20 Now may the God of peace— who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood— 21 may he equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him. All glory to him forever and ever! Amen.
Hebrews 13:20-21
Dear God, I like this blessing. I especially like the part of verse 21 where he says, “May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus…” Several months ago, instead of praying “in Jesus’s name,” as I was taught to do as a good Baptist, I started praying “in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit” to more accurately reflect how I feel when I am praying. I am coming before you “in Jesus” and then I am sitting here praying “with your Holy Spirit.” I need Jesus, my intercessor between me and you. I need the Holy Spirit to guide my prayers and to keep me from going too far afield, even though I know my prayers are imperfect and often ignorant. I am sure some of my theology is heresy. I need the Holy Spirit to be guiding me so that even the wrong paths I take will ultimately bring me back to you.
I am about to go and help serve others this morning through a volunteer activity. I ask that you please equip all of us with what we need. May you produce everything in us that is good and of you. May the fruit of your Spirit living within us pour out for others. May our work be pleasing to you, and may be pass on to those who are being served everything we have so that your good might flow from their lives as well. All glory to you, Father, forever and ever.
… Lord I come, I confess Bowing here, I find my rest Without You, I fall apart You’re the one that guides my heart
… Lord, I need You, oh, I need You Every hour, I need You My one defense, my righteousness Oh God, how I need You
… Where sin runs deep, Your grace is more Where grace is found is where You are And where You are, Lord, I am free Holiness is Christ in me
… Lord, I need You, oh, I need You Every hour, I need You My one defense, my righteousness Oh God, how I need You
… So teach my song to rise to You When temptation comes my way And when I cannot stand, I’ll fall on You Jesus, You’re my hope and stay
… Lord, I need You, oh, I need You Every hour, I need You My one defense, my righteousness Oh God, how I need You You’re my one defense, my righteousness Oh God, how I need You
… My one defense, my righteousness Oh God, how I need You
Songwriters: Matt Maher / Daniel Carson / Jesse Reeves / Kristian Paul Stanfill / Christy L. Nockels
Dear God, I woke up this morning with this song in my head. I’m pretty sure we sang it at the church I visited this last Sunday to bid farewell to a pastor friend of mine who was preaching his last sermon before retirement. I’m kind of surprised the song stuck with me over the last two days, but when I found myself singing it this morning, I thought I would spend some time with the lyrics and use them to pray to you. You know, Father, I do, indeed, need you.
Right now, I’m sitting in my warm home in South Texas with snow on the ground outside. It’s kind of fun, but I know there are people who don’t have a warm place to be, and I haven’t cared. Granted, there is only so much I can “care” about. There is so much awful in the world, and even in my community, that happens on a continual basis, and I cannot care about everything. But I know you do. I know you care about the people who are cold right now. Maybe they are homeless and living in their car–if they have a car. Oh, Father, they need you, oh, they need you. Every hour they need you. Please be with them somehow.
As for me, you have given me a set of people with specific needs to love. Help me to love them well. Whether it is through my vocational work, my side projects, my volunteer work in the community, or my relationships, I have work to do. Help me to do it well.
Father, without you, I fall apart. When my sin runs deep, so does your grace. Help me to withstand temptation. Help me to worship you well. Help me to love you. Help me to love others. Lord, I need you, oh, I need you. Every hour, I need you. You’re my one defense. My righteousness. Oh, God, how I need you.
Dear God, my prayer time with you has been feeling a little too formulaic lately. And formulaic isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It promotes consistency. But it can also promote numbness in the process. Kind of a “going through the motions” condition that isn’t good for me. I mean, it’s better that I’m doing this than not doing it, but the effectiveness can quickly degrade if I don’t take a moment and pull myself out of the rut.
So I just want to talk with you this morning. I want to start with the writing projects I’ve been working on. They seem unique and useful. Are they? Are they for anyone else or have they just been for me? What should I do next? Please guide me and make my path straight.
I want to pray for my wife. She has a myriad of things going on. Guide her. Love her. Love her through me. Love her through others. Love her in her quiet moments through a real sense of your presence. Use her work for your glory. Heal her wounds. Impart your hope to her. Much like you gave Mary encouragement through Elizabeth, Joseph, the shepherds, Simeon and Anna, raise up people in her life who will give her your encouragement. Point her in the right direction in all of her work. And unite us completely together: mind, body, heart, and soul. Make us completely one under you.
For my children, help them to feel your love. Help them to feel my wife’s and my love. Heal their wounds. Point them in the way you would have them go. Raise up people in their lives who will be your encouragement and words to them. Comfort them. Inspire them. Call them.
For the couple the church has asked us to work with through a pre-marital curriculum, I pray for them as individuals and as a couple. Foundations are so important. Help them to lay that foundation well. Give my wife and me the words to share with them that will help guide them. Use us in their lives however you will. Prepare their hearts, minds, bodies, and souls for marriage. And use them in my wife’s and my lives. Make us better for our experience with them.
My parents are having health issues. Give them answers. Give them direction. Give them comfort. Thank you for the resources you have put together for them.
For our nieces and nephews, I ask that you would please meet each one where they are. Love them. Encourage them. Heal them. Inspire them. Call them. Raise up people in their lives who will be your voice to them. Help them to feel your love.
For the pastor to whose retirement party my wife and I are going today, give him and his wife great direction and comfort. Love him. Encourage him. Love and encourage her as well. This is a shift for all of them. Guide them in that shift. Show him what’s next for him. Do the same for my other pastor friend who retired last summer. Give him and his wife clear direction, support, and affirmations through the people you put around them.
For our siblings, each one is in a completely different place in life. Each one has different priorities. Guide them. Love them. Call them. Show my wife and me what role you have for us in their lives.
For my friends who are mourning the loss of their spouses, I pray your direction and comfort. You promised to comfort those who mourn. Comfort them now, please. Comfort them tomorrow as well. Show my wife and me how to be your comfort to them.
And since tomorrow is the inauguration, I suppose I would be remiss if I didn’t pray for soon-to-be President Trump, Vice President Vance, the new cabinet, the new Congress, the 2025 Texas legislative session, Israel, Palestine, Ukraine, Russia, and everywhere else in the world where suffering is happening. Regardless of their hearts, guide all leaders in the path you would have them go. Alleviate human suffering. Show us, your church, corporately and as individuals, how you would have us respond to each situation.
I pray this and so much more in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
12 If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. 13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
1 Corinthians 10:12-13
Dear God, I was talking with my wife last night about this generation and how the perspectives of a 20-year-old now seem so different that how a 20-year-old would have seen the world 20 years ago. But then, hasn’t that been true with every generation? Rounding off to even numbers, I am sure a 20-year-old in 2020 sees the world very differently and has a much different philosophy of life than did a 20-year-old in 2000. The same would be true for the 20-year-old in 1980, 1960, 1940, 1920, and 1900. The 20-year old in 1960 saw the world much differently than did the 20-year-old in 1940.
So, while I might want to scoff at Paul’s comment that the temptations we experience are no different than the temptations others have experienced, the truth is, they all have the same root. The temptation delivery system might be different. Porn, alcohol, and illicit drugs might be more accessible now, but there is also much less privacy and it’s harder to hide our bad actions. It still comes down to the fact that we allow selfishness, self-gratification, and a need to escape reality to take us away from you and from the life you intended us to have.
The prayer journals. Spending 15-30 minutes a day in a concentrated time of prayer like this has become a “have to” for me. And it didn’t used to be that way. A year ago I would have said that I need to do it 4-5 times a week. But since Lent I haven’t missed a day because I know I need this time meditating on you, listening to your Holy Spirit, and learning from the bazaar thing you left us called Scripture.
Giving. Ten percent of our gross is a minimum. Not that we are giving away even 20%, but we try to be generous when we see needs arise. Giving 10% is a floor.
Intentional time in conversation with my wife at least once a day is a floor. If we are available around each other at a meal, we each make it a priority to sit with each other, even if one of us isn’t eating at the time.
At least one sermon/Bible teaching a week. I need to hear someone else I trust teaching me the Bible in a way I wouldn’t see on my own (this homily is a perfect example of that).
Communication and contact with at least one of the two male friends I have. It doesn’t even have to be a conversation, but I need to touch their lives in some way–even if it is to text about sports.
Avoiding sexual temptation/lust. This has to be a floor. When you look at the lists of sins Jesus and Paul talk about, it’s always on there. I must do this.
Exercising at least four times a week. I am mentally better when I am taking care of myself physically. I should probably make better eating habits a floor, but I haven’t chosen to do that yet. Perhaps it will be one day.
Doing the things I know bless my wife like fixing things around the house, managing our money and then sharing with her what our status is, doing my laundry, making the bed, etc. Even listening to things I like but I know she doesn’t care for on my headphones instead of subjecting her to it. There’s a whole set of “floor” issues for my relationship with her that are important for her to feel loved.
Then I came up with kind of a bonus list of things that are good if I add to it:
Church. A lot of Christians would probably disagree with me on this one. While I feel like it is important to have a church you belong to and to be involved in that church, I don’t feel like the foundation in my life is cracking if I miss a week.
My extra writing projects. I get joy from writing and thinking about how to bless others, but it’s a “get” to and not a “have” to.
Teaching. Similarly, I enjoy taking what I get from you during my prayer journal time and sharing it with others through preaching or teaching, but those occasions happen infrequently, and, while they help me and teach me, they aren’t the floor.
Engaging healthily through prayer and action in my community. This is close to a “have” to because it is part of me loving others as I love myself, but it’s not something that is foundational. Well, maybe it is. It actually might belong in the “have” to list.
Listening to Christian music. I mix it in during the week, but I also listen to secular as well.
Listening to Christian podcasts. Similar to music, I mix it in, but it’s a “get” to.
Father, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil. The temptations are different now, but their delivery system is. I can do so much in the privacy of my home that people might never know about. Save me from that. Help me to maintain the boundaries of my “floor” and then build on that floor with walls a roof made up of the other things I added to the list later. And do all of this so that I might fully experience you in my life–at least as fully as humanly possible on this side of the death divide. I want to experience the fruit of your Holy Spirit now as much as possible because you are the only true source of love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control. Help me to live into that.
1 Lord, through all the generations you have been our home! 2 Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from beginning to end, you are God.
3 You turn people back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, you mortals!” 4 For you, a thousand years are as a passing day, as brief as a few night hours. 5 You sweep people away like dreams that disappear. They are like grass that springs up in the morning. 6 In the morning it blooms and flourishes, but by evening it is dry and withered. 7 We wither beneath your anger; we are overwhelmed by your fury. 8 You spread out our sins before you— our secret sins—and you see them all. 9 We live our lives beneath your wrath, ending our years with a groan.
10 Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away. 11 Who can comprehend the power of your anger? Your wrath is as awesome as the fear you deserve. 12 Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.
13 O Lord, come back to us! How long will you delay? Take pity on your servants! 14 Satisfy us each morning with your unfailing love, so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives. 15 Give us gladness in proportion to our former misery! Replace the evil years with good. 16 Let us, your servants, see you work again; let our children see your glory. 17 And may the Lord our God show us his approval and make our efforts successful. Yes, make our efforts successful!
Dear God, I thought about stopping reading just after verse 1. “Lord, through all the generations you have been our home.” Considering this was prayed by a man who led the Israelites after over 400 years of slavery–many, many generations of slaves–I think this is remarkable. For him to say that, even for those enslaved generations, you have been their home is powerful.
I was watching something this morning that made me cry. It is related to something that is my life’s great sorrow. An area in which I failed greatly. I’m still not sure exactly what I did to fail, but the evidence is that I failed spectacularly. I only pray that, like you used the hundreds of years of slavery to build up the children of Jacob into a nation, you will use my failings for your glory.
So let me paraphrase Moses’s closing with my own. Let me see what you are doing and how you are working. Help me to see your glory. And may my labor be pleasing to you. May it accomplish what you need it to accomplish. May it achieve what you need it to achieve. And I’ll just add, please heal my sorrowful situation.
22 Then the Lord said to Moses, 23 “Tell Aaron and his sons to bless the people of Israel with this special blessing:
24 ‘May the Lord bless you and protect you. 25 May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. 26 May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.’
27 Whenever Aaron and his sons bless the people of Israel in my name, I myself will bless them.”
Numbers 6-22-27
Dear God, I’ve read these verses and heard them sung…gosh, I don’t know how many times. But I don’t know that I’ve ever spent much time with them. Especially 24-26. The actual blessing
May the Lord bless you: What does it mean to be blessed by you? Good health? Money? All of my needs met? When I told my children I blessed them I defined it as supporting whatever decisions they felt like they needed to make that was best for them, even if it cost me something. I wanted them to have good lives regardless of what it cost me. I don’t think that is what you mean here. I think I am going to tie this into the last one in the list: peace. There might be some who disagree with me, but I think this is the most precious fruit of the Spirit as listed by Paul in Galatians 5:22-23. If I am blessed by you then I have your peace regardless of whatever else is before me. I would love to ask for good health, plenty of money, and even all of my needs and a lot of my wants to be met, but having all of that will not draw me closer to you. Recently, when my wife and I experienced a health scare, it drove us to prayers to you and an appreciation of each other that we wouldn’t have otherwise had.
May the Lord protect you: Jesus kind of redefined this when he told us not to worry in the Sermon on the Mount. My worrying cannot add an hour to my life. There were people killed last night in New Orleans, and some of them loved you. Almost all of Jesus’s apostles were martyred. So is that the kind of protection you told Moses about here? I don’t think so. But I can see where you want to protect my heart. You want me to not be lead into temptation, but delivered from evil. I ask for that kind of protection from you.
May the Lord smile on you: I almost feel like this one is on me. Will I behave in a way that makes you smile or will I grieve you? I pray that my life will make you smile at least a little more than it grieves you.
May the Lord be gracious to you: Oh my, do I need your grace?!? My wife and I were talking about some people we love who have judged us very harshly. And I have been known to judge pretty harshly myself. But I need your grace. And I need to give grace. Graciousness needs to flow from you, through me, and to those I know and even those I don’t know. We all need your grace.
May the Lord show you his favor: I know you are on my side. Maybe not in a way that will give me every selfish thing my heart desires, but you want to love me and show me how to love. You want to grow all of the fruit of your Spirit within me and let it flow out of me. That is the favor I want from you. Do I want health for my wife, my children, me, and those I love? Of course. And I’ll take any good fortune you deem appropriate to send my way. But I do not require that to be here and worship you.
May the Lord give you his peace: Going back to the first one, this is the biggie for me. Peace. And the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace,patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I can fake most of those, but my peace only comes from you. And I must be tied into you to get it. Oh, Lord, especially when I am hurting over sorrows in my life, please help me to have your peace. A peace that passes understanding.
I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
30 The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.
John 20:30-31
Dear God, as John sat and dictated this book, I wonder how hard it was to sort things out. “Oh, and then there was the time…” “Oh, and I remember when Jesus…” It must have been a wonder to think back on all that Jesus was and had done and then try to make sense of what was happening in his world at the time. His friends were dead. He was in exile. You hadn’t come back. I don’t know if he wrote this before or after his Revelation, but it almost feels like some of these guys sat down and wrote these books so much longer after Jesus was gone because they didn’t really think they would be around that long after the ascension. I think they still thought you were about to come back any time. I’m sure they would be shocked to know that we are still waiting 2,000 years later.
I know there are people who are living today who are shocked you haven’t come back in our time. The goings on now seem unique. But I think the truth is we all live in a time of confusion for ourselves. None of us really has any more idea of what is going on that our pets do. We have a sweet dog who just lives day to day. She looks to us to provide her meals, her walks–even her opportunities to go to the bathroom. She doesn’t know if it is winter or summer except to wonder why she is cold today. Yes, on a scale of “domesticated dog” to “God,” I am not a zero, but I’m a lot closer to 1 than I am even a 3.
The same was also true for everyone represented in the Bible. Mary didn’t understand what was going on during the pregnancy and birth. She might have learned a little more over the next 30 years and Jesus grew, but then those three years of active ministry must have been very confusing. Then the crucifixion. Then the resurrection. Then the ascension. If you’d have told pregnant Mary, post-Angel visit, that this is how it would all turn out she would have been shocked. Joseph too. “He’s going to what?!? Die?!? Resurrect?!? Ascend?!?…Why?!?” Well, the answer was so much bigger than they could have known–and I’m foolish if I think any of us, even 2,000 years later, really understand the “Why?”
Father, I want to quote Piper’s prayer for us in today’s reading as I close this prayer: “O, how I pray for a breaking forth of the Spirit of God upon me and upon [others}. I pray for the Holy Spirit to break into my experience in a frightening way, to wake me up to the unimaginable reality of [You].”
7 Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. 8 But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.
1 John 3:7-8
Dear God, Piper focused on the second part of verse 8 for today’s reading. I have to say, when I first looked at the passage as a whole, I was thinking it was an interesting one to choose for Advent, but then I got to this part and I thought I could see what he was doing. It kind of goes back to what he said the other day about Satan being the one who did not want Jesus to go to the cross because that was when his power was truly broken. It makes me look at the last three years of Jesus’s earthly life as a time of Satan trying desperately to win a game at the last minute. The temptations in the wilderness. The temptation from Peter to not follow through and die. Even the temptation in the Garden to not go through with it. Why? Because that death of a part of you would bring resurrection and then untold power to our ability to be your children.
So here I am, sitting at my desk on a Friday morning. I have things in my life that ae a delight and things that are sorrowful. Then I have other things that are in between. Just responsibilities and opportunities to serve. Thinking about last night and the words I shared. I pray that they were your words. I pray that they found at least one set of ears who needed to hear them. I pray that you might give me ears to hear them as well. What is it I long for? Am I longing for the right thing?
Father, I offer you my worship and my work today. I offer you my love and my service. Give me eyes to see what you need me to see. Give me ears to hear what you need me to hear. I love you, Lord. I lift my voice to worship you. Oh, my soul! Rejoice! Take joy, my King in what you hear. Let it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ears.
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does, in fact, please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I will do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen.
Thomas Merton
Dear God, I came across this prayer last night. It was apparently a favorite of an old family friend who recently passed away. It expressed thoughts I’ve often felt but didn’t quite have the words for. It made me just want to sit with it a bit and talk with you about it.
I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.
There are a lot of times when I am praying that the song “Lord, I Don’t Know” from the Newsboys will come to mind. The chorus starts, “Lord, I don’t know where all this is going or how it all works out.” Frankly, no one knows where they are going. Not one of us. None of us see the road ahead. Not one of us. We have not idea where our road ends. Not one of us. And we do not see where our neighbor’s road ends either. And yet we spend so much time thinking about the future. I spend so much time thinking about how things will work out for me and my loved ones. What will happen with the election? If this person wins or that person wins, what will happen? Frankly, it’s simply not within my purview to focus on that. What will happen at the end of life for my wife and me? Which of us will have to go on without the other? What will happen if I run out of money before I die? What will happen in my children’s lives? My nieces and nephews?
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
Life is a bit of a fog. My mind is a bit of a fog. From the moment all of us are born, we are operating under some level of delusion. We think we have needs we don’t have. We are afraid of things we don’t need to be afraid of. Then we grow and are raised by parents, relatives, friends, teachers, etc. who are living in as much of a fog as we are. Sometimes they teach us wrong things. We have biases. We have secret fears, and we will take shortcuts and sin to protect ourselves. And then we take all of that into the world. I take my confusion and apply it to life.
I’m about to put this set of prayer journals out from the prayers I did to you over biblical characters who were parents. I made a lot of assumptions in there. Some of them might be wrong. I get an idea to do something like put this thing out. Maybe that’s the wrong thing to do. Twenty-two years ago, I felt you call me to quit my job and set out in search of the career you had for me. I felt very much in the middle of your will at that moment. I remember reading something from someone at the time who talked about following your will and they said something to the effect of, “When I did this and absolutely knew I was in the middle of God’s will, after that I was afraid to cross the street if it wasn’t in God’s will.” But how do we know? I make all kinds of decisions every day that may or may not be in your will. I don’t intend to get outside of it, but I do.
My wife told me this week about a project she’s working on, and she told me she realized she had never asked you before she decided to do it. Yeah, I probably wouldn’t have either. I don’t stop and ask for your input on these things nearly often enough.
But I believe that the desire to please you does, in fact, please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
I do believe that earnestness goes a long way. I suppose I have to believe that. If I don’t think you look at my genuine love for you and, instead, look only on my actual actions and decisions then there is no hope. When my children were little, if they did something wrong but it was for the right reason then it was a lot easier to overlook. If, however, it was intentionally malicious then there was hopefully a lesson to be learned about motive, integrity, and empathy. Even being here this morning, praying before you, I have a long day ahead. I am having breakfast with a friend in a couple of hours. I’m working a water booth at a festival after that. Then I’ll do other things and talk to other people. I have all kinds of opportunities to be dishonoring to you and to get outside of your plan. But I can tell you right now that my desire is to simply love you and represent your presence in this world through my little life.
And I know that if I will do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.
This is where faith comes in. When I did my “Parents of the Bible” series, one of the things that became very clear is that no one knew how things would turn out. Hagar didn’t know how things were going to play out for her and Ishmael. Naomi didn’t know how things would turn out after losing her husband and sons. Zechariah and Elizabeth didn’t know how things were turn out for John the Baptist and Jesus. And I have zero idea what is happening on the road I’m on right now. But I am trusting you that this road for me, my wife, my children, and others I love is the right road for your plan. It’s all I have. Atheists would say I am using my faith as a crutch, and perhaps I am. But you are a crutch I’ve reasoned myself towards. You’re an educated crutch. And it’s ironic that the closer I find myself growing to you the more I feel the fruit of your Holy Spirit growing in me. But yes, even when I am in the valley of the shadow of death, I am trusting this is the path for me, and that you have made it resistant to whatever mistakes I make.
Therefore I will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Speaking of the valley of the shadow of death, here it is in the prayer. This part about you never leaving me to face my perils alone reminds me of the poem “Footprints in the Sand.”
One night I dreamed a dream. As I was walking along the beach with my Lord. Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life. For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, One belonging to me and one to my Lord.
After the last scene of my life flashed before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sand. I noticed that at many times along the path of my life, especially at the very lowest and saddest times, there was only one set of footprints.
This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it. “Lord, you said once I decided to follow you, You’d walk with me all the way. But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life, there was only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me.”
He whispered, “My precious child, I love you and will never leave you Never, ever, during your trials and testings. When you saw only one set of footprints, It was then that I carried you.”
Father, there are times when I really need you to carry me. And there are other times when I am ready to put my feet down and get to work. As I enter this week of vacation, I think there is a little of both ahead of me. I could use some carrying and comfort. But I also think this might be an opportunity to make some progress on some personal things you’re asking me to do. But it all starts with me being here in your presence, with a heart that is flawed but earnest. With a life that can be selfish but repentant. With a heart that is afraid, but learning to trust you. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. All that I am, for all that you are.
9 I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. 10 For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. 11 May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.
Philippians 1:9-11
Dear God, I need to pray for this more for my friends who are Christians: that your love through them will overflow more and more, and that they will continue to grow in knowledge and understanding. For my relative who chose to follow you back at Christmastime. For my three closest friends. For my wife. For my coworkers who worship you and call on your name. I could go on and on. There are so many. And this is a good place to start as I pray for them. That your love will overflow through them more and more.
A pastor friend calls this having leaky buckets that will just drip you and your presence everywhere they go. I guess I might modify it that the buckets won’t be leaky as much as the love will just slosh over the top as they move through their days. That the love will overflow. And that they will grow in knowledge and understanding of what you are doing in the world around them and how you would have them interact with it.
Father, as for myself, help my bucket to overflow. Help me to access you to the point where your love is flowing through me and sloshing over the sides onto everyone I encounter. Love generously through me. Love mercifully through me. And help me to know how to interact with the world around me. How to interact with challenges at work. How to interact with challenges in family. How to interact with the news I hear. Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, teach me, please. Bring me into complete oneness with you.
I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Emails to God 