24 - Bringing God Joy

It’s so easy to stand there praying, saying all the right things, with my mind still asleep or focused on something else. I can be halfway through the Lord’s Prayer (Mt 6:9-13) and suddenly realize I haven’t a clue what I just said, and am saying things with no particular awareness that God is listening to me. I’m just reciting words that I’ve memorized. They’re good words, if you actually stop to think about them, but until I wake up inside, until I become conscious of the One to whom I was supposedly talking, it’s just a morning ritual that I do so I can check it off my list. 

But if I stop and wake up my spirit, if I become aware of God and sense that He is with me in that room, if I wake up my mind and really think about what I’m saying, those same words will guide me into one important exchange after another; a conversation will take place between my spirit and Him. I know that when that change takes place inside me I can certainly tell the difference, and what Jesus teaches us today is that God can too, and that when that happens I bring Him great joy. Jesus said He actually searches for people who will worship Him this way. Resting beside Jacob’s well Jesus explained to a Samaritan woman what it means to truly worship God. Let’s listen.