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Premeditated

Whew...I just got finished putting my things together for church tomorrow. We are in the middle of our Annual Ladies' Conference and while I'm excited about the Word, I'm really excited about the outfit I have planned. I have been researching outfits for tomorrow's service for about a year now. On our Annual Ladies' Day, we dress in all white. I saw the PERFECT dress online around this time last year and I wanted it. It was a little (okay, a lot) over my budget so I decided to track the dress. It had to go on sale at some point, right?

Wrong. Very wrong. I can't even find it on eBay or any of my other usual sites. So...new plan. Look for something else. (Did I mention that I have a perfectly acceptable white suit?) So I searched online and in stores. Always looking for something, but to no avail. The dresses I saw were always too short, or too tight or too low-cut, or too see-through, or too not white.

When I finally resigned myself to wearing my "perfectly acceptable" white suit, I began to accessorize it in my head. I could hardly wait for the Ladies' Committee to announce this year's accent colour. In fact, I interrupted a planning meeting just to find out what it would be. Fuschia...yes!!

I began to accessory shop. Hmmm...which shoes? Fuschia necklace or dangly earrings? And of course my hair: curly, straight or wavy? And what length? Too many decisions to make.

I agonized for hours about what I was going to wear and how I was going to wear it. I even bought enough accessories to be able to give some away to people who had left the shopping for the last minute. And now...ah, now at long last my outfit is assembled, my purse is packed, and my makeup is at the ready. I just need to polish my nails after I'm done blogging. I'm all set, right?

Wrong (you knew it was coming....).

The Holy Spirit in His gentle way just whispered, "What if you premeditated your praise like you premeditated that outfit?"

Mind...um...blown.

My goodness! What if I had spent a year in spiritual preparation for the Word that the Lord has ordained for tomorrow? What if weeks ago I had begun to pray obsessively about this Conference, the speakers, the women that would be attending and the wonderful women who organized everything? What if I had premeditated my praise like I premeditated my outfit?

Oh, I'll be cute tomorrow, to be sure. But more than being cute, I should have better prepared myself for the  work that God is about to do in my life, in the other women's lives and in the life and legacy of the great household of faith to which I belong.

Now maybe you don't take outfit planning to an extreme like i do (truth be told, I'm pretty proud of all my efforts), but I'm willing to wager that you don't really premeditate your praise. Oh yes, you have your personal devotions and yes, you enter the gates with thanksgiving and the courts with praise. But do you pray in earnest over your services? Do you pray for the people that will attend? Do you pray for a special anointing over the bringer of the Word and the Shepard of your house? Do you praise and thank God for the work He has done, is doing and is getting ready to do in your church? In short, do you premeditate your praise? Or do you just agree in spirit with the prayer and worship leaders at your services?

It's inconvenient to do that kind of premeditated prep work, especially if you already have an active personal devotion time. But church services are not just about what we can receive from the Lord. They are about others. And sometimes our premeditated intercession is what some need to get their deliverance.

Look, it's Saturday night. There's still time before tomorrow's service. Go to the Throne of Grace and premeditate your praise.

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