“The Lord is their strength” Psalm 28:8**
Long mommy-days and even longer lists of mommy-to-dos threaten adoration. They impose “schedule and demand” on my lifeline. My power cord teeters out of the socket, but the force of this against my heart is not stronger than the force of the testimony being written within.
I will praise. I will choose adoration. My kitchen counter is indiscriminate; it holds dishes from a meal a few hours previous, ingredients for the meal a few hours later, receipts, clippings, and coupons. My life is one big melting pot, and tucked in the center of that mess is a token from the Man that carries me.
His word is my water. And there is no doubt I am thirsty.
So I drink.
In adoption-preparation mode, long hours are long-gone for worship. I need to salvage minutes. A minute here, five minutes there, ten minutes of quietly folding laundry inside, while children make loud their squeals. They are all my opportunities for holy encounter. My inside weakness has become outside weakness — no longer small enough to hide, obvious to those I keep brushing up against. And without adoration my weakness is just that.
But with it, today, I am strong.
Holy pawn shop, I drop off my weakness and leave a few minutes of encounter with You, in strength.
You are are strength, Father. Your whole person embodies all that I’m not, and You offer freely. Ready to infuse any moment I ask, I lean and You uphold. You turn me around. You turn my downside upward.
And leave me wanting more of You.
The lie that I need to wait until I have again what I once had (many hours to process and prod my slow-to-learn heart), is dismissed in the few minutes I walk up the stairs adoring You instead of analyzing me.
When I come to You and worship, I leave regret-less. Not one single moment of my time given to gazing is lost. To the contrary, time is redeemed when I set my heart to adore.
I worship You, God who is strength, God of my strength, God over my weakness. You take my minutes and redeem them until, before I know it, my day has been salvaged and there is a beautiful break in the clouds.
I leave rejoicing, ready to return again soon to adoration.
To this new breathing treatment that is You.
**So what do I do with these posts, you ask, other than just read them? First, if you haven’t yet, read: Why I Adore to give you a context for this little space on my blog. (This post also gives context.)
If you are compelled, I invite you to participate. Set up a space and time in your own life to begin adoring. Over laundry or dinner dishes, on your commute to work, or in the wee morning hours — ten minutes is a great start. You can use the verse I list here every day or two as a launch pad for your own adoration.
Then practice praise.
Add to my adoration here, by posting a comment with your own words back to God about God …or hide it in your heart.
I promise your weary soul won’t regret it.
***You can easily subscribe to these devotional meditations as they are delivered, by using this feed: http://www.EveryBitterThingisSweet.com/posts/chai/feed or by entering your email address in the second box on the right-hand side… (scroll up a bit)
Additionally, all of the Morning Chai Posts can be seen, in the order of posting, by clicking here or adding this address to your reader: http://EveryBitterThingisSweet.com/posts/chai
