I was rummaging
through a draw full of papers with Bible passages I’d memorized and prayers I’d
written. I came across a sweet prayer of devotion. As I read it I thought,
“That’s beautiful, but can I pray that from my heart today? I don’t feel that
devoted to the Lord right now.”
Then I reminded
myself that loving Jesus with all my heart is not primarily about emotions.
What is the Devotion I’m speaking of? To love the Lord with devotion is to
choose to bless him in our prayers, words, and actions. This
begins with cultivating a mindset
of affection and reverence for the Lord.
When you Don’t Feel Like
Praying
So the best time to
offer a prayer of devotion is when you don’t
feel like it! David prayed in Psalm 27, “One thing I ask from
the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of
the Lord all the days of my life… My heart says of you, ‘Seek his
face.’ Your face Lord I will seek… Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord.” (verses 4, 8, 14)
David offered his
prayer of devotion to the Lord in a time of great danger. He was afraid and
lonely. He was desperate for the hand of the Lord to help him, but most important to him was to seek the
face of his Lord. Devoting ourselves to worship and serve God
with all that we say and do is our greatest need. It’s the One Thing to live
for, the One Thing that satisfies our souls, the One Thing that enables us to
love the people around us well.
“Take Heart” for Jesus
To take heart for
Jesus is to stoke the embers in the fireplace of your heart so that a fire of
devotion to Jesus Christ is rekindled. You have to take it because devotion
won’t just fall on you! Where does it come from? God, of course. “We love
because God first loved us” (1 John 4:19). And God’s love can be manifest to us
in many ways, like the Bible, the wagging tail of a dog, the blossoming of a
flower, or a friend’s prayer of devotion.
I invite you to
take heart and engage all your senses with my prayer of devotion, Oh, How I Love You Jesus!
Oh, How I
Love You Jesus!
Oh, how I love you
Jesus!
I meditate on your
words all day long.
~
I look to your
glorious face,
I listen for your
all-knowing voice,
I hold your mighty
hand,
I smell the
fragrance of your Holy Spirit,
I taste your
honey-sweet name.
~
Oh, how I love you
Jesus!
I love others for
your sake all day long.
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