I spent some time with the Lord this morning before I started my day, and it was short and sweet, during which I was able to tell Him of my desire to spend the day with my hand in His hand, letting Him lead me every step of today. Dear friends, I hope you spent some time with the Lord too, and if not, take a moment now, and return to Him later when He calls you to return to Him. He is our life, after all.
Now Brother Lawrence in his classics, The Practice of the Presence of God and The Spiritual Maxims, reminds us that our heart is the first thing that has life in each of us, and so it follows that the heart should have dominion or jurisdiction over everything in our life. Our heart is the first and the last thing we have to love and worship God, and the beginning and end of all our actions and choices and decisions. And BL makes these observations often in his writings because of this reason: to remind us that it is within our heart that we all ought to strive to make the habit of gazing on the the presence of God. The reason to pray each day, the reason we ought to sit in solemn silence before God who is mightily present in our life is precisely to learn to gaze, to look with our hearts, on the Lord. Who we look at in life — what we look at in life — what attracts us more than anything in life — ought to be on the Lord’s presence in our life. And it is a gazing, a looking, a focusing that resides in our heart!
Every other decision we make in life spills out from what we allow our heart to gaze upon.
This is the best understanding I know of why we pray, why we sit quietly and meditate on the presence of God each day — to allow our heart’s desire, our heart’s gaze, to rest upon the presence of God. This should be the first and greatest desire of our heart, of our life, every single day. And when we fail, we must run back to the Lord, turn our attention back on to the Lord.
There is in Luke’s Gospel, chapter 10, an amazing story about Martha and Mary. You remember the story: Jesus is on the road in His life. He has been kicked out of the Synagogues because of His tough teachings, and so one day as He is walking through the towns and villages of Galilee, He enters a village where a woman, named Martha, welcomes Him. Martha’s sister, Mary, however, chooses to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to Jesus rather than to follow Martha who ties an apron on and stands in the kitchen worrying about preparing a snack for their guest. So Martha complains to Jesus who, instead of sympathizing with Martha, congratulates Mary because Mary allows her heart to gaze on Jesus. Jesus sees where Mary’s heart is focused and says this to Martha and to you and me: Only one thing is needed in life, and Mary has chosen this one thing, to fix your gaze on Me!
Dear friends, Mary fixed her heart on the Lord, which is what you and I are called to do. Let us pray for one another that we will do the same.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life”Proverbs 4:23.
“Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God” Hebrews 3:12.
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” Psalm 95:7-8.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” Psalm 51:12.
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh”Ezekiel 36:26.
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” Psalm 37:4.
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