Good morning!
Welcome to your morning coffee! May our Heavenly Father humble us. Please be gentle, Father. But for those who would read this prayer, and join me in praying it. Humble us. We are so full of our selves. Our agendas. Our opinions. Our preferences. And we so often and so easily forget that we are not You. In the name of Jesus and by the guiding, growing power of the Holy Spirit, humble us today Father. And may we remember that you only discipline those you love. Amen, amen, amen.
Your Morning Song: "We Fall Down" by Chris Tomlin
Your Morning Scripture: Psalm 95:6
Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
...
Ever seen a gameshow that uses the door gimmick? All other details and gimmicks aside, a contestant gets to choose between several doors. Behind one of the doors is a prize, behind another a joke, and perhaps the next door simply has nothing behind it.
When we Christians get together, we all come affirming that God is our Lord and Maker. We all outwardly agree on the names and labels God gives us about Himself, in His word. But just because we use the same words doesn't mean that we define these words the same way.
For some of us we claim that God is our Lord and Maker, and Father. But there is nothing behind our label. We do not know Him. We do not love Him. We are just going through the religious motions without anything really happening beneath our surface. We are empty and do not care. Or if we do, we do not care enough to expose our own emptiness and risk the pain of being forgiven and then filled to overflowing.
For others, we too make the same claims. God is Lord and Maker, and Father. But when we look beneath our labels and names for God, we find a cruel joke. We call Him Lord and intellectually know what that means. But the insides of our lives reveal no obedience to His ultimate authority. We call Him Maker and outwardly affirm the idea. But the insides of our lives reveal no awe-fear of the one who knew us before we were even in the womb. And if we ever think to call Him father, we are like the prodigal son. We treat God like He is dead. And unlike the son we are still wallowing in the pig-filth, waiting still to come back to ourselves. We are not empty, but what we are filled with is worse even than a joke. We are plugged toilets that refused to be flushed. We are full of only ourselves.
And for some, we make the same claims as the others. God is Lord. God is Maker. God is Father. And like the others we outwardly bow down in worship. But unlike the others we bow down inwardly as well. Our lives are solid and steady, structured around Spirit-led obedience to the Word of the Lord. Our lives are full of awe-fear and reverence of the one who has known us by name since before the world was made. And our lives are full of child-like love for and trust in our Father. He who calls us His children.
May we, with our daily living, believe in and embrace God's names and labels for Himself. Lord. Maker. Father. Let us not be empty. Let us not be exposed as a joke. Let us be sincere. Let us be honest. Let us be faithful. Let us be obedient. Let us be humble and worshipful.
Heavenly Father, our Lord and Maker,
let us be who and what you desire,
in your timing and in your ways.
