His Table

 "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows." Psalm 23:5

Perhaps one of the saddest truths for the people of God is that we may spend a lot of time praying and yet never really connect with Him. There are many reasons for this. We can pray from selfish motives, for our own personal gain. We can pray out of a sense of duty, mouthing many words and even Scriptures, yet our hearts and souls are never really engaged with Him. We pray, and then we "hang up" and quickly disengage. We're all guilty of it. For too many of us, it's a consistent pattern.

I don't remember who said this about the above verse, but I have it written in my prayer journal, "An overflowing cup means the King adores you and doesn't want you to leave His table." Yet we, you and I, always seem very anxious to leave His table. We have this attitude in our so called "devotional times," and we have it in our times of corporate worship. We disengage from Him easily and quickly, if we've even been engaged at all. We don't know how to linger in His presence, and worst of all, we don't know how deeply He longs that we should.

Of late, due to some things that I've been walking through, things I know He has allowed, I've been seeking to reverse this in my life. Too often I've hurried out of His presence in order to get on to other things. Things that, though I would never say it, are more important to engage with than Him. What has been the cost to me? What has been the cost to you?

In too many ways concerning the things of the Spirit, we are all ADD people. We have a very difficult time focusing on Him for any real length of time. In His love, He will go to any length to correct this. He is constantly calling us to His table, and we may accept His invitation, but we are always looking for the opportunity to get up and get on to other things. So, our cups never do overflow. In fact, our cups are usually empty or almost empty. And we suffer the consequences of that.

When we leave His table, we often end up at another's table, and that table is always destructive. We pay a heavy price to dine there. We may try to fill our empty cups there, but we only end up thirstier, hungrier, emptier. Isn't it time to not just return to His table, but to dwell there?

His invitation, His call, is going out. It's always going out. Do you hear it? Will you come? He longs for your presence. Do you long for His? He means to fill your cup with never ending joy, peace, and blessing. The blessing of Himself. Come to His table.....and may we, may you, never leave.

Blessings,
Pastor O