...by the grace of God...

Brother Lawrence (BL) tells us something important, something of which we should remind ourselves, namely, that in order to develop the habit of daily prayer and daily silence in the Presence of God we must practice diligence, especially at the beginning, in our daily prayer. For after such diligence we shall find that daily prayer and quiet meditation shall come to us without any difficulty. Pray that we will care to find God’s love for us and that His love will excite us each day of our life. Such care takes diligent effort and time at first, and then we shall discover greater ease with coming to Him!

Such diligence, as we all know, will not exclude us from pain and suffering in our life, nor will it guarantee our freedom from temptation and sin. Think about it, all good that happens in our life comes to us through the grace of God, so we ought not to trick ourselves into thinking that we have found the way to peace with Christ. We find nothing on our own. All peace and faithfulness comes to us from the grace and love of God. We must remember what John told us: “We love because He first loved us” 1 John 4:19. So pray that God will give us the grace, the strength to continue to love Him each day in our daily prayer and silence in His Presence. I love the daily prayer BL was fond of praying: Lord, I cannot do this unless You enable me! What a prayer! What truth! This is a prayer that acknowledges the grace of God, God giving us what we need, not what we deserve.

Any and all good that comes about in our daily life comes to us through the grace of God, the enabling grace of God, and our response to such grace is to pray: Thank You God! When we trip, when we fail to love God God every moment of every day, we have no one too blame except ourselves! This is, dear friends, the meaning, the theology of grace!

In our daily prayer ask God for the grace to spend time today with Him, time in his Presence, time in loving union with Him. Pray that we may this day abide in Him and in Him alone! Jesus, I need You! I love You. Come to me and help me to accept Your sufficient grace for this day. Help me to stop now and take time to be in Your loving presence. May I abide in You this day!

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner!

From the Bible:

“7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’” 2 Corinthians 12:7-9.

“God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” 2 Corinthians 9:8.

“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you”

1 Peter 5:10.

“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” Philippians 4:9.

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” Hebrews 4:16.

“But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace” Romans 11:6.