Listen God! Please, pay attention!
Can you make sense of these ramblings,
My groans and cries?
King-God I need your help.
Every morning you’ll hear me at it again.
Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life
On your altar and watch for fire to descend.
Psalm 5 Message
We can all come up with a million excuses for why we can’t make this happen in the morning, but there is no getting around the directives in scripture for morning prayer. Besides that, it just makes logical sense. I need God as soon as my eyes are open. God is the only person I can really talk to first thing anyway. I mean I am totally with David, “Can you make sense of these ramblings”. If that isn’t me in the morning, I don’t know what is. Most of my life only God can make sense of my ramblings. Siri and I have a rocky relationship because she never knows what I am saying, and don’t even get me started with voice to text. I am so glad God knows my heart, even when I don’t.
I love the ending of this passage. Laying out the pieces of my day makes me think of puzzle pieces. You know how some people find puzzles relaxing? That isn’t me. I suck at puzzles. I am lucky if I can get the edge
pieces. So this scripture speaks to my heart. It means that I don’t have to try to fit all my pieces together. I just lay them out for God, and He will place them where they belong. Every funky shaped piece has a place, but I don’t have to stress and worry about where they will fit. Every morning I can take all my pieces and hand them to God in prayer. Often I find myself picking them back up and flipping them over and analyzing. When I catch myself, I hand them back over in prayer.
Shocker: Worrying, thinking, or even talking about something isn’t the same as praying.
I know that may take a moment for you to digest. I couldn’t tell you how many times I have agonized in my head searching for an answer and never actually prayed about the circumstance. Sometimes it’s as simple as me believing the lie that God isn’t interested in what I am thinking about.
We have to practice taking all the energy we already spend worrying or even thinking about everything and practice talking to God about it. Only He can frame the circumstance in the context of eternity. He has so much insight into the things that concern us. He can tell us where we need to actually place our energy and action. Instead of emotionally running from one circumstance to the next we can bring our thoughts to Him and rest them. I don’t know about you, but I need rest from my thoughts, they can overtake me in a heartbeat. Also, my husband could sometimes use rest from all my thoughts. Bless the man.
My emotions can sap my energy and lead me places my day was never intended to go. We have to lead our emotion, instead of letting it lead us. It doesn’t take any time at all for my circumstances to loom larger than God and cloud my view of Him. If I can take all of my I wasn’t enough, I failed, what will happen, what does this mean, what can I do, how will this work out-thoughts, and take them to God, I can change the tide of my day.
“Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust.
Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.”
Psalm 143:8
Every morning I need to hear of God’s steadfast love so that I am reminded to trust Him. Only He can make me know the way I need to go, so I am going to keep lifting my soul up to Him and trust Him with all the pieces of my heart. I will lead my emotion back to the truth, over and over if that’s what it takes. I will drag all those stray thoughts and pieces back to my God over and over, and that puzzle will start to take shape in His hands.
What pieces do you need to put in God’s hands today? What do you need to stop trying to make fit where it doesn’t?
If you haven’t ever had a prayer relationship with God; He’s waiting. It really is as simple as talking.