I appreciate thoughts that slow me down.
This is Sunday morning. Atypical for the rest of the week, but totally the same for my Sundays. With the exception that I’m not yet dressed for worship. When one sings on the praise team and customarily wears black and whatever, the black tends to welcome this or that nonblack hue. This is not good.
Sitting at my desk doing the normal email check prior to dressing up, I was reading in 2 Corinthians 8 when this partial prayer lifted from the first eleven verses reached out, laid a gentling hand on my chest and murmured, “Read me again.”
“Help us not only resolve to do good, but to complete the good we set out to do.”
Complete as in finish. I sit here, shaking my head slightly because I don’t like being blindsided by God. I almost groused about it being a cheap shot, but there’s nothing cheap about God’s grace extending to me. It cost Him part of Himself.
The reason I don’t like being blindsided by God is that He’s always right. I always need to hear what He says, and to listen to what He’s not saying. He didn’t have to. If He did, it would’ve sounded something like, “Okay, here we go again. You’re good at starting. Do I really need to continue?”
God doesn’t need to get excited about anything. Never needs to raise His voice. Any time God feels it necessary to raise HIS voice? In essence, to fire for effect? Bad juju. No matter what we say, none of us wants that.
So I listen for His gentle voice that seems to Universally resonate anyway. He’s right. I’m the best at starting. My carrying through, finishing strong needs work.
Maybe yours does, too. You’re welcome to join me in my simple little prayer that’s not so simple.
“Lord? “Help me not only resolve to do good, but to complete the good I set out to do.”
Time to get squared away and ready for worship. Seems to me this little prayer has as much to do with worship habits as it does with anything else in my life. I ought to be just as expectant to be receiving something good at 11:53 AM as I am at 9.
Just sayin’.
© D. Dean Boone, June 2016