What is your mind dwelling on right now? Are you overcome with fears for your future? Are you assessing toxic relationships and trying to find a way out? Are health issues threatening to pull you completely under? Is it your finances, insecurity, lack of justice, or just a general ennui that you can’t shake?

One of the challenges we all face in our discipleship is setting aside our day-to-day worries and aggravations so that we can allow space for God’s word to filter in. It is a struggle. It takes perseverance, discipline, and a plan.

When churches were closed for a bit during the pandemic, a friend told me that she would save my devotionals to read on Sunday mornings in lieu of going to church . She would get up at sunrise, make coffee, and walk to a sand dune where she could watch the sun come up over the ocean. She read and worshipped in that setting for months. I was extremely blessed to know this. It occurs to me that she was able to spend time dwelling on God’s presence because she put herself in a quiet place that was conducive to focusing.

Where are you right now? Are you in a quiet place that allows contemplation? Or are you surrounded by distraction? Changing our locale when we are studying Scripture may just be the thing we need to really take it all in.

Psalm 105 (Common English Bible)

Give thanks to the Lord;
    call upon his name;
    make his deeds known to all people!
² Sing to God;
    sing praises to the Lord;
    dwell on all his wondrous works!

Being able to dwell on God’s wonderful works makes a huge difference in how the rest of the day will go. Putting his mercy and grace foremost in our thoughts can change our perspective and attitude.

³ Give praise to God’s holy name!
    Let the hearts rejoice of all those seeking the Lord!
⁴ Pursue the Lord and his strength;
    seek his face always!

A day that starts with pursuing God and his strength is a day that moves in the right direction. When we remember his wondrous works and seek his face we find ourselves not looking to the world for direction and comfort. The world has no comfort to give. The direction it would send us in is not anywhere we want to be. Looking solely to God for these things is what is necessary for survival.

And that is a very good thing indeed.

⁵ Remember the wondrous works he has done,
    all his marvelous works, and the justice he declared—
⁶     you who are the offspring of Abraham, his servant,
        and the children of Jacob, his chosen ones.

God is a just God, a loving God, a generous God, and a powerful God.

Dwell on that today and you will be blessed by the hour.

Lone Flower