A great way to start the work week. A prayer from Scotty Smith. I post this one for the guys in my college-age Bible study. This is what we talked about last night.
Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you.Psalm 143:8
Gracious Lord Jesus, I understand that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Whatever we consumeearly greatly determines the rhythms of the rest of the day. I know this to be true… especially on the mornings when meager sleep segues into amuch-ness day, and I choose to break the evening fast only with caffeine and sugar. As they say, “Up like a rocket, down like a rocket.”
In a far more profound way, the first thing I put into my mind and heart affects awhole lot more than my energy level and how soon I’ll need a power nap. So out of equal measures of delight and desperation, I make the Psalmist’s cry my own. “Let the morning (this and every morning) bring me word of your unfailing love.” Jesus, there’s no breakfast buffet, no culinary delight, no gastronomic offering I need more than your unfailing love.
Only your love is better than life, for all other loves just decorate life… Only your love meets my deepest hunger and satisfies my most intense longings, for all other loves are like snack foods for a staving man… Only your love is unwavering, for all other loves are filled with conditions and contingencies… Only your love is unfailing, for all other loves are fickle and finite.
Only your love can expose and expel my idols, for no other love is as transforming…Only your love can break my self-indulgent chains and set me free to love others, for no other love is as powerful… Only your love can heal the greatest heart-wounds I carry, for no other love is as compassionate…Only your love can move me from navel-gazing to kingdom-living, for no other love is as compelling. Jesus, I can think of a whole lot more “Onlys,” as I ponder your great affection for us.
So, Jesus, this morning and every morning… afternoons and evenings too, preach the gospel to our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The gospel of your grace is the primary “word” of your unfailing love. Only in the gospel do we hear and feast on your unfailing love. So very Amen, we pray, in your trustworthy and tenacious name.
[HT: The Gospel Coalition]
The Cruciform Life 