Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. Psalm 127:1**
Guard of the city, watchman of my heart, I breathe relief at these words.
I have patterned my whole life around protection. Self-preservation. I have set up walls, big and small, around treasured places under threat of siege. I’ve stood alert, tense. Made a lifestyle of being aware of that which might steal safety.
All the things You offer, I have formed a habit around doing for myself. Calcification of my heart has come so subtly at the hands of my man-made methods of war.
But You are the warrior of my heart.
Divine strategist and king, my city witnesses the sunrise under Your watch. Beauty springs up within walls You build. Life is ripe. Lush.
And I take deep breaths of the air You’ve made which floods my lungs with the security I’ve always wanted.
You’ve always been there. You whisper with Your life, rest while my life wants to shout labor unending. You make easy what my calloused hands have known as hard and shallow ground. I’ve worked the land and still not found the safety that You offer in one minute under the watch of Your person.
You guard me. Protect me. Surround me. You hedge me into assurance, and when I try You on like an every-day, every-minute sanctuary, my body finds the rest for which it was made. The always-with-me rest.
No more vain work when I sink deep in Your rest. Under Your security, my work becomes holy. My life becomes holy. My eyes move from being the gate to self-protection to Beauty’s entry point.
You made me to be forever child. Forever Your child.
Forever safe.
**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
