Satisfied

Satisfy us in the morning with Your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

-Psalm 90:14

            Let me ask you a question.

            Are you satisfied?

 

            You may say you’re happy. Say you have plenty of friends, full nights and someone to keep you warm.

            You may say you’re content. Say you have enough food on your plate, a roof over your head and a hard day’s work that keeps you going through the hours.

            You may say you’re doing what’s expected of you. Say you feel the right way, do the right thing, and play the part that was written for you in the play of life.

            You want, you receive, you listen, you learn. You mark off a checklist of things accomplished, adding to it with newfound fervor. You are driven by duty and bound by blood to find the life you’ve always dreamed about. And when it never surfaces, you settle for everything that sifts to the bottom of the barrel.

            You are complacent and carried away by the shifting sands that stretch across your heart and come to you in images of strength and truth yet fade in the realization of a crumbling façade.

            You are all of the above.

            But are you satisfied?

            That settling in your heart that strikes your veins and trails your spine into your core. The light the bursts inside because you know where your worth comes from. And that deep rooted revelry that propels you each day because you know there’s more ahead- beauty and love and endless joy and surprises. You crave it. All of it. And deep down, you know what you need.

            To be fully satisfied is to treasure the eternal moments boxed into the ordinary. To sit in silence and feel the spring in your heart coil and launch into the orbit of your soul. To feel the warmth of love, pure and real and reaching across time and death to be ignited by your acceptance.

            Satisfaction is in the truth of Christ, how He has taken your brokenness and pieced it whole again. How His scarred hands hold your trembling ones, refusing to let go. And how life is transformed because you are His.

            Do you have all that you desire? Is there still something scratching at your soul after the lights are turned out and you’re remembering your day in the deep of night?

            Let me ask you again.

            Are you satisfied?

 

Prayer:

Lord, how I keep searching for things that please me in the meantime, while my heart yearns for more. Help me to truly look for You, to see what You have done and reach for Your outstretched hand. Let me be satisfied in the only love that lasts, the only one that ever completely fills up a lonely heart. Amen.

Not to Me

Not to us, o Lord, not to us

but to Your name be the glory,

because of your love and faithfulness.

-Psalm 115:1

 

Wipe the me from my heart,

erase the selfish thoughts

hidden away in the

secret of my soul.

For no matter what I do,

what I say, it is Your word

that guides me,

not my own.

Your star that burns

in the morning sky.

Your voice that resounds

through the ages.

Not to me, Lord,

not to me,

but to You be all the

sweet and holy glory.

You have called me

from darkness into the

blinking light of Your love,

to proclaim to all

who honor belongs to.

Prayer:

Lord, turn my eyes to You. Let my focus be on what You would say or see or do, and let it be more of You that others see, instead of me. Help me in my failings, and grow me in Your grace. Amen.

Grow in Grace

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

-2 Peter 3:18

If I could teach you how to live, I’d plant a dream inside your heart and gently fold the earth around its flesh. I’d water it with pools of laughter, sweet and coaxing in the secret of your smile.

            When it grows warm and wide and tender, I’d open up the seed that has sprouted from the soil of your soul and lay it out before the sun, where a drop or two of promises will climb into its core and take root in your veins. I’d watch your hopes unfurl, delicate and dazzling and reaching to the sky to stretch your newfound faith.

            For you have found that fire, that sparkle in your eyes that bursts and blooms from many sleepless hours under a pale, moonless night. Now, light has lain upon your breast, sifted through the layers where your deepest inspiration danced to find its melody. Now, the music rises, now the life has been unleashed outside the walls in which you kept yourself imprisoned. In this star-studded symphony you have grown into your waiting grace and gladness.

            You live, a rich and ruby pulsing through the chambers of your garden, once small and sorely tended, now big and bright and brimming and swims above the heights that you have risen.

Prayer:

Lord, how You long to watch me grow, to stir up my soil and see me stretch to new and nurturing heights. You have put a song within me, and it waits for me to give it life. Let me grow in the love you have for me, for the grace and peace and wisdom that can come from only You. Amen.

Press On

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

-Philippians 3:13-14

 

            I press on.

 

            Though the road before me is etched with unknowns, though the route from which I came is wound with scars and shadows, I strain my eyes ahead and venture forth.

            For You are with me, ushering me forward, willing me to step into the sunlight. You have confidence in my skills, assurance of the depths of my heart. I used to breathe so shallow, used to sleep in fear.

            Doubt and darkness have held me long enough. I have caved into the caverns of my hurt, sat in the mud pits of my failure. My head could barely handle the confusion of my loneliness.

            But that was then. And this is now. You are taking over my worry and keeping the cold at bay. After all these months, I finally feel Your sweet scent upon my face.

            Let us move in ways You’ve meant for me to find all along. Set me out of the ditch and lift me to Your heights. For I am being restored, and You have desired nothing else.

            Forget what is behind. The past is murky and muddled. Strain ahead to what is good, to what is golden in Your grace.

            I do not cower. I do not wallow in my wrongs. I press on. There is brilliance up the way that will bring me beauty and truth and wonder beyond what I could imagine.

            I press on. Because You are waiting for me. Because You cannot stand to see me stumble another moment longer. Your arms are wide, and my feet are fast to find their steps.

            Your smile is dazzling. My heart is longing. Forgetting what is behind me, I press on to You.

Prayer:

Lord, You have made me ready again. You have given me my strength and confidence, and I seek You, knowing You will bring back double than what I had before. I press on to reach Your kingdom, and all the things You have for me. Amen.