(picture from weightmatters.com)

Meet Me For Coffee

Satisfy us each morning with your unfailing love, so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives. – Psalm 90:14

In the morning, coffee shops fill up with people looking for their coffee fix, to wake up and be renewed.  Although many people come and go, there are some who create a whole new experience.  They decide to stop and sit, often meeting acquaintances or those they know and love, for a quiet chat, just to enjoy their company.  In the early morning though,  the coffee shop is quiet, no one is there yet and the streets are bare only a few brave and solitary cars every so often.   Occasionally, I stop in and start my day in solitude.  Before all the hustle and bustle, I would sit with my coffee made, and take in the beauty and sacredness of a new day.  With empty chairs all around me, and subtle music playing in the background my day began in solitude, safety, peace and joy with a word from God.  A slice of Heaven!

 

Each morning, God welcomes all of us into a new day, full of new mercies and new grace, and most of all He surrounds us with his unfailing love.  He gives us a new start, and the peace and joy that we often are too busy and preoccupied to acknowledge let alone, appreciate.  The stress of life rushes in almost before we even get out of our beds, I have to do this, and that, and this, and off we go.  Oh yes, that’s right, I am going to spend sometime with God!  Ok, made it through my devotion, I’ll pray in my car on my way to where I am going.  God knows my heart, and everyone is counting on me, I have to go and I have to go now!  Sound like anyone you know!

 

On those quiet days, at the coffee shop, it was as if time stopped.  My beautiful chat with God, breathing, enjoying, looking outside and celebrating life.  Nice!  On a day filled with His magnificent glory, and His peace, and with His love surrounding me and embracing me on every side, I found His love for me in His promises and in His Words.  The part of me who seem more like Martha was gone, and life was still, at least for a while.  I felt the joy of Mary, just sitting at Jesus’s beautiful feet, listening, hearing, and soaking in every Word that He spoke.  Real rest, real acceptance, real joy, and real peace, a reminder that God the Father, can always offer me a place of solitude, strength and re-filling, if I am willing to accept it.  In the middle of a coffee shop, I experienced the beautiful, love, joy and peace of the Father on an ordinary day, in an extraordinary way.  When I made some special time for me and Him, with no noise, no one calling my name, no one asking me do anything other than worship, be, and acknowledge the God I know and love.

 

My prayer today:  God you remind me that Jesus, your son used to go off to a quiet place to seek you and to pull away from the distractions of life.  You met Him, Lord God the same way, I meet you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Lord, I long to meet you, to commune with you and to worship you.  It is beautiful in your presence and safe in your arms.  God I bring my praise to you, but I also bring my challenges and struggles.  Forgive me Lord for my many failures, and make me over.  Remind me again Lord that you have forgived me, and I am made whole in you, and help me see that you never leave me or forsake me.  Where you see fear Lord, show me your love, and where you see condemnation, show me there is no condemnation in you.  Fix me up Lord, and prepare me for today’s work, so that I may share with others who need to know your love, and your forgiveness.  Thank you Lord for saving me, and making me better in you!  I thank you Lord, and praise you name, Lord!  In Jesus Holy and Righteous name I pray, Amen!