Revamp.

The joy of your salvation.
What does that mean to you?

That joy that you felt when you first got saved. That jump you felt everytime someone mentioned God. That excitement that builds as you pray, trusting that God is hearing every word.
The worship that was fervent and real. The kind of worship that doesn't have rules or restrictions on it. I'm not talking about the hands raised, elbows in, worship that's guarding you from embarrassment. What about the praise that poured out of your life because you couldn't get enough of God, and couldn't wait for what He'd do next!

Maybe you've gotten into a habit. Maybe you have your daily quiet times, pray, or put on that smile everyday, so nobody knows what you're holding inside. But God knows. Jesus said I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.

He meant spiritual life, a death to self that literally puts Christ inside of you, and puts you inside of Christ. But the "life more abundantly" part is not a promise to be fulfilled as you pass from this world into the next. It is a promise that God's plan for you goes beyond your wildest dreams. Beyond your spouse or kids or parents. Beyond those people you chat with at church and those people who are really your friends the other six days of the week. Beyond your routine of what time you'll get up, what time you'll get to work, how long til you can come back home.


Sometimes I get stuck. Sometimes I read verses and I don't feel that jump of joy. I pray and feel like my prayers are just words that float out of my hollow heart and disappear and no one ever knows.

But I ask for God to speak, and then I talk the whole time.

In the book "Praise Habit: Finding God in Sushi and Sunsets" by David Crowder, David quotes an author who was speaking with a couple of other authors about renewing your thoughts by looking at scripture differently. He says that if in the first line (Our Father who art in heaven), if "heaven" or "the heavens" means the place where God dwells, then we could just as easily say "Our Father who is closer than the air I breathe."

So I took this part of scripture that I'm sure everyone who's ever been to church has heard and probably knows by heart.. The Lord's Prayer. I looked at it and thought I'd make it my own... but i'm going to keep that first line.

Our Father, who is closer than the air I breathe,
Your name is so holy that it leaves me awestruck.
May the grace and peace of the life lived in Your abundance come down and fill our entire existence.
Guide my steps and help me find the path that You have delicately laid out before me.
Let Your truth be the nourishment that fills my aching, empty, soul that is so hungry for a glimpse of You.
Cleanse me of my shameful sin, and give me the strength and grace to extend forgiveness to others, so I can be more like You.
Engulf my life and transform my heart so I can flee from tempations.
I want to be so deeply buried in your sweet embrace that the evil of this world has no foothold in my life.
Everything that I will ever have or know is Yours.
Forever and ever.
Amen.