YÂSHAB

One thing the Lord has kept highlighting to me since last year is how our prayers have turned to intimacy.

Not like it is bad to ask our father for things o but our prayers moved beyond this completely last year

And this is collective, as a family

Don't know if we noticed. We moved from focusing on our individual needs to wanting to just spend time with the Father. 

Towards the end of January, the Lord gave us a theme for our 2022 nightly prayers 💃💃💃💃💃

Let's open our bibles to Psalm 27:4

The one thing I ask of the Lord— the thing I seek most— is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple. Psalms 27:4 NLT

I ask only one thing from the Lord. This is what I want most: Let me live in the Lord’s house all my life, enjoying the Lord’s beauty and spending time in his palace. Psalms 27:4 ERV

I’m asking God for one thing, only one thing: To live with him in his house my whole life long. I’ll contemplate his beauty; I’ll study at his feet. Psalm 27:4 MSG

If you read from the beginning, the chapter opens with songs of celebration from David but everything changed in verse 4

I'm not sure what his Eureka moment was. I also know that David did not decide to seek God because he needed to conquer nations or win a battle.

One thing I crave the most

The only thing I want

The one thing I seek above every other

The one thing I really desire

Amplified says The one thing I ask, and I do not just stop at asking, I will proceed to seek..Omo

This was David with not just a desire but a will to make sure that desire comes to pass. David would do anything to actually dwell in the house of God

Anything!

I remember the first time this scripture hit me, I wrote my own version out and will just say it every day in prayer :

I long to be in the secret place, you and I alone. Have the privilege of living with you DAILY and communing EVERY moment. I want to find the sweet loveliness of your face, touch the fine lines on it, gaze upon your beauty, stay in awe of how wonderful you are. Delight in your glory, think of your greatness and just revel in it. I want to just ponder on your Grace and burst into tears at how amazing you are. I want to live so close to you that we both find pleasure in this friendship

Prayer is warfare, true. But you see, Prayer is way more than warfare. It is intimacy, dwelling!

I will come back to verse 4

That’s the only quiet, secure place in a noisy world, The perfect getaway, far from the buzz of traffic. Psalms 27:5 MSG

Did David live in Lagos? 😂😂

I don't know how I found that verse in MSG but i did and it just gave a new meaning

Felt like I had a shared struggle with David. This is what prayers have been to me really

Away from the noise and all the troubles of the day

You know, sometimes when we give testimonies, we are testifying of what God has done o, but it comes to me sometimes as if we are gisting God about our day. The way we detail and express

I pick really little things, so I noticed.

You know when you've gone out since morning and you are coming to just tell your lover everything 😭

Or just snuggle up close. This is how prayer has felt

Our prayer theme is a reality we are already inside. One that David understood and lived too

“One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.” Psalms 27:4 (KJV)

"That I may Dwell"

Our prayer theme for the year is Yâshab

💃💃💃💃💃💃💃

It is pronounced yaw-shab

It means to dwell

To remain

To settle

To ease self  (verse 5 makes sense from this angle)

To tarry

Inhabit

Marry

Remain

To seat

To sit still!

Why did David want to stay here?

To behold the beauty of the Lord 😭😭😭

We will find God beautiful. Kai!

As we gather and continue alone also, we will find God's richness

Ah! We will know His laughter, his chuckle and we will love the sound of it

We will remember it while we work

To enquire in His temple

First to just take in His beauty

Do His eyes twitch when He smiles? 

Are there lines on His face? 

Does the richness in the sound of His laughter give me a tingling?

No one dwells and not fall in love 😭

Nobody

Take in all of Him

And then ask Him about Himself because the more we know Him, the more we know us. Our lives are hidden in Him

The things we don't understand, we enquire. We do not bother about them, we just ask Him

We take His thoughts. We take His opinions

I am excited about this word (theme). I am excited because it is a love journey. Yes!

It is prayers but this is a journey of love I see before us. And I am so delighted that we will be doing this together

Knowing God this intimately together

I want this to guide us every time we come to pray

On some days prayer becomes an obligation. On days when you feel prayers have not been answered. On days where you really can't see the use of prayers

Please find this message and go back to your habitat. Let it guide you back here in love

And when we gather?

Please behold His beauty. Don't ever forget to take it all in. Allow yourself to be lost in the sweetness of His fragrance

Sniff Him. Take it all in

Take Him in!

So much that even when you are not here, His fragrance is on your body

You know when you cuddle someone so much and they leave their fragrance on your body

I am looking forward to experiencing all of God alongside you. I cannot wait for the seeds borne of love

Make it a date

Mark it out on your calendar.

Invite people

You know when you are blushing at work and they think it is (wo)man but they don't it is God 😂. Invite them to enjoy this too

So yes...

Our Prayer theme for the year is yâshab.

Mon - Sat

9pm

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