The Presence of God

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection was concerned that we let things get in the way of the simple presence of God in our lives. Zoom from the 17th Century to the 20th. Dallas Willard and Richard J. Foster wrote and taught the spiritual disciplines. They also cautioned that we don’t let practice become the end. We form the habits of spiritual practice in order that we might be reminded of God’s presence continually.

Meditation is popular right now. Meditation is a practice that has many children.

Psychologists and therapists have discovered that a mindfulness meditation practice is an effective treatment, or at least an important tool, for reducing anxiety and stress. It can also help reduce anger and help change a person’s outlook on life.

Meditation has been a practice used for more than 1,500 years by practitioners in many religious traditions as a path to enlightenment—the presence of God deeply into our life.

Those of us who have had an experience of enlightenment understand that the next step is not to go around telling everyone about it and perhaps even make a career of speaking and doing seminars or whatever. We just return to our work with a deeper sense of the presence of God.

Humans have devised sets of rules to follow in order to please God for thousands of years. Even today there are those who believe that if we only enact more laws through our governments that we can control people and make them Godly.

Brother Lawrence taught that this would be the wrong focus. Focus first on loving God and practicing the presence of God in our life. Then we do our work with a new meaning that no law would ever cause.

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