RRRRRRRRRRRRR........................

RRRRRRRRRRRR--probably rings in your ears as a sound of frustration! Today it very well could be, but it's not. The Rs are all words "ringing" in head as "letter next" in my meditation. As a retired librarian, I can even meditate in alphabetical order if the need arises. Today it did and R is where I landed.

It started as I was praying Psalm 87:7 for the Davises in Uganda.

"Those who sing as well as those who dance say, "All my springs are in you." 

(World English Bible)

Other versions used fountains, joy, roots, thoughts for springs.

Yet each gave me the idea of refreshing so I began to pray using different parts of speech for refreshing...

Refresh. Refreshed. Refreshes. Refreshing. Refreshment. How easily the words flowed as different aspects of their ministry came to mind.

Today I continued with R words for my Wednesday Friends....Prayers to revive their hearts, reminders to refocus, reignite their passion for Him, regenerate their faith to new and higher grounds, renew their commitment to love their neighbor, "Return to first  love," (Revelation 2:4) and remember & obey the "Lord your God."(Psalm 119:55)

RRRRRRRRRRRRR----13 Rs & 13 r words used in prayers.....but whose counting! I was,,,,but not until after I typed this entry. Then, I saw that the exact number of r words used in prayer were same number of Rs in the title, which I had typed earlier. I recognized that as  reassurance of God's hand in this blog!

FIRST LOVE

6/4/12  A recent Pinterest You-Tube showed 5+ minutes of 60 lip-syncing friends and dancers helping a young man propose to his girlfriend in a BIG way. It was showy, sweet and entertaining. It’s gotten lots of hits. But….the real question for the young couple would be, “After the “hype” of the proposal, The BIG wedding and honeymoon to follow, what path will your marriage take?”

The “Big” productions will be over and the marriage will settle down to the ordinary, the mundane, the “day-to-day-ness of loving another person.” (Mead p, 17) Will they continue to be there for each other---listening, caring and “doing well by doing good” for their spouse? I suspect they will be wanting an “abiding in the trenches” kind of intimate love, not the You-Tube love song version that the entire world has seen.

Similarly, new Christians can ask themselves the same questions. Accepting Jesus as Savior, becoming the “bride of Christ” and receiving God’s grace can be a “heady” experience. But….as the years pass and the “hoopla” and exhilaration wane, it will take discipline and commitment to still be spending time in His Presence, being alone with Him, listening to Him, obeying His commands and loving Him well.  If not, the “slide away” can begin, excuses can take over and fellowship with the Beloved One loses its intensity. But God….will remind them of their faithlessness just as he did in the time of the prophets as He spoke to His people through Ezekiel.

31 My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to hear your words, but they do not put them into practice. Their mouths speak of love, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. 32 Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice. (Ezekiel 33:31-32)

What does a Christian gather from meditating on this? God wants us, not our words, or our bits and pieces of time thrown His way to appease our guilty consciences. He wants undivided devotion that He might remain our first Love.

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. (Revelation 2:4)

As Carol Mead so eloquently expressed in Practically Holy, God doesn’t care about BIG events, “God wants to speak of our Beloved”…….that we might not forget our First Love!