Happy Saturday! I was happy to arrive back home late last night after a couple of days of business travel.
This morning I’ve only seen one of my children. He’s off to a cross-country meet. The other two are still sound asleep so the house is pretty quiet right now, except for the three kittens racing through the rooms, chasing each other every now and then.
Every morning has been action-packed lately. I had to sent an alarm extra early to be sure to get in time with God. Today, however has been different for me. No alarm on my phone. My husband woke our son and took him to the meet, allowing for me to sleep in and linger.
I got out of bed, hung out with my son and wished him well and then really wanted to lounge some more, check emails, flip through some leisure reading just do nothing for a bit.
And then I heard God calling me.
I even thought about skipping my Psalms SOAP this morning, because I just wanted to do nothing of consequence for just a few more minutes. However, I had made a commitment to myself and to God to read and SOAP before emails, or pretty much anything else, as is possible. He has been faithful and shown up every single time I did that– and it has been a wonderful 36 days straight of that.
As it turned out, today was no different. Yet again, His message was a great reminder that He loves me and understands me.
How could I even thought of skipping?
Here is what I heard using SOAP while reading Psalm 5:
Scripture: Psalm 5: 3
O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.
Observation:
He hears me calling out to Him each day as I give something up for Him.
Application:
So often I think of sacrifices as doves or lambs… those things we see sacrificed so often in the Old Testament. Today’s passage reminded me that sacrifice is giving up something, anything, that means something to you.
I am so often feeling time-starved. And yet I made a commitment to God to give some of my time back to Him to listen, to talk with Him and to serve Him by sharing many of my thoughts and observations with you.
This is a sacrifice.
I had not thought of it that way in the past because, before this, I had thought of sacrifices to God to be something monetary and had to be painful.
This time is always, always, always rewarding. It is always so valuable to me. I am giving up time, which is of great value, (my sacrifice) and hearing Him in return.
“You hear my voice,” the Psalmist says.
I love this time with Him. I love that He hears my voice and I love that He guides me in return.
Before I read this morning I prayed, as I always do before jumping into the reading. This morning, though, in that prayer I apologized for my thoughts of skipping our time together or just pushing it back. And He showed me this.
He hears me. He hears us. He knows our struggles. And He is right there listening, understanding and guiding if we really want it.
Prayer:
Father,
Thank you for meeting me. Thank you for listening to my voice. Thank you for accepting my sacrifice of time and returning such love always. You are amazing and I am thankful to have the honor of spending this time with you daily and hearing your voice and direction.
Please continue to meet with me, even in my sometimes sleepy selfish morning grumbling. Thank you for that.
Amen.
Leave a Reply