The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his temple.
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.
Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
be gracious to me and answer me!
You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
“Your face, Lord, do I seek.”
Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.
Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!
Thought
How good are you at looking after your feet? A strange question I know, but our feet are very important and we take them for granted at our peril. Each morning most of us wake up, put our feet down on the floor and expect them to support us throughout the whole day. We walk, run, and maybe even skip about on them all day. We put them in socks, in slippers, in shoes or in boots and we expect them to function without causing us any pain while we have a tendency to ignore that they need looking after and maintenance.
I have some lovely foot cream and all that is required is that I regularly (each day preferably) rub the cream into my feet to help keep them in good condition. It doesn’t take very long, the cream smells very nice and so it is a very pleasant experience but somehow each evening when I’m just about to get into bed it can feel like just too much effort to get the cream out and put it on. I know that applying the cream does me good, because when I do apply it regularly the skin on my feet feels better. On top of the regular maintenance of my feet, I will sometimes treat them to a more intense and thorough treatment, to give them a real boost.
The time we spend with God can seem a little like looking after our feet. We know that we should regularly spend time with him and that it is important for our spiritual wellbeing that we do. It is not difficult, and is actually a very pleasant thing to do. However, sometimes, it feels like too much effort to find the time, however short, to put aside to look after our spiritual health. Regular attention to our spiritual health is needed, as well as the occasional really good uplift of dedicated time, which might be Sunday services, or a really good sing along to your favourite hymn or worship song while putting out the washing at home.
If we just ignore our feet they will not work as well as they could and if we ignore spending time with God we will miss out on so much more.
Prayer
Help me Father to find time each day to spend with you.
Amen