Single-Minded Devotion

Single-Minded Devotion
Psalm 63:1-8 MSG

"God—you’re my God!  I can’t get enough of you!  I’ve worked up such hunger and thirst for God, traveling across dry and weary deserts.  So here I am in the place of worship, eyes open, drinking in your strength and glory.  In your generous love I am really living at last!  My lips brim praises like fountains.  I bless you every time I take a breath; My arms wave like banners of praise to you.  I eat my fill of prime rib and gravy; I smack my lips. It’s time to shout praises! If I’m sleepless at midnight, I spend the hours in grateful reflection.  Because you’ve always stood up for me, I’m free to run and play.  I hold on to you for dear life, and you hold me steady as a post."

Driving down the road we pass light posts, telephone poles and many sign posts on our journeys.  These posts are very important because they very serve as a way of keeping people safe and our cities well lighted.   A pole must keep steady throughout the storms and winds of life.  It does this because the pole is much larger than what we see.  It is many feet long underground.  God is much like these poles.  God is steady, providing stability for us even when we do not see how.  

God is also our horizon.  When we see God and experience who God is we begin to live in a different way.  The Psalmist writes about the hunger and thirst for God that has built up after such a time of traveling in deserts and wastelands.  When life overwhelms us and we have lost our focus on God I believe it feels like this.  We have lost our view of the horizon, yet the horizon is still there as God is always there, too.

However, when we come back home and worship our Almighty God together, opening our eyes and absorbing God's strength and glory into our bodies, it is like we are feeling our life-source flowing back to where it should be.  God's Spirit wells up in us and we can see it!  The prayers we pray and the songs and hymns we sing radiate out from us like fountains of praise to God.  We realize how every breath we breathe is an opportunity to bless God.  Our actions are a chance to praise God and we are so blessed.

We are a people who have so many things to pull us off balance.  To be single-mindedly devoted to God can be very difficult.  However, when we stay centered on God as our life- post or as our horizon, then we have a place to locate where we are.  We no longer need to feel like we are walking this path alone, but we can look to God for direction and care. Through knowing and reading Scripture, reflecting and spending time with God in prayer, we begin to find our connection with God in a new way.  

Prayer is not a one-way road, but it is a conversation with God.  Prayer is more than us talking, but also us listening for the voice of God.  During Lent, we ask ourselves how we are continuing to be single-mindedly devoted to God -- in word and in deed, in love and in service, in prayer and in action.  May you find answers to the questions in your heart as you look to our life-post, Jesus Christ.

Prayer:  Awesome and Abiding God, thank you for being the life-post for each of us and guiding us throughout our lives.  Help us to find you and follow faithfully.  May we keep centered upon you, living with single-minded devotion to you, our Lord and our God. Amen.