a grave injustice I did it at that time. I was asked to read it by an acquaintance, and I agreed with distaste: can any good come out of a book written by a Catholic monk? I asked my Presbyterian self. Accordingly my opinion when finished was that it was a book of no value. In the next section of the book, we are given sixteen of Brother Lawrence's letters—mostly written to a nun, but also one to a priest and several to a lay woman. All of these further elucidate how one is to advance along the path toward our ultimate goal, full and total communion with God. The book concludes with a group of Brother Lawrence's maxims. 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.

Presence of God - Goodreads The Practice of the Presence of God - Goodreads

Brother Lawrence was a man of humble beginnings who discovered the greatest secret of living in the kingdom of God here on earth. It is the art of “practicing the presence of God in one single act that does not end.” He often stated that it is God who paints Himself in the depths of our souls. We must merely open our hearts to receive Him and His loving presence.

9. The purposes of the church are tied to the presence of God.

The presence of God has massive implications for the way we understand the church (1 Cor 3:16-17; 2 Cor 6:14-7:1; Eph 2:13-22). The New Testament calls the church a temple for a reason. Through this image, we see that the community of Christ is—in this time of waiting on Christ’s return—the instrument the Lord uses to disseminate his presence to a lost and sinful world. The Practice of the Presence of God is a book of collected teachings of Brother Lawrence (born Nicolas Herman), a 17th-century Carmelite friar, compiled by Father Joseph de Beaufort. The compilation includes letters, as well as records of his conversations kept by Brother Lawrence's interlocutors. The basic theme of the book is the development of an awareness of the presence of God.

The Presence Of God - Online Bible 49 Bible Verses about The Presence Of God - Online Bible

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." 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."

As a Christian husband and father of one (and another on the way), I am moved by the practical principles for religious devotion to Christ that are laid out in this book, but I do wish that they were not hypocritically represented by a clergyman who divorced himself entirely from life amongst lay people. It sets a terrible precedent when Jesus said,"no one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light" (Luke 11:33). The first section of the book consists of four dated conversations where Brother Lawrence describes what it is that led him to the realization that pursuing the Practice of the Presence of God was the best way, indeed the only way, to follow Christ. These are not conversations as most Americans today would categorize conversations, but more like Shakespearean soliloquies, with the little monk giving his thoughts on how he came to know that putting God first, last, and always, was the only way to live. That is Practice in a nutshell. I could stop writing here and you would have the book. Except that as simple as it is write or say such words, anyone who has really tried to live them knows, it is not that easy. And if we never afterwards STOP talking to Him - about whatever pops into our minds, however trivial... we’ll always find Him, in whatever we DO. 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. There is a difference between saying “God is everywhere,” and saying “God is here.” The former is the default category for most Christians. We talk about God’s presence being inescapable and that he is “everywhere present” (Ps 139:5-12; 1 Kings 8:27).

Presence Of God - Preach The Word The Presence Of God - Preach The Word

I like that the word ‘practice’ is used in the title, and indeed throughout the book, because it recognizes the fallibility in human nature. We will have to creep, crawl, stumble and fall many times in this effort before we will ever be able to actually walk in God's presence. That is Brother Lawrence's goal – and presumably the goal of any self-professed Christian: to actually walk hand-in-hand with Our LORD. In the meantime, He carries us. 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: After being wounded and discharged from the army, Nicholas first worked briefly as a footman, and then entered the Discalced Carmelite monastery. Considered too unlettered to be a priest and too ignorant to perform any but the most menial tasks, he was assigned to cook and clean in the kitchen.

Because if we Believe, and Pray constantly, after a while we’ll lose our interior monologue, our ceaseless griping and comparing ourselves to others, and become our authentic selves.