We are reflecting these days on (BL) Brother Lawrence’s two monumental works: The Practice of the Presence of God and The Spiritual Maxims. As I have mentioned earlier in previous blogs, these have been companions of mine for decades and have helped me immeasurably in my journey with God in my life. I recommend these two works to you, most often published together in a small and simple volume. They are not something to be read, but rather to be included in your daily reflections with the Lord, along with the Scriptures. They are to be chewed and tasted and imbedded word by word into your heart. They are your friend!
BL tells us that his entire life was for the love of God. Jesus, Himself, spoke of the centrality of love, especially when a Pharisee asked Him what was the greatest commandment: “One of the Pharisees, a lawyer, asked Jesus a question to test Jesus. 36 ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ 37 And Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” Matthew 22: 35-39. This echos what the Apostle Paul wrote in his 1st Letter to the Corinthians: “And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love” 1 Corinthians 13:13. BL said that he lived only for the love of God. Now obviously we don’t have to prove to one another how utterly central to living life is loving God. But we have to translate our love of God into our daily actions. We have to show, we have to live by our next choice in life, that we truly love God. This means we have to tame our mind and our thoughts so that we always act out of our love for God whether our choices are right or wrong. Beginning now, beginning today, we must do all we can to love God in everything we think and speak and choose to do.
The great struggle of my life is that I have not always done this. I have not always desired or acted out of love of God. How sad, how frightening, this is for me. I pray daily that God will shower me with His loving mercy, that He will forgive me and, in the remains days and hours of my life, I will do everything from love of God. My prayer is that I will not put sin between God and me, and that God will shower me with His love and mercy and most sufficient grace. I pray that both you and I will make this our daily prayer: Lord, today let me not put sin between You and me. Rather, let me follow You today because of my great love for You.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“We love because He first loved us” 1 John 4:19.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” Deuteronomy 6:5.
“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”
Romans 5:8.
“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” 1 John 4:16.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments” John 14:15.
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” Galatians 2:20.
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