The Presence of God

   Since I’m neither disciplined enough nor creative enough to come up with daily devotions on my own, I depend on a prayer book or two that include readings and suggested scriptures. That way I only have to deal with setting aside the time to read them and pray, which is enough of a challenge. Sometimes the books themselves can be confusing, like when they say the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost was between June 12 and 18, but that isn’t true this year. I think that was the Second Sunday.

   Anyway, the Psalm of Petition for the week included this:

      Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud,
      Be gracious to me and answer me!
  “Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!”
      Your face, Lord, do I seek.
      Do not hide your face from me.  –Ps 27
   It takes a conviction I don’t always have to be sure that God is ever-present. I’m in good company, I guess; the Psalmist often felt abandoned by God (“How long must your servant wait?”), but would then do an about-face: (“I sought the Lord and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears”).
   Brother Lawrence, in Practicing the Presence of God, makes the conviction sound doable. Writing about himself in the third person he says, “You must know, his continual care has been, for above forty years past that he has spent in religion, to be always with GOD; and to do nothing, say nothing, and think nothing which may displease Him; and this without any other view than purely for the love of Him, and because He deserves infinitely more.
   “He is now so accustomed to that Divine presence, that he receives from it continual succors upon all occasions. For about thirty years, his soul has been filled with joys so continual, and sometimes so great, that he is forced to use means to moderate them, and to hinder their appearing outwardly.”
   Brother Lawrence’s approach is fairly conditional: as long as one’s attention is focused on God and one lives righteously, God will be present. Deuteronomy gives us a little more latitude: Be strong and of good courage …  for it is the Lord your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.”
   It takes a bit of Biblical chutzpah to claim the verse for our own. Moses was speaking to Israel just before he died, and the tribes were about to cross the Jordan into the promised land. Can we claim the instructions as our own? Why not - we claim Jesus' words to the disciples as ours all the time.
   So does one need to be constantly pleasing to God for him to show up (Brother Lawrence), or is God already present, and we need to find strength and courage (Deut 31:6) in the Lord?
   I prefer the latter; I’m no more disciplined in my focus on God than I am on setting aside time for devotions and prayer. Besides, it’s uplifting to know I’m never alone, never abandoned or forsaken by God.
   And if someone asks me who’s there, I can always say, “Us.”