Without ceasing
At night his song is with me,
A prayer to the God of my life. Psalm 42:8
Read 1 Thessalonians 5:16—24
Now let me try something in this quiet time this evening. It will show me if I am ready to walk within the blessing God is desiring to shower upon me. How will my life be changed if I refuse the spiritual direction in this passage? What will I look like if I refuse to rejoice? If I cease to pray? If I never give thanks? Or only, say, in happy circumstances? What if I only give thanks when I actually feel like it, because I’m such an honest person, but not otherwise? What character would I be then? Any different? What if I do quench the Spirit? If I don’t follow the prompting of the Lord, don’t ever step out beyond my own judgement of what to do with my time and energy? Would anything change? And what if I listened to no prophetic word? If I never expected anyone to address my life with a word that I’d see is from God, a word I need to attend to, that would cause me to change course? Not even if it was preached to me by the preacher I usually have loved to hear? How flat would my life become if I did not follow these spiritual directions?
Spirit of the living God, you have awakened me to the life of God in my life. Awaken me to rejoice, wholeheartedly. Awaken me to pray, eagerly. To give thanks. Now and daily and gratefully. To be loved by you, guided by you, prompted by you, brought to my knees by you, led in conversation by you, given discernment and understanding by you. Speak to me. Speak to me through faithful people, through preacher and prophet and friend. That I may know your fullness.