"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."
-Matthew 22:37 Dear Heavenly Father, You are worthy of all our love, all our hearts and souls and minds. You are beautiful beyond description. You are powerful and perfect beyond understanding. You love us when we are unlovable and at enmity with you. You save us from Your wrath upon us. You are so above us and beyond us. Please teach us to love you well. Teach our hearts to love you with all we have and are above any other thing we will ever desire or experience in this life. Help us to receive your perfect love with faith and devotion. Thank you for loving me Lord. Thank you for never leaving me or forsaking me. Please enable my meager self to love you in a way that is pleasing to you and acceptable to your holy awesome dwelling. Accept my attempts at loving you. Let me love others well how you love me too. In Jesus name, amen.
0 Comments
"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Life is so hard. There is so much we could allow to drag us down and make us hopeless. But there are infinitely more things all around us that we can give thanks for. The things that are concerning and discouraging are for bringing to God in prayer and then leaving them there. God is always who He is and He never changes, so there is always cause to rejoice in the Lord. Even in the trials, temptations, heart breaks and pain there is cause enough to give thanks to a good, holy, loving, just, merciful, gracious God that cares about us deeply, passionately and individually. God's will for those of us that are in Christ Jesus is that we should always rejoice, pray continually, and give thanks, no matter what is going on in our lives. Dear Heavenly Father, We read this, we want it to be a description of who we are. We want it to be our life's reflection. We want to live this out, but alone, we can do nothing. Please fill us afresh with your grace and your Spirit and your will that we can do this, especially when it feels impossible. Lift our eyes to see you and behold your beauty and seek you and rely on you faithfully in all of life, that we would be enabled to truly rejoice always, pray continually and give thanks in ALL circumstances. Thank you Lord. In Jesus' Name, Amen. "He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning."
Daniel 2:21 Looking at the state of the world, it is easy to become fearful, worried, controlling, and hopeless. However, when we remember the truths mined in this verse, we can remember God is sovereign over everything. We can train ourselves to pray for His will, pray for the nations and all the rulers and to trust in the ONE King who holds all power. My son's history book for homeschooling was really neat, along with a fun way to learn about other cultures and countries, it led us each week to pray for the government, leaders and people of the nations we studied. It was an irritating burden at first as both of us just wanted to move on and finish the chapter. But I refused to miss this opportunity for each country with him. It has truly deepened my love for the nations. God truly sets up kings and deposes them. We should be praying for our own and other nations and their leaders that God would put in power who would fulfill his will in the earth and that they would be good leaders that take care of their people and seek the LORD. We must, in maturity, also realize, that praying the Lord's will, especially as we move into the end times, means we will be praying into power demonic influencers to culminate this Age into the one to come. God is the One and only One who changes seasons on time with consistency and complete control every single year. He makes the summer days long and the winter days short. He makes it rain in the spring. He makes the leaves fall in Autumn. He makes it snow and blow flurries in the winter. He makes it hot and full in the summer so crops may flourish. He promised that the seasons would never end after he flooded and then dried the earth. And He continues to uphold that promise day in and day out until the end of the earth's existence when He returns to reign. He is the one who gave and continues to give wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. His wisdom, knowledge and power over everything is complete. He is all wise, all knowing, and all powerful. Anyone who has wisdom or knowledge only received it from the KING. He is sovereign. Rest in Him. When everything seems like it is spinning out of control, remember, it isn't because God is holding it all in the palm of his hand. He knows every detail, He has planned every kings rise and fall for His wills accomplishment, He changes even the seasons and departs knowledge and wisdom to whom He pleases and to those who ask Him for it. Hallelujah! Dear Heavenly Father, There are many concerns, worries and scary things out there in the world that are distressing to us on the human scale of understanding we have. Please lead us into your heart for safety and protection. Please cover us in your wings and fill us with your Word and remind us of who you are. Please lift our eyes to You when the storms rage and the mountains fall, that we may not be overcome. Help us surrender all control to you and walk by faith in you no matter what situation we are in. Help us not to fear, but to lean into and trust in you in everything. Thank you that you alone are God and in control of every detail of life! Protect and provide for and sustain all your children the world over, in every country, despite of or through the leaders of that nation. Above all, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven! In Jesus' name, Amen. "1 My son, keep my words and store up my commands within you. 2 Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. 3 Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart." Proverbs 7:1-3
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for your Word. Create a deep desire for it and a longing to cherish it above all the glitter of this world, for your love is better than life and your Word is Light and Love. Please help us as parents, cherish you personally above all other loves in this life and be a living example of holiness to our kids. Help us to authentically live out our faith in every arena of our lives, and to genuinely love others generously like Jesus. Teach us, that we may teach our children your ways and your Word and how beautiful it is. Help us hide it away in our hearts that we might not sin against you. Keep our children from the solicitations of their own sin, the world, and the devil. Give them a grace covering that makes them have a bitter taste for the things of this life that pull their hearts away from you and lead them into sin and debauchery. Fill their minds and hearts with thoughts of You and your Word and make them to see your beauty and the pleasures at your right hand that are not short lived or stained in any way, but are eternal and holy and good and true. Help them to listen and obey instruction in the Lord. Help them turn their desires to your heart Lord. Lead them in the path of righteousness for your name's sake. Cover us with your wings and fill us with your Spirit that we may make your name great and exult you among the world. Thank you, Lord, for everything. Hallelujah! Praise your name. In Jesus' name, amen. I was reading a devotion this morning about being creative with our faith from Truth for Life. It really got me thinking and inspired. It was saying we should use any means necessary to share the Gospel with others, We should be creative in how we approach others, using our God-given gifts and proclivities to open the door to communication.
Then I was at my desk praying through my recent list of needs and people who are struggling, and one name jumped out at me. A lady that works with my mom in the public school system. She is suffering and really struggling to recover from covid. She is back at work and cannot keep her oxygen numbers up, but has to work to support her family. Mom is a servant-hearted, generous person who loves people through hospitality and cooking and baking. She made her family dinner last week. As I prayed for her to heal and get better I thought, have we prayed for or ministered to her soul? Has she heard a clear gospel presentation to have opportunity to be saved from her sin!?!? THAT is more important than dinner or physical health. Then I was listening to a sermon yesterday about Elisha and one phrase stood out to me: "Elisha feared the LORD" is what the pastor said. It all tied together for me in my heart...we are fearful of man more than we are fearful of the LORD. If you read through 2 Kings about Elisha you can clearly see that the man was doubly more bold and powerful than his mentor Elijah had been. How did he do this? He feared the LORD. ALONE. Only the Lord did he fear. He didn't fear man, nor beast, nor famine, nor plague, nor sickness, nor death, nor kings, nor armies, nor principalities, nor enemies, nor evil, nor demons...He feared the LORD. And so should we. There is a lie going around the world and especially the American church that in order to evangelize someone without offending them, you must build a friendship and trust relationship with them. This is a lie from the pit of Hell and Satan himself to horde more ignorant, unrepentant souls to himself, while convincing and assuaging the church's guilt over the lost by wasting time. This lady my mom cooked for could drop oxygen, go into a coma and die in her sleep at any given moment. Will a meal made in love save her soul? NO! Only the Gospel, clearly and lovingly presented will. We must make the most of our time and fear the Lord in all things. We must engage at every opportunity with the bold proclamation of the good news. we are currently living in a worldwide deception and pandemic of a virus that is mutating and wiping people out right and left. Many are suffering and losing loved ones and friends and coworkers. Time is short and the end is near! We must step out of our self protective bubbles and speak Truth in LOVE to all around us, no matter the cost! We must fear the LORD alone! Dear Heavenly Father, Please strip us bare! Remove all our protective layers we try to hide behind and replace it with your Light and your protection. Help us stop caring what we will look like or how we will sound and what we might lose if we proclaim your Name and Fame and Good News. Forgive us O LORD!! Forgive us for being so blinded by our own fears and insecurities and weaknesses when we should be blinded by your glory alone! Give us opportunity to share You and fill us with bold determination to make much of You in every situation. In Jesus' name and for His glory, Amen. |
Pray with meJoin me in prayer in the comments section! Let's beat at the doors of Heaven together. :) Archives
August 2023
Categories |