Brother Lawrence: dealing with our sins

Thursday, February 12, 2026
    Commemoration of Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (Nicolas Herman), spiritual writer, 1691
Meditation:
    ... let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
    —Isaiah 55:7 (ESV)
Quotation:
    [He said:] That all possible kinds of mortification, if they were void of the love of God, could not efface a single sin. That we ought, without anxiety, to expect the pardon of our sins from the blood of Jesus Christ, only endeavoring to love Him with all our hearts. That GOD seemed to have granted the greatest favors to the greatest sinners, as more signal monuments of His mercy.
    ... Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), The Practice of the Presence of God, New York, Revell, 1895, Second Conversation, p. 12-13 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 55:7; Matt. 10:37-38; Luke 7:41-47; John 21:15-17; Gal. 5:6; 1 Tim. 1:15; 1 John 4:19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I rely on Your mercy more than ever. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: knowing sin and weakness

Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Meditation:
    The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
    —Psalm 51:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    Our hearts deceive us, because we leave them to themselves, are absent from them, taken up in outward things, in outward rules and forms of living and praying. But this kind of praying, which takes all its thoughts and words only from the state of our hearts, makes it impossible for us to be strangers to ourselves. The strength of every sin, the power of every evil temper, the most secret workings of our hearts, the weakness of any or all our virtues, is with a noonday clearness forced to be seen, as soon as the heart is made our prayer-book, and we pray nothing, but according to what we read, and find there.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749], London: E. Justins for Ogles, Duncan, and Cochran, 1816, p. 162 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 51:17; Eph. 1:18-19; 1 Thess. 5:17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You will not turn away from a prayer from my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: delivery from deceitfulness

Tuesday, February 10, 2026
    Commemoration of Scholastica, Abbess of Plombariola, c.543
Meditation:
    Hear, O LORD, my righteous plea; listen to my cry. Give ear to my prayer—it does not rise from deceitful lips.
    —Psalm 17:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    For your heart is your life, and your life can only be altered by that which is the real working of your heart. And if your prayer is only a form of words, made by the skill of other people, such a prayer can no more change you into a good man, than an actor upon the stage, who speaks kingly language, is thereby made to be a king: whereas one thought, or word, or look, towards God, proceeding from your own heart, can never be without its proper fruit, or fail of being a real good to your soul. Again, another great and infallible benefit of this kind of prayer is this; it is the only way to be delivered from the deceitfulness of your own hearts. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749], London: E. Justins for Ogles, Duncan, and Cochran, 1816, p. 161-162 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 17:1; Jer. 17:9; Eph. 4:22; 1 John 5:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my prayer is my own, seeking You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: prayer from the heart

Monday, February 9, 2026
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”
    —Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    No vice can harbor in you, no infirmity take any root, no good desire can languish, when once your heart is in this method of prayer; never beginning to pray, till you first see how matters stand with you; asking your heart what it wants, and having nothing in your prayers, but what the known state of your heart puts you upon demanding, saying, or offering, unto God. A quarter of an hour of this prayer, brings you out of your closet a new man; your heart feels the good of it; and every return of such a prayer, gives new life and growth to all your virtues, with more certainty, than the dew refreshes the herbs of the field: whereas, overlooking this true prayer of your own heart, and only at certain times taking a prayer that you find in a book, you have nothing to wonder at, if you are every day praying, and yet every day sinking farther and farther under all your infirmities. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749], London: E. Justins for Ogles, Duncan, and Cochran, 1816, p. 161 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 7:7-8; Eph. 2:18; Heb. 10:19-22; 1 John 3:21-22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I seek You, for I am broken. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: the inward prayerbook

Sunday, February 8, 2026
Meditation:
    And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
    —Philippians 4:19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    The way to be a man of prayer, and be governed by its spirit, is not to get a book full of prayers; but the best help you can have from a book, is to read one full of such truths, instructions, and awakening informations, as force you to see and know who, and what, and where you are; that God is your all; and that all is misery, but a heart and life devoted to him. This is the best outward prayer-book you can have, as it will turn you to an inward book, and spirit of prayer in your heart, which is a continual longing desire of the heart after God, his divine life, and Holy Spirit. When, for the sake of this inward prayer, you retire at any time of the day, never begin till you know and feel, why and wherefore you are going to pray; and let this why and wherefore, form and direct everything that comes from you, whether it be in thought or in word. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749], London: E. Justins for Ogles, Duncan, and Cochran, 1816, p. 160 (see the book)
    See also Phil. 4:19; Ps. 73:28; Eph. 3:12-15; Heb. 4:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I pray with confidence before You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: if you can't pray about it...

Saturday, February 7, 2026
Meditation:
    The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.
    —Matthew 12:35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Consider yourself as always wrong, as having gone aside, and lost your right path, when any delight, desire, or trouble, is suffered to live in you, that cannot be made a part of this prayer of the heart to God. For nothing so infallibly shows us the true state of our heart, as that which gives us either delight or trouble; for as our delight and trouble is, so is the state of our heart: if therefore you are carried away with any trouble or delight, that has not an immediate relation to your progress in the divine life, you may be assured your heart is not in its right state of prayer to God... [Continued tomorrow]
    ... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749], London: E. Justins for Ogles, Duncan, and Cochran, 1816, p. 159 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 12:35; 1 Cor. 13:1; Gal. 5:22,23; Heb. 9:11-14
Quiet time reflection:
    Cleanse my heart and life, that I might pray before You, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Robertson: hypocrisy

Friday, February 6, 2026
Meditation:
    Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
    —Matthew 23:27-28
Quotation:
    I will tell you what to hate. Hate hypocrisy—hate cant—hate intolerance, oppression, injustice—hate Pharisaism. Hate them as Christ hated them, with a deep, living, godlike hatred.
    ... Frederick W. Robertson (1816-1853), Sermons, v. II, Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1861, p. 253 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 23:27-28; Ps. 51;6; Jer. 17:9-10; Matt. 6:1-7; 23:5; Luke 16:15; 20:47; Phil. 2:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me not to hate the person but only the sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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