Francis de Sales: Living in God’s Presence, Part 1

“…There is not a place in the world in which He is not truly present; so that as birds, wherever they fly, always meet with the air, so we, wherever we go or wherever we are, always find God present.” ¹

In my previous posts on Francis de Sales, we looked at four ways to find God in the morning. Now, we turn our attention to purposely attuning ourselves to God’s presence throughout the day.

De Sales acknowledges that while most people acknowledge the idea of God’s presence, few consider it with “lively attention.” Blind men, he says, who “can’t see their prince present among them, …behave themselves…with respect when they are told of his presence. But the fact is, because they see him not, they easily forget that he is present, and having forgotten it, they still more easily lose their respect for him.”²

Ouch. Do we, too, turn our attention away so quickly? Because we can’t see him with our physical eyes, we are prone to let our hearts and thoughts wander away from him, especially when we are overwhelmed with circumstances or busyness. This, friends, is backward. If he is our source of peace, why do we move away from him instead of running toward him? In the often hectic pace of our lives, we are, in fact, too busy not to cultivate the quiet, inner peacefulness of abiding in God’s presence.

So how is this accomplished? Brother Lawrence, in The Practice of the Presence of God says, “One way to recall easily the mind in time of prayer, and to preserve it more in rest, is not to let it wander too far at other times.”³

Ah. It is a choice. A habit. A discipline. But one well worth cultivating.

Are you in need of peace today? I pray that you will fasten your gaze on Jesus, who is the Prince of Peace.

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3 (ESV)

Listen to passages of “A Devout Life”

¹De Sales, Francis. A Devout Life. Public Domain.

²Ibid.

³Brother Lawrence. The Practice of the Presence of God. Public Domain.

English Standard Version (ESV)