At the Center

I don’t know about you, but I struggle with an attitude of prayer and praise. When I pray, sometimes it feels as if I’m reading from a shopping list of things that I’m asking for. I envision our patient Father as saying to me, “What is it this time?”

Or sometimes I feel as if my prayers are bouncing off of a glass ceiling & plummeting to earth all around me. That’s not the way that I want my prayer life to be. That’s not the way I want to have communion with my Savior.

But I tell everyone who has a need that I’m going to pray for them, and there are just SO MANY things to pray for! And there just isn’t enough time in my little “block of prayer time” to fit it all in.

I get so locked into what I want, or what I’ve promised to pray for, that I can’t get past it to have a true attitude of praise & worship. I can’t quiet my “SELF” enough to be still before God. There’s too much of ME in the way!

Isaiah 30:15 says, “In repentance and rest you will be saved; in quietness and trust is your strength.”

Taking those moments of quiet, and being still before God are the keys. If it’s been a while, this is a real struggle. My mind wanders EVERYWHERE and it’s a constant challenge to keep it focused on the Lord. But I’ve also discovered that it’s in those quiet moments before Him that He really speaks to me. And I treasure those moments so deeply that I wonder why I allow myself to be pulled away from them, back into the mania of life.

So how do we get there, to those moments of quiet and praise? For me, it’s music. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I include lyrics in each blog entry. Music lifts me, and refocuses my attention on the One who is the center of my life. For others it's dance, or getting out into the world that He has made for us, to appreciate its beauty.

Whatever your avenue, take the time to get these moments of quiet before Him, the center of your life. As C.S. Lewis wrote in The Last Battle ("Chronicles of Narnia"), “Further up and further in!!”

It's cold outside,
Or is that just the chill I feel inside from standing here
Steeping in my shame.

I can't deny
I'm surrounded by the very thing You freed me from;
That's why I can't come home...

And I don't know where I turned around
From chasing what I always found completed me
More than I could dream.

I don't know why I can't remain
Safe here where I always came to meet with you
And You always met with me...
And You're still here waiting...

I fail to see
Why You'd still be waiting to forgive me
After all that I have done.

But I cannot say
That one time I returned and You had turned away;
Your love never fails...

And I don't know where I turned around
From chasing what I always found completed me
More than I could dream.

I don't know why I can't remain
Safe here where I always came to meet with you
And You always met with me...
And You're still here waiting...

You say, "Come home" and You'll be there
I can run into Your arms

And I don't know where I turned around
From chasing what I always found completed me
More than I could dream.

I don't know why I can't remain
Safe here where I always came to meet with you
And You always met with me...
And You're still here waiting...

~~“Still Here Waiting” by Todd Agnew (Album: Grace Like Rain, 2005)