Today’s scripture: Psalm 143:8-11 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Robert Ferguson):
Do you remember the first time you kissed someone that had you smitten? Do you remember the first time someone gave you butterflies in your belly? Do you remember a time when you stayed up all night talking on the phone with that special someone and absolutely refused to be the first one to hang up?
“You hang up…no, you hang up. Okay…I’m hanging up…hello? Why didn’t you hang up? You hang up first!”
Remember? Young love…and I don’t mean chronologically young but I am talking about new love. There is a certain freshness when you first start dating someone. Surely you feel as if there will never be any circumstance or situation that could bring you down from this beautiful perfect cloud you and your new love interest are riding. But as many of us who have lived long enough know, eventually we all come down from the romantic highs and the starry eyed, gushing feeling. Sooner or later someone gets disappointed. Perhaps the realities of life set in and those feelings of euphoria are replaced with a faint but ever present sense of ho-hum. And for many of us that is the point where we lose interest or,at the very least, we start to take that other person for granted.
If I’m being honest I have to admit that sometimes my spiritual walk with Christ has been a lot like that. Do you remember the first time you really felt your relationship with the Lord? Do you remember being excited? When I first got saved you could not keep me out of the church. Every moment that I found myself alone I was praying to God. Any and Everything that happened in my life was somehow connected to God and God’s divine will in my life. But as I matured as a Christian that old cynicism of the world started to creep back in and I began to realize that having Christ in my life absolutely did not mean that challenges would not still come. The realities of life began to set in and even though the spirit of Christ remained in my life, I found that I had grown less excited about my relationship with Christ. In fact sometimes it seemed easier to get excited about things such as money, cars, clothes and other trappings of the world.
As I read the scripture for today I feel the spirit reminding me that while this world does seem to offer bright, shiny things, there is often a heavy price to pay for more things. Sometimes the world and its circumstances can beat you down. I don’t know about you but sometimes I want a do-over button. I want to go back to that time when I first fell in love with Jesus. I want to go back to when my faith felt brand new.
Thought for the day: Remind me, O Lord, where my strength, shelter, and power come from. Revive me again Lord!
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.