Coffee with Jesus
Philippians 4:6
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. NLT
Pray about everything... Last Sunday at church while Rob was teaching he said we tend to pour our hearts out to people when we should be pouring our hearts out to God.
I’m thinking that a lot of things I feel the need to “pour out” on my inner circle of peope might not even come up if I more faithfully exercise the practice of telling God first. When I experience frustrating circumstances or unexpected emotions it’s time to get together with someone for coffee and dissect it all, right? That’s just what we do. Truthfully, my own experience shows me that coffee with Jesus first is much more helpful. Pouring out to Jesus what has frustrated me or made me an emotional hot mess yields different results than saving it for friend’s ear. Actually, unloading in prayer first makes it even unnecessary to unload it on a friend too. Do you know why that is?
Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7 NLT)
I’m still going to have coffee with friends, but hopefully the conversations will be encouraging about what God has done rather than just an unloading of things I should be “pouring out” to God in the first place. Confirmation & encouragement does come from time with friends, and I am so thankful for this, but real peace (the peace that I need) only comes from time with Jesus.
Dear Jesus,
You know what is on my heart today. You know my desperate prayers. You know what I mean to do and mean to say. I need you to help me today to have the desire and the ability to do what please you. Thank you for getting me through yesterday and the day before with all my emotions running wild. Thank you for restful sleep. Thank you for peace and joy that you personally put in my heart this morning. I love you and I thank you and I know that because of YOU, everything is going to be ok. And I pray in your name, amen.