The Practice of the Presence of God

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Edmonson, Robert, Translator's Note, Practicing the Presence of God, trans. Robert Edmonson (Paraclete, 2007): vii. In a world of constant distraction, Brother Lawrence has much to teach us about offering every moment of our waking existence to a deliberate awareness of God's gracious and intimate presence, whether we're writing a sermon or working in the kitchen. One must discipline himself to be mindful of God's constant and immediate accessibility. The result is a life of peace and joy, even in the face of a painful death.

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But in grace, God steps in to pay the price. To overcome man’s sin and ensure his purposes, the Creator becomes covenant Redeemer. Through his covenant promises, the Lord restores what Adam failed to do. God makes a people and a place through the covenant all the while keeping his promises to humanity. As evangelicals, we talk a lot about the presence of God but seldom look to the Bible to see what it is. When we do, we find that it is first and foremost a theme on which the story of Scripture hinges. If we read our Bibles though we begin to see a two-fold pattern. Indeed the life of Brother Lawrence is testimony to his writings; his single-minded concern for God, far from leading him away from love of people, brought him closer to them. Only through a greater love of God, can we ever hope for a fuller love of all of His creation. 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.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). 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. That like the tree, all of us - in our ordinary, unoccupied state, stripped of all our endless diversions and distractions - will remain denuded of all REAL and LASTING comforts, in empty surroundings, unless God steps in.

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When we are in doubt, God never fails to show us the right way to go, as long as our only goal is to please Him and show our love for Him.” 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. 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.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). 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? Attwater's was a common approach taken by many translators of this passage: "Conversation with God occurs in the depth and center of the soul," in one translation; [9] and in another, "Great would be our surprise, if we but knew what converse the soul holds at times with God." [10] And keep up your part of the inner dialogue with God - for Brother Lawrence ingenuously says His answers will always come, and provide you with the protection and comfort of spiritual foliage, and with the real and continual fruits of the Spirit.