details

Monday, May 23, 2011 (9:13 a.m.)

Details, Lord,

I woke up with tiny, microscopic details. These were details to the nth degree. Colors. Sounds. Even physical sensations were involved. Talk to me this morning about details Lord. I tend to be one who can get quite lost in them.

With that said, know that I love You. I turn to Your Word this morning, seeking what You might have specifically for me.

There are so many possibilities, Lord. There’s the Old Testament history of the details You gave King David for the building of Your temple (1 Chronicles 28:19, 29:30). The Proverbs (specifically 8:22) tell of the details of Wisdom’s good advice. Malachi 2:13 mentions the important details involved in keeping a marriage healthy. Some of the letters written by Your apostle Paul describe the details of Your work in and through him.

I think it’s the focus of Psalm 145 (v.6) that has me most intrigued this morning. Perhaps it’s what seems easiest for me at the moment.

Eugene Peterson used the words, “Your marvelous doings are headline news; I could write a book full of the details of Your greatness” to describe the pure praise offered to You for Your many attributes and qualities.

I confess to attempting to buy time away from the discipline and obedience required in learning to treat my body as a temple [a correlation made in some writings about the chronicles and letters mentioned above] by simply deciding to praise You instead. Ah, but detailed God that You are, You’ve got me here as well.

Bottom of the page comment about Psalm 145:1-7 says this, “Praise is one of our weapons against the temptation of our dependencies.” You are bound and determined to get my mind off any [read here as every J] addiction I battle and back on You where it so rightly belongs, aren’t You? Thank You Lord!

Thank You for Your tender love for me. A love that I confess to not currently having enough of for myself to truly work a consistent program of recovery from my addictive behaviors.

Lord! There IS no way of skirting issues with You, is there? I thought, ‘Yeah. Praise Him. Worship Him. Take the pressure off all you know is going on inside yourself and just tell Him what He wants to hear.’ NOT! You’ll have none of my attempt to manipulate You. Forgive me Father, for I HAVE sinned! I sought to ‘use’ Your Word in a convenient ploy to distract You from all that is going on inside me.

Here it is. In more detailed form than I have allowed myself in a long, LONG time! I am not taking good, healthy care of myself. I don’t know why. I make half-hearted attempts. I think I can get away with looking the part. Acting as if I’m doing all I think I ‘should’ be doing.

You know what is best. You know every single fiber of the details behind my out and out refusal to do the things I believe are best. I am confessing, right here, right now, I can’t do this on my own Dearest Lord. YOU, however, CAN help me! I am asking You to give me the power and the strength to view myself as a ‘Temple for Your Holy Spirit’. That temple in which You dwell inside all Your people!

I struggle in confessing that I am ‘responsible to rebuild my life in a way worthy of You who dwells in me.’ These words in the Life Recovery Bible comments for 1 Chronicles 28:19 were the ones I most wanted to avoid. “Let us seek God’s plan for healthy living and then do everything we can to rebuild according to that plan.”

Oh Dearest God, here I am once again asking, seeking, knocking. Lord, help me do that which I am incapable of doing for myself. You know the details Lord. You ARE the details! Help me love You as I should. With ALL my heart, ALL my soul, ALL my mind and ALL my strength! (Mark 12:30) I confess that can’t possibly be the case right now.

Work in my details Lord. Move me forward again. I love You Lord. Forgive me for wanting to give You less of myself than You so rightly deserve. Thank You for ‘pulling my sheets’ and calling my bluff. I love You. Thank You. Amen.

(735 words ~ 10:57 a.m.)