O God, how many times have I intended to meet You every day in morning prayer, and how many times have I stood You up? I hunger for intimacy with You; I crave the sound of Your voice. And at those times in my life when I have surrendered to Your desire to fill me, I have been blessed with immeasurable peace and joy from Your hand. So, why is it still so hard to offer You the beginning of my day?
I confess to You, Lord, that this desire to begin every day with You is beyond my reach. I can certainly renew my commitment to meet You each morning in prayer, but I know myself well enough to foresee that it isn't going to last a week. I will fail again, and the shame of the failure will come between us again, and I will be worse off than before I started. I want to meet You each morning, but I also don't want to make You yet another promise that I can't keep, and I don't want to turn my relationship with you into a goal-oriented personal challenge or a burdensome obligation.
You have graciously reassured me that my prayer time with You is not an obligation to be fulfilled in order to be good or faithful in Your sight, rather it is an opportunity for You to smother me in Your love. Your love for me is thick, and our prayer time together is life-giving and satisfying, so why do I forget You so often?
I know that it is within Your power to grant me divine strength in this. I know that I could ask You to bless me with strength to overcome the temptation to sleep in or to check my email or to waste my morning in worthless daydreams. But that isn't really what I want. I don't want the strength to discipline myself to meet You in prayer each morning. I don't really even desire to develop a spiritually-healthy morning habit.
What I really want is to wake up every morning to an intense Spirit-given craving for Your presence. I want to hunger for You like I hunger for my breakfast. I want to come to You each morning in prayer seeking fulfillment of an unmet desire. You have given me cravings for the other things I need life, food and water and air to breathe, and deep within my heart You have also planted a craving for You.
O God, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, magnify my craving for Your presence. I want to wake each morning with a burning desire to hear a word from Your lips and to bask in Your divine stillness. I want You to subdue all my other appetites until You have filled my cup to overflowing. And then I want You to put a song on my lips and joy in my heart that will carry me through the day. And I want to lay my head on my pillow at night hopeful and expectant that when I open my eyes tomorrow You will meet me again.
Amen.
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Psalm 90:14
I confess to You, Lord, that this desire to begin every day with You is beyond my reach. I can certainly renew my commitment to meet You each morning in prayer, but I know myself well enough to foresee that it isn't going to last a week. I will fail again, and the shame of the failure will come between us again, and I will be worse off than before I started. I want to meet You each morning, but I also don't want to make You yet another promise that I can't keep, and I don't want to turn my relationship with you into a goal-oriented personal challenge or a burdensome obligation.
You have graciously reassured me that my prayer time with You is not an obligation to be fulfilled in order to be good or faithful in Your sight, rather it is an opportunity for You to smother me in Your love. Your love for me is thick, and our prayer time together is life-giving and satisfying, so why do I forget You so often?
I know that it is within Your power to grant me divine strength in this. I know that I could ask You to bless me with strength to overcome the temptation to sleep in or to check my email or to waste my morning in worthless daydreams. But that isn't really what I want. I don't want the strength to discipline myself to meet You in prayer each morning. I don't really even desire to develop a spiritually-healthy morning habit.
What I really want is to wake up every morning to an intense Spirit-given craving for Your presence. I want to hunger for You like I hunger for my breakfast. I want to come to You each morning in prayer seeking fulfillment of an unmet desire. You have given me cravings for the other things I need life, food and water and air to breathe, and deep within my heart You have also planted a craving for You.
O God, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, magnify my craving for Your presence. I want to wake each morning with a burning desire to hear a word from Your lips and to bask in Your divine stillness. I want You to subdue all my other appetites until You have filled my cup to overflowing. And then I want You to put a song on my lips and joy in my heart that will carry me through the day. And I want to lay my head on my pillow at night hopeful and expectant that when I open my eyes tomorrow You will meet me again.
Amen.
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Psalm 90:14
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