5-SEPT-2020_Time in the Temple Today    (BY VATINA)  	
Here I am with another meditation moments time of praise and worshiping our Lord and Love, the King of all that is good and lovely, pure and excellent. All good gifts from His hand. All we need to do is say, “Yes, please, I’ll take some of that,” and then thank Him for the gifts that He eagerly wishes to bestow. 
So, what will you take from His outstretched hands today? A bit of peace? A heap of love? A new fervency in prayer?
You know it doesn’t do all that much good for you if gifts are just left in a box, unused. You might have thanked the giver, but until you actually put them to use, it’s like you never got them. 
Try it today. Think of something that you really could use more of—something that His spirit alone can gift you with. And then ask for His help to put it into practice, to put that gift into good use. And once you step out to try, even with the smallest step or gentlest whisper, then boom, the gift comes fully into your hands. The gift is yours. You have to do your part to reach out and begin to use it. 
Then you can thank Jesus all over again for the gift, once you see it in action and see how it is helping you and helping others. And what is the end result? That we get big and powerful in ourselves and collect a lot of vainglory and success? No. 
So why do we need the gifts and fruits of His spirit to be given to us and powerfully affect us? So we’ll love Jesus more. And so that He has chance to love us more and more. It’s all about love, really.
Let’s take the gift of patience. It’s really something none of us are born with, yet everyone that wants to ever succeed in any aspect of life has got to have patience. So if you lack patience, ask of God, “who giveth to all men liberally”. I know that passage is talking about wisdom as the prime example, but it’s like that with any of the gifts and fruits of His Holy Spirit. You ask, and He has more than enough to give. 
If you need patience, just ask for it. He won’t condemn you for your lack of it when you are asking for more. It’s not to just humiliate you, that He requires you to ask for something you need. But it’s to show you love. He loves giving gifts. He wants you to praise Him, and He loves to give you things to praise Him for. It’s a fatherly relationship He’s trying to work on when He says “Ask, and I’ll give you gifts.” 
Imagine it like a father who owns a huge shop, selling all kinds of produce. If his young son visited him at the store and was hungry, he’d just need to ask, and then his father would give him a snack. The toddler or young child wouldn’t be expected to pay. That is what fathers are for, to supply the needs of their children. 
So for those of us who are children of God, who have taken the entrance passage way through the suffering and salvation through Jesus Christ, we can just ask for whatever is needed. 
Some requests that come to the Father are far out, but the Father of us all listens patiently and gives out what is really best. 
He knows each child, each of us, and He will give only that which is for our good. But you have to do the asking, that’s your part. Because He wants each need to be a stepping stone to a closer relationship with Him. 
It’s to be more than a business encounter, but a friendship and helpmeet. In a business arrangement you might put in a request, and then walk away, glad to get what you need. But if a different business had supplied this need for you instead, it wouldn’t make any difference to you, if only getting what you want is all you are after. 
However, if the owner of the company was your father, you’d go to him to supply it, because you knew he would give the best things, and gift them freely too. It would be a reason for you to talk and enjoy each other’s company. You don’t just want the product, but the relationship—especially if what you are asking for is what you need in order to do something your father needed you to do. You are both helping each other. 
And the Father loves for you to come to Him, and hopes you’ll linger in His presence long enough to make your acquaintance with Him. To get to know Him personally. He wants to hear how things are going—your account of it, in your own words. And He wants to know how you are going to put this gift He’s giving you to good use. 
And He’ll love to have you return again to meet and tell Him how much the gift has helped you in your life. Then it’s not just a business exchange, but a means to grow in a closer friendship and comradery.
What do you need Jesus to do for you—or to be for you? Ask Him. He loves to hear from you. Tell Him of your lacks, the lacks in your nature and how you just can’t be all that you know He wishes you were, but that with His help, you’d really like to be what He needs. 
Then let Him tell you all that He would like to be for you. All the empty places in your life that He can fill just perfectly. 
It may not be something you understand just today, or even for a while yet. But as you get to know the nature of Jesus, and how He loves to fill your heart and bring joy and satisfaction, you’ll see how much He loves you, and is very capable of being for you what you need. 
When you get to the point that you can really open up your heart to Him in prayer and express all those deep things that are going on in there, that’s when you start to feel Him taking a more predominant role in your heart and mind and life. Then He starts to do things that you can’t do for yourself. He can heal that hurt that’s been there for a long while. He can give joy instead of the sorrow you feel. He actually does things for you—in body, healing; in mind, changing; in spirit, refreshing. And so much. You actually change and are renewed after presenting to Him your needs. 

I took time today in the Temple of God
 A place where the two of us meet
I gave Him my empty and broken jar
As I poured out my tears on His feet

Yes, I took time, I took time
For meeting with Jesus takes time
But oh what I gained, 
Far more than I missed
For Jesus refills every time.

I gave Him my best in our time now today
My best was to say I had need
He took my hands and drew me near 
Saying, “I have all you’ll ever need.”

So now I take time, always taking time
To sit at the dear Master’s feet
It’s here that I learn
That He helps me to live
For Jesus makes all lives complete.

The day went so fast, and I missed His dear presence
Not His fault but mine to be sure
I crumbled and stumbled at fall of the day
Holding my plans not His pleasure.

When woke the next morning, I scarcely did move
Unless it was to reach His heart
“Darling, My Dear, for You I am here”
He replied, “That’s the right way to start.”

Oh I took time, a wonderful time
Jesus and I spending time
He took my cares
And replaced them with joy
For His gifts come with spending time.