The Joy of His Presence

One of the themes in last week’s sermon was having an awareness of God’s presence. I do not know a better book on the topic than The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. The book is actually letters written by him or his friend, Joseph de Beaufort, giving advice to young clergymen.

Here is an excerpt from the first letter:

“Brother Lawrence insisted that it is necessary to always be aware of God’s presence by talking with Him throughout each day. To think that you 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.”

After work I usually go and hit the gym. Today was no different, at least at first. I usually start with a run to warm up and blast some Kanye and Linkin Park on my ipod. After I finished my run I began to think about the presence of God. I decided instead of listening to hard rock while I hit the weights I would switch to some Chris Tomlin. My “cool” side would bag on people working out to Tomlin. Truthfully, Chris Tomlin doesn’t really scream, “Finish that last rep foo!” but whatever.

Then the song Wonderful Maker came on, and I started listening to the lyrics and thought about God’s transcendence and immanence and how both attributes are beautifully displayed in the song:

You spread out the skies over empty space
 (transcendence)
Said "let there be light" 
(transcendence)
Into a dark and formless world Your light was born 

(transcendence/immanence)

You spread out Your arms over empty hearts
 (immanence)
Said "let there be light" 

(transcendence)
Into a dark and hopeless world Your Son
was born


 (transcendence/immanence)

You made the world and saw that it was good
 (transcendence)
You sent Your only son for You are good 


(immanence)

What a wonderful Maker 
(transcendence)
What a wonderful Savior 



(immanence)
How majestic Your whispers
 (transcendence/immanence)
And how humble Your love
 (immanence)
With a strength like no other 

(transcendence)
And the heart of a Father 

(immanence)
How majestic Your whispers 
(transcendence/immanence)
What a wonderful God

 (immanence)

No eye has fully seen, how beautiful the cross 

(transcendence/immanence)
And we have only heard 

(immanence)
The faintest whispers of how great You are (transcendence/immanence)

As I was meditating on this song I was truly in awe of who God was. This struck me because I was hitting the weights during this time and even began to pray between sets. The quote by Brother Lawrence came alive in an instant. Yes, God is with us in every part of the day. We only need to be aware of that fact in order to experience it.

Two things hit me like a punch in the stomach. First, it was a reminder of how Wonderful the Lord really is, and I have no claim on anything in this life but to simply honor Him. Second, I felt like I’ve been missing out all this time because I thought I had to “abandon conversation with Him in order to deal with the world.” Yes, that is “erroneous.” Through the whole time I was working out, I was enjoying the presence of God. I even finished my reps listening to Chris Tomlin.