“The Lord is here” - 1 November 2006

 

 

 

 “We must study ever to regard God and his glory in all that we do, and say, and undertake.  This is the end that we should set before ourselves, to offer God a sacrifice of perfect worship in this life, as we hope to do through all eternity.”  Brother Lawrence.

If we are to grow in the practice of the presence of God, then we need not just be disciplined about reminding ourselves of that presence, but disciplined also in confessing and cutting out the things in our lives that are offensive to him.

R. T. Kendall, in his reflections on the anointing of the Holy Spirit, notes that the Spirit is like a gentle dove.  He uses this biblical image of the dove in describing the Spirit’s response to sin, be it in bad attitudes or wrong actions.  He paints the picture of the Spirit gently and quietly taking flight and distancing himself from us – only with confession and repentance do we again experience the closeness of the Spirit as he draws closer to us.

It’s analogy of course, but a helpful one, our wrongdoing, our attitudes can and do dull our experience of the divine.  But Brother Lawrence also spoke of another angle of confession that intrigued me.

Of seeking and meeting God in each moment he wrote, “These acts of worship are to be prompted and guided by faith.  We must unfeignedly believe that God is in very fact within our souls, and that we must worship him and love him and serve him in spirit and truth…”

But he then suggested that as we come to remind ourselves of the reality of God’s presence with us we must first confess where we have denied that presence and failed to experience it.  We must confess unbelief for where have lived as if he hasn’t been with us.

So today, again, set those “markers” to remind you to enter the reality of his presence.   And as you do, start by confessing your unbelief for failing to notice his presence at other points in the day.

For Brother Lawrence this was a discipline that in time opened the way to a deep and lasting experience of God with him in whatever he did.