This year as a church we are revisiting our praying priority, so after a long break and many requests it's time for the PrayingTogether blog to resume regularly. This year we'll work through the Psalms as fuel for our spiritual and prayer lives.
"Blessed is the man...his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water..." (Psalm 1:1-3). The pursuit of happiness in life is an important driver in all our lives - we certainly would rather not to pursue misery. The Book of Psalms begins giving us two keys to unlock the secret of true happiness (blessedness), which can only be found in relationship with God - the one whom we were made to glorify and enjoy forever. The first key is receiving God's Word ("law" or Torah = the Bible), and internalising it into our hearts ("meditating" on it). Meditation is to ponder and question what we’ve read, filling our minds with God’s truth. Tim Keller writes: “In the Psalm meditation is likened to tree roots taking in water. That means not merely knowing a truth but taking it inside and making it part of yourself. Meditation is spiritually ‘tasting’ the Scripture – delighting in it, sensing the sweetness of the teaching, feeling the conviction of what it tells us about ourselves, and thanksgiving God and praising God for what it shows us about Him. Meditation is also spiritually ‘digesting’ the Scripture – applying it, thinking out how it affects you, describes you, guides you in the most practical way. It is drawing strength from the Scripture, letting it give you hope, using it to remember how loved you are.” What truths can you meditate, taste, or digest from your devotions today?Praise God Today: "As the Deer"
Pray Today (and join your Home Group to pray tonight):
- For the Sunday preaching in Job and 2 Timothy to penetrate deeply into our hearts as we live for Christ in a broken world.
- For those sick, hurting and grieving in our church family today to know the deep comfort that only God's grace can bring.
- For your Home Group missionaries as they start a new year guarding and passing on the gospel overseas.
