Two ears, one mouth. Do the math.

Ecclesiastes 5

"Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business, and a fool's voice with many words." v(1-3)

God is in heaven, and you are on earth. How often do we pray as people who believe we know what God should do in our lives?

Rougly paraphrasing Tim Keller:
Prayer is not about changing God - it is about being changed by God. It is not about getting God to do what we want - it is about letting him have access to our hearts so that we do what He wants.

What if we approached our petitions and requests in that attitude. "God, you are in heaven and I am on earth. There are circumstances in life I do not understand. Please enlarge my faith so that my trust and obedience increase. You told us there would be suffering and pain in this life, and you promised us your sufficiency in them. Thank you that I am not alone. Thank you that circumstances are not outside your sovereignty - you are never surprised."

Closing story:
A journalist heard about a very old Jewish man who had been going to the Wailing Wall to pray, twice a day, every day, for sixty years. The journalist went to the Wailing Wall and there observed the old Jew.
The journalist enquired, “What do you pray for?”
The man replied, “I pray for peace between the Christians, Jews and the Muslims. I pray for all the wars and hatred to stop, I pray for all our children to grow up safely as responsible adults, and to love their fellow man.”
“How do you feel after doing this for 60 years?” asked the journalist.
“Like I’m talking to a brick wall”, he replied

(closing story pulled from this timely blog entry.)

Delusional

Ecclesiates 4

I must admit that this one of my favorite books. Today's reading is an example of why that is:

"Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind." (v6)

Here is someone refusing to be fooled by the deception of wealth. He redefines "achievement". He values incorruptible things. He recognizes wordly gods and calls them wind.

1 Timothy 6

"But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction." (v8-9)

"As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, " (v17-18)

Some days are more thematically connected than others (at least in appearances). Often, as Americans, we take Jesus' warnings about money as a challenge. Jesus says it's hard for the rich to enter the kingdom - well, I'll have to be really mindful of that as I get rich. I like a challenge aynway, right? What we read here, though, is harder to swallow. I'm not going to get on a soapbox. I'll just let the text be what it is.

Steadfast Love

Psalm 5

But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
will enter your house.
I will bow down toward your holy temple
in the fear of you. (v7)

חסד - Chesed

Here's a rather beautiful definition:

"Chesed can be properly described as an act that has no 'cause.'" It carries a covenental weight. Maybe loyalty, duty and love, is a good synonym. Another, grace.

But I, through the abundance of your unmerited, promised love, will enter your house.

Beautiful.

Faithfulness

So, no...we're not to the Psalms yet. But I've found that reading a section of Ps. 119 before I get going has proved to be a good way for me to wade into the waters.
After singing "Great is Thy Faithfulness" twice this past weekend, the below stuck out to me:

Psalm 119
75I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!