Excerpt from chapter "Summit meetings with God"
I have some comfortable
habits: comfort foods I love to eat and favorite comfortable clothing
that I reach for in the closet when I'm at leisure. Old scuffed up
shoes and hang-loose, well-worn sweat shirts help me feel cozy and
content. But stale bread is not my first choice. It's okay when
toasted and cut into croutons, but I much prefer the aroma of
fresh-baked bread hot out of the oven (or from my automatic
bread maker)!
God supplied fresh manna
daily for the Israelites in the wilderness. He instructed them not to
save today's provision for tomorrow because it would spoil. Moreover,
they should trust Him to provide it fresh again the next morning.
When I come for a summit meeting with God, it is still nourishing,
comfortable, and edifying to come in a familiar way and read
well-known passages from the Bible or pray the same prayers from the
Liturgy day after day, and pray through my prayer list.
But wouldn't it delight the
Lord if I came into His presence with eager anticipation of a fresh
touch, a fresh anointing, a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit? It
would be like eating fresh bread! It is spiritually exhilarating to
find new promises, recount and praise God for new blessings, rejoice
over newly discovered truths, to receive new insights into God's
character and majesty.
Better than a bowl of
crunchy cereal in the morning is the fresh bowl of mercies that the
Lord prepares for my breakfast. “It is of the Lord's mercies and
loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His (tender)
compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great and
abundant is Your stability and faithfulness” (Lam.3:22, 23
Amplified Version).
Every morning at my summit meeting I don't have to eat
leftover mercies. A fresh helping is waiting for me because I used up
the former ones. Yesterday's mercies covered yesterday's failures and
shortcomings. Tomorrow is not yet in need of God's mercy. God
provides more than enough mercies to take care of the needs He knows
I will have today since “His compassions fail not.”
Fresh Touch
A fresh touch from you—
how I long for it, Lord!
My spirit grows stale
when I settle for
yesterday's bread
or empty calorie glazed
donuts
or drive-through junk
food.
Each day I want to eat
Your fresh Bread of Life
prepared by Your hands
just after dawn
upon a glowing fire of
charcoal
like You provided fish and
bread
generously spread
for those who followed You
beside the Sea of
Tiberias.
Give us this day our daily
bread
homemade Bread of Your
Word
and the Bread and Wine
of Your Body and Blood
prepared by Your
nail-pierced hands
kindling love in us
while we are being
nourished.
Since I belong to You
I cannot live on instant
food
no, cannot walk or work
sustained by man's baked
goods
even if freshened in a
microwave oven.
Essential is Your
wholesome Bread
delivered fresh each day
from Your heart to mine.
Only that will nurture me.
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