Brother Lawrence continues with Practices 4-6 for living in the presence of God, taken from his Spiritual Maxims.
4. It is beneficial to stop for a brief moment, as often as is practical to do so, to “adore God deep within our hearts and take pleasure in Him.” Brother Lawrence notes that when we inwardly return to God we rid ourselves of self-love without the conscious awareness we are doing so.
5. Practicing the presence of God must be done in faith, trusting that God is in our hearts. As Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well: “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”- John 4:24
6. We must honestly assess which virtues we need most as well as those virtues that are hardest for us to acquire. We also need to be aware of the specific sins which seem most problematic for us. Brother Lawrence concludes:
“We must run back to God with complete confidence when an occasion for spiritual warfare arises, . . . asking Him lovingly for the help of His grace. By doing this, in God we will discover all virtues without having any ourselves.”
Tomorrow’s blog: “Worshipping God in spirit and in truth”
