Practicing God’s Presence
Developing a Deepening Devotional Life
Meet Brother Lawrence: Born in 1611. Lay-
brother in Carmelite community in Paris. Became
well known for his remarkable and serene faith as
he focused his life on “practicing the presence of
God.” Sought-out by church dignitaries and
royalty for his guidance. Summary of his
principle: Live as though God is beside you and
with you all the time—as indeed he is. Seek to do
what he wants, as and when he commands it, and
make his command your joy and chief pleasure.
The man who lives like that will be fully human,
completely Christian and genuinely happy. His
thoughts were recorded by others who conversed
Gleanings from Brother Lawrence:
When I was eighteen, I was out for a walk in
the woods, trying to think through some problems
that had been on my mind for months. All my life
I had believed in God and wanted to please him. I
had assumed that this was done by deliberate acts
of worship, by prayer and study, by discipline and
self-control. And I was discouraged because,
instead of getting better as I got older, I found
myself actually getting worse. The harder I tried,
the more I failed.
I was walking along, thinking about these
things, when I came to a very beautiful chestnut
tree. I’d been watching it all year—the leaves
coming fresh and green from the buds, the flowers
opening up in early summer. . . . And now it was
loaded with chestnuts.
I sat under the tree, and suddenly, like a ray of
light bursting in my mind, I got the answer: In the
winter, this old tree was bare, stripped of leaves,
apparently dead. With the spring the new life
flow-ed up from the soil through its trunk and
branches, reaching each twig and pushing out the
fresh leaves and the new growth. Then, later, the
flowers and finally the fruit appeared, until on this
still, sunny September day I could sit in its shade
and see the wonderful crop of chestnuts on its
branches.
I was like the tree in winter. Myself, I was
nothing—dead, barren, without fruit. And, like the
tree, I couldn’t change by struggling or sheer
effort. I, too, must wait for the hand of my Maker
to touch me with life, and change my winter of
barren unfruitfulness into first the spring of new
with him and in letters he wrote to people who
sought his insights.
Meet Frank Laubach: Born in 1884. Missionary
to the Philippines and pioneer in the literacy
movement whose methods are still widely
followed. He began to practice the presence of
God at age forty-five. When he died, forty years
later, he was one of the most widely known and
best loved men of the twentieth century. Recorded
his thoughts and experiences in letters to his
father, in his journals, and in books.
life and then the summer and fall of flower and
fruit. It is simply believing that God has the power
and the will to do all things well for us, if we will
only submit to his loving, patient rule. And that
nothing we can do—beyond trusting him—will
speed up his will or make things happen which he
isn’t ready to do in us.
At that moment, all the efforts I had put into
trying to please God were swallowed up in an
enormous sense of love for him. The One who
patiently led the trees and the plants through their
seasons would also lead me, if I would only
submit to his loving and powerful hand. I did.
Conscious and deliberate submission to the
will of God: “I here and now submit myself again
totally to you, without any reserve, not claiming
your presence as a right but resigning myself
completely to your good and perfect will.”
A frequent prayer: “O my God, Here I am. All
that I am is yours. Make of me whatever you
want.” Then it seems to me as if God, contented
with these few words, settles down again in the
depth and center of my being.
We are like millionaires living on welfare.
God has so much to give and yet we are content to
pick up spiritual trifles. Our blindness and
disobedience hinder him from working in our
lives. They are like a dam built across a flowing
stream, stopping its course and cutting off the life-
giving supplies of water to the thirsty ground
below. But when God finds a heart that is ready,
open and trusting, the obstacle is swept aside and
the pent-up waters flow as never before, surging

into every corner and hidden place, bringing light
and joy. We stop the current mainly by the way
we undervalue God’s gifts. Simply to want him,
above everything else, is the way to set the waters
Gleanings from Frank Laubach:
January 3, 1930. This has been the finest year of
my life—and that is glorious! And this is what I
do witness. I have done nothing but open
windows—God has done the rest. There has been
a succession of marvelous experiences of the
presence of God. I feel, as I look back over the
year, that it would have been impossible to have
held much more without breaking with sheer joy.
It was the lonesomest year, in some ways the
hardest year, of my life, but the most glorious. I
resolved that I would succeed better this year with
my experiment of filling every minute full of the
thought of God than I succeeded last year.
I have started to live all my waking moments
in conscious listening to the inner voice, asking
with-out ceasing, “What, Father, do you desire
said? What, Father, do you desire this minute.” It
is clear that this is exactly what Jesus was doing
all day every day. I am feeling God in each
movement, by an act of will—willing that He
shall direct these fingers that now strike this
typewriter—willing that He shall pour through my
steps as I walk— willing that He shall direct my
words as I speak, and my very jaws as I eat! I am
striving to be utter-ly free from everybody, free
from my own self, but completely enslaved to the
will of God every moment of this day.
January 29, 1930. I feel simply carried along
each hour, doing my part in a plan which is far
beyond myself. This sense of cooperation with
God in little things is what so astonishes my. I
need something, and turn round to find it waiting
for me. I must work, to be sure, but there is God
working along with me. My part is to live this
hour in continuous inner conversation with God
and in perfect responsiveness to His will. God
takes care of all the rest.
March 1, 1930. I do not need to strain at all to
find opportunity. It piles in upon me as the waves
roll over the beach, and yet there is time to do
something about each opportunity.
March 23, 1930. Can we have that contact
with God all the time? All the time awake, fall
asleep in His arms, and awaken in His presence?
Our mind is a flowing something. It oscillates. We
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flowing. The river flows wherever there is low
land cleared and ready before it. The thirsty land
does nothing but drink up the goodness.
do not think one thing. We always think of the
relationship of at least two things, and more often
of three or more things simultaneously. So my
problem is this: Can I bring the Lord back in my
mind-flow every few seconds so that God shall
always be in my mind?
April 19, 1930. At the moment I feel
something “let go” inside, lo, God is here! It is a
heart-melting “here-ness,” a lovely whispering of
father to child, and the reason I did not have it
before, was because I had failed to let go.
May 24, 1930. This concentration upon God is
strenuous, but everything else has ceased to be so.
I think more clearly, I forget less frequently.
Things which I did with a strain before, I now do
easily and with no effort whatsoever. I worry
about nothing, and lose no sleep. I walk on air a
good part of the time. Even the mirror reveals a
new light in my eyes and face. I no longer feel in a
hurry about anything. Everything goes right. Each
minute I meet calmly as though it were not
important. Nothing can go wrong except one
thing. That is that God my slip from my mind if I
do not keep on my guard. If He is there, the
universe is with me. My task is simple and clear.
June. 1, 1930. Do you suppose that through all
eternity the price we will need to pay for keeping
God will be that we must endlessly be giving Him
away? Last Monday was the most completely
successful day of my life to date. . . .I remember
how as I looked at people with a love God gave,
they looked back and acted as though they wanted
to go with me. I felt then that for a day I saw a
little of that marvelous pull that Jesus had as He
walked along the road day after day “God-
intoxicated” and radiant with the endless
communion of His soul with God.
October 12, 1930. If our destiny is to grow on
and on and on, into some far more beautiful
creatures than we are now, that means we need to
have the shells broken quite frequently so that we
can grow.
September 18, 1931. I choose to look at
people through God, using God as my glasses,
colored with His love for them. . . . I must learn a

continuous silent conversation of heart to heart
speaking with God while looking into other eyes
and listening to other voices. . . . This simple
practice requires only a gentle pressure of the will.
It grows easier as the habit becomes fixed.
How is [friendship with God] to be achieved?
Precisely as any friendship is achieved. By doing
things together. The depth and intensity of the
friendship will depend upon the variety and extent
of the things we do and enjoy together. . . .
Friends must walk together; they cannot long
stand still together, for that means death to
friendship and to life. . . . So we may grow into
closer love with God by widening into His
interests, and thinking His thoughts and sharing
His enterprises. . . . We shall not become like
Christ until we give Him more time. . . . Christ
“chose them [the disciples],” the Bible says, “that
they might be with Him,” 168 hours a week!
This practicing the presence of Christ takes all
our time, yet does not take from our work. It takes
Christ into our enterprises and makes them more
successful. Practicing the presence of God is not
on trial. It has already been proven by countless
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saints. Indeed, the spiritual giants of all ages have
known it. “Pray without ceasing,” said Paul, “in
everything make your wants known unto God.”
“As many as are led by the spirit of God, these are
the sons of God.” It is a practice as old as Enoch,
who “walked with God.” It is a way of living
which nearly everybody knows and nearly
everybody has ignored.
The notion that religion is dull, stupid and
sleepy is abhorrent to God, for He has created
infinite variety and He loves to surprise us. If you
are weary of some sleepy form of devotion,
probably God is as weary of it as you are. Shake
out of it, and approach Him in one of the
countless fresh directions.
Closer than a Brother, Brother Lawrence edited
by David Winter, Harold Shaw Publishers,
Wheaton, IL, 1971. Practicing His Presence,
Brother Lawrence and Frank Laubach edited by
Gene Edwards, The Seed Sowers, Beaumont, TX,
1978.