The Practice of the Presence of God

"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

http://www.practicegodspresence.com/

Brother Lawrence was a crippled monk who found God every day, not as a weird mystic, but a simple man who surrendered daily, and enjoyed the presence of God.

Last summer my son and I read this modern paraphrase of an ancient classic.  With each chapter, I tried to find the "truth", the one sentence that really summarized the chapter.  Sometimes we picked two.  One year later we still have this list posted on our back door.

An easy read, a more challenging to-do.  Ask yourself... Am I "practicing" or just hanging around? 

1. Keep a close watch on motives and impulses
2. Please don’t let me offend you Lord
3. Don’t panic in temptation, just call out to God
4. His light can slice through the dark, when we only want to follow him
5. Please grant me the grace to stay and continue in your presence
6. I’m clay God, mold me! (this one is personal :)
   
7. Those who want to know God’s full presence need to have their heart emptied of worldly stuff
8. God is never going to let someone totally sold out to him really enjoy the other stuff, the trinkets of life
9. Habit? Give him your heart, not once, but daily
10. My king is full of mercy and goodness. Instead of making me feel bad, he hugs me with his love and invites me to dinner.
11. He’s protecting me…nothing scares me anymore.
12. A quick prayer is an act of worship
13. The job of our wills is to bring us back to a peaceful place
14. Pleasing God is our only real job, everything else is silly and self centered
15. It would be rude if friends stopped by to visit and you left them alone, wouldn’t it. So why do we ignore God?
16. God sends pain; He’s the only one who can cure it. Often he’ll go so far as to make us physically sick to cure spiritual diseases.
17. I owe everything I’ve gained to God’s mercy and goodness because we (and especially I!) can’t do anything without him.
18. Don’t forget God. Tell him how much you love him even when you’re sick or down.
19. Hang in there and don’t ask God to take away the pain. Instead remember how much you love him and then ask for strength to bear all that he wants for as long as he decides.
20. We need to build our hearts into spiritual temples so we always have a place to adore him, to tell him how much we love him.
21. If we only understood how much he loves us we’d always be ready to accept both the bitter and the sweet from his hand.
22. The more we know him, the more we want to know him better.
23. He lives in us, so we don’t need to look outside ourselves or anywhere else.
24. Shame on us for being rude by ignoring God because we’re busy with so many little things that don’t please him and maybe even offend him.
25. In fact, the outside world, human nature, and Satan combine to assault us.
26. God lives in your deepest heart and soul
27. It’s important to look at ourselves to learn our weaknesses, where we need to grow and which qualities will be hardest to develop.
28. Worship God in truth is confessing that there’s a grand canyon between him and us, but that if we say yes to him, he’ll make us more like him.
29. Actual union lifts the soul up to a place where we have no choice but to love God, worship Him, and hold on to him with tender hugs I can’t even describe.
30. But his very heart and soul are held up to the heights of God, who is his rest and the bull’s-eye of his soul.
31. Things of the world hardly ever cause a ripple or disturb our inner peace
32. Because the heart begins and ends all that we do.
33. Mold my heart to match yours God!
34. I’m all yours Lord
35. Please fix his heart
36. Show me how to change
37. Thank you Lord
38. When we pray like this we find hat we’re on the way to praying all the time.

The Reason

"The Reason"
I found this pool table video then fell in love with the song.....its a song about someone who realizes they are not perfect, that they need to change because they have hurt the one they love, the one who defines their purpose in life ("a reason to be").  Is this a song you can sing this to Jesus, ..."change who I used to be, start over new, and the reason is you"? 

I watched this amazing video, and marveled at what someone taught themselves to do with a pool cue.  Then I noticed it's a small room, he's all alone, and begin to wonder....has this guy devoted his life to this?  Is shooting pool his "reason to be"? 

Have we been hurt so badly that we run to something to fill the hurt,  made enormous sacrifices to become "good" at something (a job, friends, knowledgeable) or done something else not so good, instead of the right thing? I have done both of these time and again, and forgotten the truth that He loves us, and we are changed not because of what we accomplish, but as we behold him, we are transformed from one degree of glory to another 2 Cor 3:18. 
 
The Reason
by Hoobastank

I'm not a perfect person
There's many things I wish I didn't do
But I continue learning
I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know

I've found out a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is you

I'm sorry that I hurt you
It's something I must live with everyday
And all the pain I put you through
I wish that I could take it all away
And be the one who catches all your tears
Thats why i need you to hear

I've found out a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is You

and the reason is You [x3]

I'm not a perfect person
I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know

I've found out a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is you

I've found a reason to show
A side of me you didn't know
A reason for all that I do
And the reason is you