There are days when my prayers are all supplication. When I barely remember to thank the Lord for anything before launching into my litany of things I need His help with. Most days, I try to balance it out, to start and end my prayer time with thankfulness, with worship, and to put into the middle my requests.

On Monday, I had the Joy of getting so caught up in praising my God that I felt no need to talk to Him about my requests, because I knew that through that communion, my heart had been laid bare. He had heard all the cries of my heart, that gave tenor to the praise of my lips. It’s been a long while since my private prayers were so . . . joyful, and for no reason. I didn’t sit down thinking, “I’m just gonna praise the Lord today.” I sat down with that list of prayer requests in mind. But then I started thanking Him for all He is to me, and, well . . .

I wanted to share some of my reflections that I wrote down, simply because we can never praise Him enough.

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You are faithful . . . just yet merciful. You are awesome beyond compare, yet humble enough to become man. You orchestrate all of history, yet still care to number the  hairs on my head. How infinite you are, O Lord my God, in every direction! You fill me to bursting with love for you, with amazement at your glory. You hear every cry of my heart, even if my lips can’t give it utterance. You hear, and you respond in ways I cannot see.

How often we ask to see–yet could our mortal eyes, our finite minds ever contemplate the vastness of your hand? We look for reason in the coporeal, yet never could we truly understand all that lies beneath.

O Lord, my Lord, I worship you and adore you. I adore you for all you are that I cannot comprehend, and I praise you for the glimpses you reveal to me!

And I am humbled to think that though I might give you my all, it is nothing. Nothing compared to what youetdo, what you orchestrate, what you give for me. I am nothing. You you love me enough to be my God and Father. I am a speck. Yet you created this universe and placed me just so within it, with loving care. You hold everything in the palm of your hand, yet you give me the will to choose my own path, my own way.

I want your path, my Lord! I want The Way, Yahweh. I want to walk only beside your footprints, I want to pull only so far as I can go and still be holding tight to your hand. I want to warm myself by the light of your countenance and bathe your feet with my tears. I want to give you all and praise you for leaving me, not with nothing, but with arms open and able to embrace you and your children.

Show me what you have for me, Lord, so that I might blow away the chaff and better serve you. Hew me, chisel me, refine me. Polish me, O God. Shine through me. Shine so hotly that the impurities are incinerated. Shine so brightly that I’m blinded to all but you.

Thank you, Father. Thank you for all, for every. Thank you for knowing, and for doing. Thank you for ministering to this pathetic woman on this cold morning and filling me to overflowing . . .

With you. Always, only with you.

Amen