David, on a good day!

Psalm 9 open with these words:

I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart;
    I will tell of all your wonders.
I will be glad and rejoice in you;
    I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

It's quite an expression of exuberant praise, but it also speaks to a deeper reality. A phrase I often use is this: "Worship is always a valid response." As far as I am aware, worship is never an optional thing in the Bible. I haven't yet found the verse that says, "I will worship God when I feel up to it." And yet this is how many of us live our lives. We squeeze a little prayer and worship into our day if we can manage it. We build our devotional lives around our otherwise busy schedules.

But tough as it is, we know that this is not how it should be. We know that everything we do ought to flow out of our relationship with God. Sadly, as evangelicals, we've lost the art of communion with God. We ask the wrong questions. we wonder what is the shortest time we can spend seeking God in order to guarantee an answer to our prayers. Is ten minutes a day of bible reading, prayer and meditation enough to satisfy him and therefore prevent anything nasty cropping up in our lives.

How different might things be if we ordered our lives around time spent with God. This won't just happen. It will take a disciplined person choosing to make some disciplined choices and taking some disciplined action, to paraphrase Jim Collins.

Perhaps it's time to learn again the principles and practices of a daily routine of prayer and reflection that takes us through the day, stopping at set times to give thanks and to remember that God is with us, loves us and wants to work through us.

Yielded is a word that comes to mind.

Perhaps my next project should be some kind of one month guide with which I, and anyone else who fancies the idea, can experiment. A simple start the day, end the day and stop somewhere in between kind of thing.

A final thought from Psalm 9:

The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed,
       a stronghold in times of trouble.
Those who know your name will trust in you,
       for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.