Just a minute...

So, I am shamefully overdue with this blog...yipe! Well, in the midst of five weddings and a baby or two this spring (the babies aren't mine consequently), I am not finding a lot of free time for deep thought. Or really lengthy shallow thought either. Although I had quite and interesting conversation with my husband and some friends over the moral issue of plant ownership. Maybe I'll get into that some other time. I did want to post about something the Lord has shown me is a big struggle for me, and that is prayer in solitude. I tend to prefer to pray with someone else or a group of people, and I really sense the Lord meeting me in those times. However, when I am alone and (as is often the case lately) distracted or tired, that time can be dry and difficult. I have had seasons of life when I just desire time alone with the Lord, meditating on His goodness and character and sensing His pleasure and presence with me. So, by default, I know who has moved, and it must be me. Now, don't get me wrong, I know that the Lord, although generous with His Spirit, is under no obligation to make the sensing of His Spirit an essential or even customary element to prayer. I think if I spent more time appreciating the value of the fact that I can even enter into the presence of the Lord at any time (or at all) then I might be more humble and more grateful for this Mighty Savior whom I serve. All this to say that I am in pursuit of Him in this area of my life.

As an aside, I also am so thankful for our pastor and his faithfulness to bring truth to us each week and challenge and direct us to our Lord. Had a wonderful sermon about love on Sunday, and in particular I was affected by the following:

(1 Cor. 13 description of love has just been read)

"If you are here today saying I want to be loved like that, then you've missed it. You're ALREADY loved like that!! Look to the cross, you've already been loved like that. But as it says in the next few verses, 'Pursue love' ; You are meant to love others in the way that you have already been loved! "

Okay so that's probably not a perfect, word for word up there, but certainly it is the essence of what Paul was trying to communicate. Can I get an amen?