I drove to Maryland this past weekend to celebrate Mother’s Day with my Mom and spend time with my family. It was a great time and I’m so glad I went. Since it takes over four hours to get there I had plenty of time to think and ponder (and sing of course).
I was thinking about the possible reactions that my Musing from last week may have caused when I encouraged spending more time with the Lord in a personal quiet time. Here are some I came up with:
· Great! I’m already overwhelmed and you want me to add something else?
· That’s what religion is all about—do this, do that, take…take…take.
· I can’t add one more thing to my “to do” list—you just don’t understand.
Do any of these resonate with you?
These reactions reminded me of a story Pastor John Piper told at a conference I attended in Atlanta at least 12 years ago. He used the illustration of giving his wife flowers. {This will be completely my version of the story that he gave because I can’t remember it word for word.} He gets a beautiful spring bouquet of flowers and takes them to the front door of the house to surprise his wife. When she opens the door to see her loving husband with these beautiful flowers, she giggles in delight. His response? “It was nothing really—after all I am your husband and it was my duty.” Ouch!!
How special do you think those flowers were to his wife now? I imagine that as she looked at them throughout the week she may feel belittled and even devalued.
However, what if he had said something like this—“These flowers show my deep love and devotion to you. You are the woman that I love more than any other person on the planet. You are beautiful, wonderful and enjoyable to be around and I got these because mere words cannot express how much I appreciate you.” Wow!! Now she feels special and valued and will probably skip around the house when she catches a glimpse of these flowers.
If your attitude toward God and spending time with Him is because of a sense of duty, how special do you think that is to God? “OK, God, Melanie said I have to spend ten minutes with you so here I am. Let’s hurry this up so I can check the box.” He already knows your heart.
He wants our sincere devotion and praise. It should not take us long to be able to come up with areas to praise the Lord. Even in trials and hard times there are blessings that abound—a beautiful sunrise or sunset, birds singing, flowers blooming, or maybe the smile or hug from a young child.
If you have difficulty coming up with something, then pray a Psalm to the Lord. The Psalms are simply songs written by various authors. They are not all praises but here are some that are: Psalm 7, 8, 9, 18, 19 and 30. There are 150 of them all together in various lengths so you won’t run out any time soon.
So, as you consider the discipline of spending time with the Lord each day, take note of your “heart condition”. If you sincerely want to get to know God better then begin by praying that your love for Him will grow and that your sincere desire is to be closer to Him. Like I said, he already knows your heart.
1 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.–Psalm 139:1-4 (New International Version)
May God richly bless you as you strive to know Him.
Have a great day!