Friday, September 3, 2010

A Challenge from Brother Lawrence (March 20, 2009)

In a letter in The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence writes of someone's (who I believe may be himself) thoughts about seeking God:
He complains often of our blindness, constantly crying out that we are to be pitied for our willingness to be satisfied with so little. 'God,' he says 'has infinite treasures to give us and still we are satisfied with a brief passing moment of piety; that we are blind and by our blindness we restrain the hand of God and so stop the flow of the abundance of His graces. But when He finds a soul imbued with a living faith, He pours into it His graces in abundance. It is like a torrent forcibly diverted from its usual course which having found a passage pours through irresistibly in an overwhelming flood.'...Yes, often we restrain this torrent by ignoring it.

How true! All too often, I may find myself more truly worshipping God with joy, and yet I then consider that passing glimpse of relationship and fellowship with Him sufficient, and leave without seeking more. If "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4; see also Deuteronomy 8:3), then how can I deceive myself into thinking that these "brief passing moment(s) of piety" are sufficient? Ought we not to seek God more, and not stop when He blesses us with some such moment?

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