ELEVENTH LETTER

It is not my prayer that you may be delivered from your pains. Instead, I pray GOD to grant you strength and patience so that you may bear them as long as He pleases. Take comfort in Him who holds you fast to the cross. God will release you when He sees fit. Suffer in His company, and seek the strength from Him to endure as much and as long as He deems necessary for you. Men of the world cannot comprehend these truths, nor is it surprising, since they suffer according to their nature, not like Christians. Sickness is viewed as a pain to nature, and not as a gift from GOD. When viewed through that lens, they find nothing but grief and distress in it. However, those who think of sickness as an act of GOD’s mercy, and a means of their salvation, commonly find satisfaction and consolation in it.

It would be nice for you to understand that GOD is often closer to us (in some sense), and more effective in our lives, in sickness than in health. Don’t rely on anyone else; for, according to my understanding, He holds your cure in His hands. Then, put your total trust in Him. You will soon see the results of it in your recovery, which we often delay by placing greater faith in physics than in GOD.

No matter what remedies you use, they will only be effective to the extent that He permits. He alone can heal pains that come from Him. Diseases of the body may be sent by Him to cure diseases of the soul. Find comfort in the sovereign Physician of the soul and body. Be satisfied with the position that GOD has placed you in: however happy you may consider me, I envy you. I would find pain and suffering a paradise if I were able to experience them with my GOD; and I would find the greatest pleasures to be hell if I could not enjoy them with Him. My only consolation would be to suffer something for His sake.

In a short time, I will go to Him. The one thing that comforts me in this life is that I now see Him by faith; and I see Him in such a way that I sometimes might say, “I don’t believe anymore, but I see.”. In that assurance and that practice of faith, I will live and die with Him. The only comfort for your affliction lies with GOD always. May He be with you always. I am at your service.

Yours, &c.

The Practice of The Presence Of God: Study Journal with Spiritual Maxims Kindle Edition

3 in 1 – 30 days Study Journal – the actual book of Brother Lawrence, the Practice of the Presence of God and the Spiritual Maxims