In his book The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence wrote about 'a continual exercise of love'. Bro Lawrence decided that he would 'make loving God the purpose of everything he did'. What if we decided to do this too?
Bro Lawrence also wrote that 'our only business is to love God, and delight ourselves in Him'. What if we went about our day, not focused on worldly or selfish things, not on pleasing others, or even serving others (which isn't a bad thing), not focused on building ourselves up, or even just getting through the day, but purely on loving God in everything we do. Everything. What would the difference be in our friendships, our marriages, our workplaces, or our time alone, if we were solely focused on loving God? Not even practicing spiritual disciplines is important or meaningful if we are not loving God first. We need to be motivated to do anything and everything, first, by loving God. We need to love Him in acts such as picking up a piece on litter in the park, washing the dishes, writing an email, interacting with others, going to work, eating, exercising, driving, making big or small decisions... anything and everything. We must be motivated by loving God. It seems so simple to say, but it is something that takes focus and discipline to do successfully.
Maybe I am struck and challenged by this because I personally have not had this as my one focus recently, but whatever the reason, it is something that I would love to pursue (and challenge you to do too). As Bro Lawrence wrote, 'all we need is a heart for going to God, resolutely determined to apply itself to nothing but him - just for His sake - just for love of Him'.
