Snippet: This Got My Attention

Snip·pet | ˈsnipit | noun a small piece or brief extract.

Here’s one from Lectio 365 on August 2. There was a surprise ending to a sentence that got my attention.

“I am reminded by the missionary George Muller, who saw God meet his needs in extraordinary ways as he cared for thousands of orphans in Bristol in the 1800s, that ‘the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day is to…’”

The main thing I know about George Muller is that he prayed. He prayed and trusted God a lot. He started and ran orphanages and never asked for money. That’s what I know from dozens of references to him throughout the years.

In addition, Lectio is a prayer app.

So I expected the sentence above to end with “pray.”

“The first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day is to [pray].”

But it’s not what wrote. So it really got my attention.

What he wrote was, “The first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day is to have my soul happy in the Lord.”

If you’re wondering how you can attend to this great and primary business, here’s a start:

• Regularly ask God to stoke a desire in you to want to be happy in him.

• Ask around to see how others nurture happiness in the Lord.

• Reflect on what practices might increase your happiness in the Lord. It will take practices. You don’t learn to delight in anything without diving in. Think of your love relationships and your favorite activities. You develop practices around them.

• Reflect on what practices smother your delight in the Lord.

• Stoke more; smother less.

Photo by Freddy Mishiki on Unsplash