The first time I saw Brother Lawrence was on the 3rd of August, 1666. He told me that God had done him a singular favor in his conversion at the age of eighteen. During that winter, upon seeing a tree stripped of its leaves and considering that, within a little time, the leaves would be renewed and, after that, the flowers and fruit appear; Brother Lawrence received a high view of the providence and power of God which has never since been effaced from his soul. This view had perfectly set him free from the world and kindled in him such a love for God, that he could not tell whether it had increased in the forty years that he had lived since. The Practice of the Presence of GodWhere is our "high view of the providence and power of God?" As David writes in Psalm 8:
Who am I that the God of all creation would even think of me, let alone be intensely interested in my meager existence.? Yet He comes when I call. He hears when I cry. He laughs with me, listens to me, provides for me, protects me, comforts me; in short, HE loves me. As petty and insignificant as I am, He loves even me!!!LORD, our Lord, how magnificent is Your name throughout the earth! You have covered the heavens with Your majesty. Because of Your adversaries, You have established a stronghold from the mouths of children and nursing infants, to silence the enemy and the avenger. When I observe Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You set in place, what is man that You remember him, the son of man that You look after him? You made him little less than God and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him lord over the works of Your hands; You put everything under his feet: all the sheep and oxen, as well as animals in the wild, birds of the sky, and fish of the sea passing through the currents of the seas. LORD, our Lord, how magnificent is Your name throughout the earth!
In the end, isn't that the only sermon that matters?
I like the way Casting Crowns puts it:
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