God, I Love You

I tried to find an appropriate picture to accompany this post but we have a new MAC and I can't seem to get the hang of importing pictures!?

Anyway, in church today, the speaker was going about his sermon...it was all "stuff-I'd-heard-before" and, shamefully, I was thinking about I would spend my afternoon, what to have for dinner, what to do on the day off tomorrow because of the holiday, etc.

It came time for the altar call and the pastor began to pray. As he began his prayer, he said,"God, I love you" and it struck me like a ton of bricks. How often do I say this? I have a "rote" prayer that I say each morning and go through the list of people and things to pray for...I ask, I beseech, I plead...I pray for my family, my husband, my mom, my brother and his family, my kids, my staff, that we move sites soon, that the time sheets won't have errors, that there will be no dramas throughout the day, that I can leave work with peaceful spirit...

But when the pastor said,"God, I love you" it struck a chord in me. How often do I take the time in prayer just to LOVE God for who He is? To adore Him? To let the thankfulness of my heart for ALL the unnecessary blessings in my life resound in complete and utter adoration and LOVE!?

This brought tears to my eyes...and I was unable to concentrate on who raised their hand to be saved or who raised their hand for a specific "I-need-some-help" prayer.

I DO love God. I love all He is and what He stands for in my life. And part of the covenant of being a Christian, I believe, is to show that love...through obedience first but also through continuous adoration...

I am deciding NOW to make sure I ADORE God when I pray...not only to thank Him for the multitude of blessings in my life (which I do often) but also just to simply LOVE Him...WHO He is, WHAT He is, and how HE continues to love ME in spite of myself and agree to transform my life...A new covenant to keep...