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Thoughts of God

Love Mercy, Do Justice, and Walk Humbly with God

  • Welcome
    • Jesus and the Jewish Festivals
      • Jesus and Shalosh Regalim – Three Jewish Pilgrimage Festivals
      • Palm Sunday
      • Observing the Pascal Lamb
      • Pesach – Passover – Crucifixion – Unleavened Bread
      • Bikkurim – “First Fruits”
      • S’firat HaOmer – “Counting The Omer”
      • Shavuot – “Weeks” – A Week of Weeks
    • Select Reading
      • THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD – Table of Content
      • The Holy Spirit or Power from on High – Vol 2 by A.B. Simpson
      • Day of Heaven on Earth – AB Simpson
      • The Book of Prive Counseling – Author Unknown
      • The Cloud of Unknowing
      • William James – The Varieties of Religious Experience
    • My Purpose
      • Journal
      • Relational Theology
    • Prayer
      • Addressing God
      • Biblical Words Related to Prayer
      • Prayer, Living the Stations of the Tabernacle
    • Thoughts vs Sin

Twelfth Letter – THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD – Brother Lawrence

God has many ways of drawing us to Himself. He sometimes seems to hide Himself from us. But faith alone ought to be our support. Faith is the foundation of our confidence. We must put all our faith in God. He will not fail us in time of need. I do not know how God will dispose of me but I am always happy.

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.

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Tenth Letter – THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD – Brother Lawrence

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.

It is pleasing to see all the faith you have in God. May He increase it in you more and more. We cannot have too much trust in so good and faithful a Friend who will never fail us in this world nor in the next.

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Ninth Letter – THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD – Brother Lawrence

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?

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.

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Eighth Letter – THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD – Brother Lawrence

One way to re-collect the mind easily in the time of prayer, and preserve it more in tranquility, is not to let it wander too far at other times. Keep your mind strictly in the presence of God. Then being accustomed to think of Him often, you will find it easy to keep your mind calm in the time of prayer, or at least to recall it from its wanderings.

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.

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Seventh Letter – THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD – Brother Lawrence

You need not cry very loud. He is nearer to us than we are aware. And we do not always have to be in church to be with God. We may make an oratory of our heart so we can, from time to time, retire to converse with Him in meekness, humility, and love. Every one is capable of such familiar conversation with God, some more, some less.

Gradually become accustomed to worship Him in this way; to beg His grace, to offer Him your heart from time to time; in the midst of your business, even every moment if you can.

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Sixth Letter – THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD – Brother Lawrence

I do not say we must put any violent constraint upon ourselves. No, we must serve God in a holy freedom. We must work faithfully without trouble or disquiet, recalling our mind to God mildly and with tranquility as often as we find it wandering from Him. It is, however, necessary to put our whole trust in God.

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.

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