Veloci-TEA Continued, Rationale Considered, at-TEA-ributes Concluded

When You said, "Seek My face," my heart said to You, "Your face, O LORD, I shall seek." (Psalm 27:8, NASB)

Run to God's Word. That's always the right "speedy" decision. What takes some contemplation is what you do with it once you get there.

Reading God's Word just for the sake of reading God's word has merit. Searching God's word for answers to questions is a worthy pursuit as well. Yet, lately I have been convicted that God's word, at its best, is as an impetus and aid in worship.

I had just typed this and then I opened an email from Mary B. 

Have you read Women of the Word by Jan Wilkin? Cathy C. mentioned something from it in her BSF lecture Monday night.  She said that the author challenged her readers to study the Bible  to worship God, not to see what you can get for yourself from it. 

Hm-m-m sounds like all that's been on my heart lately. It's a "how-to book about studying the Bible with both heart and mind. I think I need to "check it out." Certainly I know how to use veloci-TEA to my advantage when it comes to acquiring a book. 

I hope this one will equip me to engage God’s Word in a way that "trains my mind and transforms my heart" as the book blurb indicates. Then, I will be able to wholeheartedly answer the question,

"Am I a God-worshipper or a Bible-worshipper?"

I need to fill my cuppa with at-TEA-ributes of God, that I might love the person and not the object as I speedily turn to Him.

Evening Prayer "veloci-TEA"

In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O LORD, will keep me safe. (Psalm 4:8, NLT)

Speedy conviction. That was the "veloci-TEA" of the realization that my evening prayers probably set the stage for my morning prayers and I ought to give that time more attention. A new prayer direction. Certainly the compiler of the Psalms, this "hymnal of the Jewish people" knew that. Interestingly enough, the evening prayers are mentioned in both Psalm 3 and Psalm 4 prior to the mentioning of the morning prayers in Psalm 5.

Scripture before sleeping may prompt prayers. God's word, in and of itself can be a prayer. "To the Lord I cry....I lie down and sleep....and will not fear" (Psalm 3:4-6) and David concludes  in 4:8, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. 

"It's David's confidence in God that enables him to lay himself down calmly and tranquilly to sleep, whatever dangers threaten him. He seeks his couch, and at once (יחדּו) slumber visits him. No anxious thoughts keep him tossing on his bed for hours." (http://biblehub.com/psalms/4-8.htm) Confidence in God comes from knowing Him through His word.

Anne Graham Lotz's, endorsed Daily Light for Every Day, includes morning and evening prayers. Equal scripture content for both. The "Graham/Lotz families read this "little" collection each day. It keeps them all on the same page. 

Last night I read the 5/16 entry from Daily Light and prayed those "very" appropriate verses for a decision a dear friend would be making on that "very" day. Grateful for the "velodi-TEA of conviction that had me speedily changing my direction of evening prayers. 

Morning Prayer "veloci-TEA"

 O God, you are my God; early will I seek you: my soul thirsts for you, my flesh longs for you.....(Psalm 63:1, KJV)

Velocity can be both good and bad....especially in one's prayer life. Speed and direction in a moment of crisis is just the motion needed. Quickly praying upward. Immediately turning (directionally) to the One who hears. 

Yet, apart from times of urgency, one's prayer times can be so much richer than that, as reading through the Psalms clearly shows. The poetry of the Psalms seems to take on a slower rhythm......a rhythm of the life of the poet or author, from David and Solomon to unknown others. Laments. Praises. Testimony. Confessions. 

Morning prayer times often have me praying slowly.....prayers for others expressed thorough passages from the Psalms. The rhythm of my own life expressed in language from the Psalter. Inhaling the scripture, exhaling the prayers. A breath of God breathed out---His Words, my breath.

Panic prayers, arrow prayers and night-night prayers, are more rapid than those morning ones. Reading through a psalm or other scripture slows me down. No speed reading. In cadence with God's word. Reading and praying. The silences and the sounds.

Holy Spirit, living Breath of God, Breathe new life into my willing soul. Bring the presence of the risen Lord To renew my heart and make me whole. Cause Your Word to come alive in me; ("Holy Spirit, Living Breath of God," lyrics)

A "hurried" velocity in praying doesn't leave room for empty space. 

"A note in music gets its significance from the silences on either side." (Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift From the Sea, p. 115) As in music, empty space is essential in correlating the scripture to the prayer.

A slowing of my morning cuppa mirrors the velocity of my reading and praying, as it takes time to sip and savor both----my English Breakfast Tea and prayers re-directed to Him as I am stimulated from His word.