Oct 22 Power, Love, Sound Mind

Father, thank You that You are alive in me through the Holy Spirit .  And thank You that the Holy Spirit fills me with “power and love and a sound mind.”  Father, help me live this Spirit-filled life.  Show me how to use these gifts the way You intended. 

The Amplified Version of this scripture, tells me this power will keep me from being fearful, from cringing and behaving cowardly.  It tells me I will have boldness, courage, and authority that comes from You.

I will have access to Your love to treat people with compassion and care.   And I will have a well-balanced mind with discipline and self-control.

Father, remind me in times of decision making and stress, that You have given me a sound mind for figuring things out.  And that I can trust those thought processes when I ask for Your, the Holy Spirit’s help.

Psalm 91 gives me a picture of complete protection.  It includes the physical, emotional, mental, financial, spiritual; every way I need to be shielded.  I am protected from entrapment and disease.  In daylight and in darkness I am covered.   Weapons, epidemics and mass death will not touch me.  I will not be overcome by disaster or harm.

But I will see the wicked punished.  I will receive help from Your angels.  You promise to protect me, rescue me, answer my call, and always be with me.

I have received Your salvation.  I could not ask for more.  Thank You.  Amen

2 Timothy 1:7; Psalm 91:1-16

 

May 4 Freedom isn’t license

“In those days, Israel had no king and everyone did as he saw fit.”

What a gruesome and shocking act to read about in scripture.  Yet this is what it took to wake up the Israelites to how bad things had gotten.

I wonder, God, what it will take to wake up the people in my country?  We do not have a king.  But we have so many freedoms that pretty much everyone does as they see fit.

We take the lives of the old and infirmed and call it mercy.  We murder the innocent unborn and call it choice.   We legalize immorality and call it lifestyle.  Then our lawmakers vote raises for themselves and we stick our heads back in the sand.

You love the people, O Lord.  But bad and wrong decisions abound.  We have been misled.  Even when You came in person from heaven and testified about heaven, not many believed You.  It seems it’s still that way today.

 

Father, lead our nation back to You.  Return to every believer the joy of their salvation.  Bring a Revival of faith to our country that will return godly morality and love for each other as a way of life.  Move us forward to be the greatest nation because it is in God we trust!

Regardless, I will sing to You all my life!  I will sing songs of praise to You as long as I live!  I will meditate on Your Word.  Praise the Lord, O my soul!  Praise the Lord!  Amen

Judges 19:1-20:48; John 3:27-36; Psalm 104:33

Feb 4 Eternal Priorities

 

Three words I never want to hear: “Woe to you.”

With these words You gave warning to the Pharisees and called them into account for their actions and deeds.  Even now, it’s so easy to say “I would never be like them!”  I do not want to follow in their footsteps, like judging others while projecting seeming innocence.  So correct me if You see in me what You saw in them.

They had their priorities backwards, saying the gold was more valuable than the temple it was in, and the sacrifice more valuable than the altar it was offered on.

Help me make and keep my priorities straight.  Help me understand the true value of things as they are in Your economy so I do not elevate the profane and dishonor the holy.

Many of the things the world places value on are not truly valuable.  The world sees from a limited, short-term perspective and often places more significance on the created thing, than the Creator Himself.

Help me see things for their eternal value.

I love Your humor when You say they “strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!”  Teach me to see the bigger picture and focus on the important things and not be legalistic over the smaller insignificant ones.

I can get so carried away with the urgent that sometimes I don’t make time for the important things.   Show me how to spend my energy and time on what is significant.

You paint a striking picture when You describe a cup: clean on the outside but dirty on the inside; or a whitewashed tomb, clean on the outside but full of death on the inside.  You see not only the outward appearance, but see into man’s heart to know him.

Let me be as concerned with being pure and clean on the inside as I am with being presentable on the outside.   Help me be authentic and transparent; so my walk agrees with my talk.  Let me put as much time into developing my character as my wardrobe.

I desire to be all You have created me to be.  But it is so easy to follow the way of the world and look for the easy way – to make a big deal over what the world says is a big deal.  I know that most of the world does not seek You to worship You or follow You.

Broad is the path that leads to destruction.  Help me find that narrow way, and stay on that path: the one that brings joy and not woe.  Amen

Matthew 23:13-39; Matthew 7:13

Oct 23 Waiting – hardest thing to do

O Father.  Have I been like these people?

It seems they were truly seeking Your will, and promised to do whatever Jeremiah revealed as Your will.

But when ten days went by, they had already evaluated their options and come to a decision they thought was best for them.  It seems once they had made up their minds, there was no room for Your Word to be heard.

I wonder if there have been times when I came to You, pouring out my heart because I was so desperate and didn’t know what to do.  Then, while waiting for Your response, I looked around for myself and became convinced of my best option.

Father, when faced with hardship and stress, would You help me be patient until I hear an answer from You.   Waiting can be very hard even in the best of situations.  But when there is pressure to make a decision, or harm may occur without action, waiting can be unbearable.  Help me bear it.

I’ve had people tell me “God can’t steer a parked car.”  They are encouraging me to get started in some direction, saying You will guide me once I commit to go.  But sometimes that is not wise advice.  I can become so committed to the direction I choose, that I refuse to course correct later.

While waiting, help me stay so close to You, that I recognize Your voice.  When I do hear from You, reassure me it is truly Your Word.  Even if it goes against what I might have thought, help me know without a doubt, that what I’ve heard is from You.

And Father, empower me to be obedient.  Don’t let me be defensive of any plan I have come up with myself, or think I know something You don’t.  Time and time again, You have shown me that Your answers are far more creative, far more successful and far more wise than any I have ever thought up.

The Israelites decided rather than stay in hardship one more day, they should go the way that seemed to benefit them.  Father, if there comes a time when I must remain in a hard place, or endure Your correction, strengthen me to be able to do that.   Even though it may seem I’m in the frying pan, I trust in Your wisdom, in Your perspective, and in Your perfect plan to keep me out of the fire.

That I have faith in You to direct my life is easy to say when the times are good.  Father, strengthen and prepare me to be able to live out my faith, even when the times are not.  Amen

Jeremiah 42:1-43:7

Oct 22 Holy Spirit fills with power and love and a sound mind

Father, thank You that You, as the Holy Spirit are alive in me.  And thank You that the Holy Spirit fills me with “power and love and a sound mind.”  Father, help me live this Spirit-filled life.  Show me how to use these gifts the way You intended.

The Amplified Version of this scripture, tells me this power will keep me from being fearful, from cringing and behaving cowardly.  It tells me I will have boldness, courage, and authority that comes from You.   I will have access to Your love to treat people compassionately and caringly.   And I will have a well-balanced mind with discipline and self-control.

Father, remind me in times of decision making and stress, that You have given me a sound mind for figuring things out.  And that I can trust those thought processes when I ask for Your, the Holy Spirit’s help.

Father, I claim “You are my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”  You are the Most High and the Almighty God, and You allow me to dwell in Your shelter and rest in Your shadow.   The picture here is one of complete protection.  Refuges and fortresses are defensible places where one can be safe; safe from the elements, and safe from enemies.

It is not just a place I run to in times of trouble, but because You are my God, I can live there all the time.  I have a place of safety and security to operate out of, always.  There I can live, and there I can find rest.  Your rest includes elements of:  R- relaxation  E- enjoyment   S- security  and T- triumph.

Psalm 91 pictures this place as a mother hen protects her young chicks by sheltering them literally under her feathered wings.   And Your refuge protects me in every way possible.

Your protection includes the physical, emotional, mental, financial, spiritual; every way I need to be shielded.  I am protected from entrapment and disease.  In daylight and in darkness, I am covered.   Weapons, epidemics and mass death will not touch me.  I will not be overcome by disaster or harm.

But I will see the wicked punished.  I will receive help from Your angels.  You promise to protect me, rescue me, answer my call, and always be with me.

I have received Your salvation.  I could not ask for more.  Thank You.  Amen

2 Timothy 1:7; Psalm 91:1-16

Jan 16 Wrestling

Dear Father, I seem to be a wrestler. Jacob wrestled with You one night. He held on till daybreak, and You blessed him. In Your blessing him, he became part of the promise You gave to Abram: to make him father of a great nation, make his name great, and bless all the earth through him. For Jacob (renamed Israel) was Abram’s (renamed Abraham’s) grandson. And down through their lineage, You came as Jesus Christ, Messiah and Savior, blessing all the world.

My wrestling is not so productive as Jacob’s. With simple things: decisions, relationships, or issues which may be meaningless in the grand scheme of things; I spend time and waste energy grappling with whether or not I made a good decision. I review the options, second guessing myself, wondering and worrying about how other choices would have played out. There is no winning there, and no blessing in that.

So Father, help me seek Your godly wisdom in my decisions. Help me bring every choice to You and ask for Your perspective. You tell believers to ask when we need wisdom, and You will give it to us. Show me how to hear Your voice of truth and then have peace about the decision when made, without revisiting it over and over.

Rather than continue to wrestle with relationships, Lord, I give them to You. Show me how to spend my time and energy, and who to spend it with. Beginnings and endings are hard for me, and I know sometimes You bring a person into my life for a season. But I struggle when that season is over, to know how to let go. Most of my life I was the one who literally left, moved to a different place. I never really learned how to move on from being close to someone. How do I say good bye when there is no geographical separation? But hanging on too long isn’t working out either. Move me into and out of the relationships You want me to have, so that I can give and receive the blessings You intended for each of us.

I also wrestle with issues in my life when I have had a single viewpoint. Some are things I learned as a child and accepted without question. Now I have grown and learned that things are not as absolute as I once believed they were. And even though these beliefs are holding me back and potentially harming me, it’s hard to let go. Help me have discernment when it comes to examining issues that affect my life, my behavior, even my sense of identity.

Father, as I wrestle with all these things, let me take hold of and cling to only You. Pry my fingers off of the things that are not important. And bless me as I cling forever to You. Amen

Genesis 32:22-30