collect

As we enter our final day of Pause 8, I invite you to begin our time together today with a few moments of reflection, particularly upon #HisWordsBeforeOurs. 

+ Which Scripture passages have most impacted you these last 3 weeks?

+ Where have you seen the Lord differently, or more clearly, because of how His Word has come alive?

+ In this time of quieting our hearts to better hear His voice, what has He spoken to you through His Word and in your prayer time?

How will you choose to respond?

Today, as has become our Friday pattern, we will respond to God and His Word through crafting a collect. We’ve been looking to the biblical psalms for inspiration, and have already written our own psalms of lament and thanksgiving, based on themes we see in Scripture. 

For our final collect, we’ll look to psalms of praise for our inspiration.

Most of the definitions of praise I found involved expressing admiration of God for His holy attributes. While this might be technically correct, for me, the language felt a little . . . flat. Merriam-Webster infused a bit of vitality by adding “to glorify,” and including a list of synonyms, such as bless, extol, exalt, magnify, celebrate, and resound.

You see, sisters in Christ, I don’t think we’re motivated to devote our lives to following the way of Jesus by mere admiration. I admire many people, but I haven’t centered my life on them. If faith in Christ is defined as total dependence on the truth of the Gospel, admiration won’t get us there.

But in God, we find the One in Whose image we are made. (Genesis 1:26-27)

The One who breathes life into our dusty souls. (Genesis 2:7, John 1:3-5)

The One who loves us beyond measure, such that no sacrifice was too great to rescue us. (John 15:13, Romans 5:8)

The One who runs to us in mercy, holds us up in faithfulness, and leads us with patience and wisdom. (Ephesians 2:4-5, Psalm 36:5, Isaiah 28:29)

He is everything.

Whether we praise Him with resounding hymns from life’s mountaintops or broken, choking whispers in life’s valleys, praise rightly reorients us to Him and preaches, to ourselves and to others, of the One in Whom our hope lives.

So today, let’s praise Him!

Thank you for joining us in our third week of Pause 8! We hope you’ll return to our handcrafted Spotify playlist often to be reminded of where the Lord has led you on this journey of pausing, worshiping, and reflecting.

Be sure to sign up for free delivery of our next Journey Theme, Lowly, as we lean in and see the Humble Christ at Christmas (and a few surprise characters as well!).