Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Habit Forming, by Lon Alderman

Psalm 85:7-9

Show us your unfailing love, O LORD,
and grant us your salvation.

I will listen to what God the LORD will say;
he promises peace to his people, his saints—
but let them not return to folly.

Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.

I'm currently taking a 40-Day virtual journey with 9 other men from around the country. We are investing time, energy, and prayer (for 40 days) in the development of healthy habits in the area of our spiritual and physical life. A theme is emerging related to our efforts to hear God speak.

One of the men presented the following passage. I am taking the liberty of passing it on as today's Build UP. This comes from a book entitled, "The Practice of the Presence of God"

Enjoy!

Brother Lawrence insisted that, to be constantly aware of God’s presence, it is necessary to form the habit of continually talking with Him throughout each day. To think that we must abandon conversation with Him in order to deal with the world is erroneous. Instead, as we nourish our souls by seeing God in His exaltation, we will derive a great joy at being His.

1 comment:

Jarvis said...

Brother Lawrence said, "...it is necessary to form the habit of continually talking with Him throughout each day."

As someone who is in the human services field, it has only become more acute to me how important it is to me to talk directly to the person I desire to know better. I know what you're thinking--duh? It does seem obvious, and no one in their right mind would be in someone's presence for the purpose of social interchange, and then ignore that very person, but that is what many of us do in the presence of God who is in our presence 24/7.

Now I'm a pretty engaging person, and love interacting and hearing about the details of people's lives. However, I am also at the top of the 'Guilty List' when it comes to my mind wandering (through various diversions) even when I know God is close. I have to continually fight the 'out of sight, out of mind' thing, even within the on-purpose act of 'getting alone with God'. I suppose it troubles me deeply that I would have to develop a habit of talking with my God whom I love, but the discipline of doing that would seem to be an act of honoring and a form of worship in itself. After all, the Lord knows it's our time and energy that we devote to the things (and people) that are important to us. If we could be as gracious with ourselves as the Lord is with us, then I believe we will do well in the pursuit of this discipline, this act of love.