Practicing The Presence of God

God wants his people to see, feel and know his presence at all time. The truth is, whatever you are doing in this world, whether you are working with your mind or voice or hands; with your time or energy or money, whether you are sleeping, eating, thinking, working, you are in the presence of a watching, loving, caring, involved God. Practicing the presence of God will keep you aware of that.

The Journey // Focus: Exodus 27:20-21

Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually. The lampstand will stand in the Tabernacle, in front of the inner curtain that shields the Ark of the Covenant. Aaron and his sons must keep the lamps burning in the Lord’s presence all night. This is a permanent law for the people of Israel, and it must be observed from generation to generation.

The lamp of the Lord’s presence was to be kept burning so that the darkness never extinguished it—and this was to be done perpetually, from generation to generation. God wanted his people to see, feel and know his presence at all times. The perpetually burning lamp was one of the ways they would be reminded of this unparalleled truth that God was always with them. It would help them to practice the presence of God.

God wants that for you, too. Whatever you are doing in this world, whether you are working with your mind or voice or hands; with your time or energy or money, whether you are sleeping, eating, thinking, working, you are in the presence of a watching, loving, caring, involved God. Practicing the presence of God will keep you aware of that.

So learn to practice the presence of God, as Brother Lawrence did, a humble cook who communed with God in his ordinary, everyday tasks. He learned the art of living in the presence of God throughout the day.

His name was Nicholas Herman, born to peasant parents in Lorraine, France. Later, he entered the Discalced Carmelite monastery in Paris as Brother Lawrence. He was assigned to the monastery kitchen where, amidst the tedious chores of cooking and cleaning at the constant bidding of his superiors, he developed his rule of spirituality and work. In his Maxims, Lawrence writes, “Men invent means and methods of coming at God’s love, they learn rules and set up devices to remind them of that love, and it seems like a world of trouble to bring oneself into the consciousness of God’s presence. Yet it might be so simple. Is it not quicker and easier just to do our common business wholly for the love of him?”

For Brother Lawrence, “common business,” no matter how mundane or routine, was the medium of God’s love. The issue was not the sacredness or worldly status of the task but the motivation behind it. “Nor is it needful that we should have great things to do. . . We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before him, who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God.”

Brother Lawrence retreated to a place in his heart where the love of God made every detail of his life of surpassing value. “I began to live as if there were no one save God and me in the world.” Together, God and Brother Lawrence cooked meals, ran errands, scrubbed pots, and endured the scorn of the world.” (Christianity Today: Christian History—Brother Lawrence.

And Brother Lawrence, this humble kitchen helper, became one of the most influential Christians to ever live. I love what Lawrence said:

I am doing now what I will do for all eternity. I am blessing God, praising Him, adoring him, and loving Him with all my heart [in what I am doing].

Lawrence kept the lampstand of the Lord’s presence burning in his life by practicing the presence of God at all times in everything he did. If a poor, uneducated, unskilled kitchen aide can do it, so can you!