Amazing Things

Good morning, Father.

There is only You.  You alone.  You are the only constant, the only faithful, the only sure rock I hold onto.  Out of You springs life and healing and wellness that no other can bring.  There is no Name above Yours, and non like You.

Father, there is no other who heals and mends and restores our way like You do.  All other paths lead to brokenness, destruction, division, separation, and self-aggrandizement.  Your ways lead to hope and wellness and peace and celebration.

I am daily amazed at how You can outdo the previous days’ work!  It often seems that not only do you do far more than I can think to ask, You do far more than my stretches of my faith!  Wow, what a God You are.  You are worthy of praise and glory and honor.  What a God!  What a friend!  What a Savior!  What a Lord!

All the god-hoops we create and suggest that others should jump through first before finding Your mercy become shamed in the light of Your glory and grace.  The paths to healing and restoration we devise pale in comparison to the simple  response we receive when our “yes” meets Your “yes”.

The riches of Your word defy all attempts to define them, and yet they are simply gifted to us.  When my brain cells cease to snap to attention and I’m lulled into lethargy, Your Spirit breathes me awake and brings knowledge and light.  Your ways are truly amazing.

We build, we destroy, we run, we stall, we make grand proclamations and we sit in silence.  But in it all, You are God and You hold all things together – You draw all things to Yourself.

Great and merciful Father, all glory and praise and honor to You, my King!  All the hallelujahs and amens are Yours!  I’m usually not the shoutin’ kind – but here’s a loud, thunderous “YES” to You from me.

Let Your glory rise, my Lord.  Let it rise in me today!!!

Mercies To Distribute Like Girl Scout Cookies

(Today I read John 15.)

Teacher, this is one of those willing spirit/weak flesh mornings for me!  Bring me to life, awake my soul, let’s do good work together this morning.

(Unusual morning!  The want to sleep nearly overcame the desire to pray.  So, I have been involving myself in some unusual spiritual and physical exercises to awaken…  all dotted with words and songs of praise.  Now my breath is short and my mind is sharp!)

Oh Lord, my God, Your Name is sweeter than sweet potato casserole with sweet crumb-nut topping.  Your divine wisdom is a giant Niagra Falls of intellect sweeping me off common footing and into the deep waters.  The discernment You give is sharp as a Wusthoff knife.  It is as practical as a great pair of jeans.  Your mercy and grace are as warm and welcome as heated shaving cream on the back of my neck in a barber’s chair (though I haven’t experienced that in years!).  Your mercies and graces are as fresh and up to date as those wonderful fresh roasted coffee beans I receive in my mailbox every other week.  Speaking of which…  oh my, what a fragrance!  I can’t wait to open that package and smell that wonderful, extraordinary, utterly amazing aroma.  That’s what I encounter when I open myself to You!  What an aroma! What a satisfying fragrance!  May my prayers be an aroma pleasing to You, my God.

The pleasure of knowing You and serving You is satisfying and long-lasting…  far better than a Charms pop.  The flow of Your presence poured out to me presents itself as far more enriching than any show, song or even book (short of the one You use as a means of pouring out Your words).  And that brings me to the scriptures…  Your words there are multi-dimensional and instructional.  They are encouraging and yet challenging.  They sharpen me and equip me.  They are not merely an instruction manual, though…  they are life itself.  They are active, and verifiable merely by breathing them in!  They are all at once soothing and prickly.  They can be like a great salsa with several layers of flavor…  and then…  the heat kicks in!  Although, I must say, the salsa analogy falls way short.

How wonderful You are.  I worship You as my eyes take in the sunrise You’ve presented to us this morning.  Magnificent!  You are indeed the master artist!  We pat ourselves on the back when we do well copying Your original artwork.  All of nature sings Your glory.  Let it rise again in me, let Your glory rise!  Roll those clouds away.  Assist me to sing hope for the hopeless and shine light into the darkness.  Be my fuel, my wheels, my guidance system, my steel frame.  Be the passion of my heart and the motivator of my mind.  Be my song and my poem.  Be my yes and my no.  Punctuate me with both politeness and necessary urgency.

Great God of all things…  Lord God, Jehovah, Lord of Heaven’s Armies, Our Righteousness…  be ruler over me.  You’ve made this day and packed it full of purpose and significance.  I dare not waist it…  instead, I long to repeat Your joy and songs throughout it.  May I treasure every hour of this journey today and pack it full of behaviors and actions only You can inspire.

May it all be love.  Help me now to get love more right than ever before.  Help me with those holy deep breathes and pauses to give You space to correct me and put me back on course.  Then, more love!  More grace flowing through me!  More mercies to distribute like Girl Scout cookies!  Let it all be packed with joy and peace.  And then…  more love, great love, all-consuming love.  Fill me to overflowing and flood it into everyone I encounter.

And all this I pray in Your mighty and majestic Name, Lord Jesus….  let it be so!  Yes!  Yes!  Yes!

Good Friday Sorrows And Joy

(Today I read John 12.)

Teacher, wise and still merciful Leader, I seek You.  I am listening, I am here, I am ready.

Let my words glorify You…  may they honor You and give You praise.  You alone are God, You alone are worthy!  You are the One, You are the one who holds all things together.  Words fail to properly reveal Your glory, may Your Spirit assist me in doing what I cannot do on my own.

Thank You, Jesus, for Your cross.  Thank You for dying for me, for giving Your life in order than my sins may be pardoned.  Let that blood gift flow over me and through me today that I may live in proper recognition of what You have done for us all.

My sins, dark and damning, were about to overcome me and do me in.  But You, moving above all time and even beyond my own history before it was conceived, made the way for me to find life.  Even as I walked in my own deceit, Your light was shining without fail, calling me to You.  Even as I listened to the thunderous voices around me, Your voice steadily broke through all time to find my ear.  When You revealed Your truth, You held nothing back – though I still struggled to grasp even a portion of its expanse.  At the right time, You called.  Even as a young man I heard, I wanted You over all things.  Even as I grew and journeyed into camps that cursed Your Name and laid plans for my own demise, You remained faithful.  And as I reckoned with my need to lay it all down, my whole life to You, You calmly assured me with Your Word.

Gracious, patient, merciful God!  How can I adequately praise You for what You have done?  How can I, with words here in this prayer, give You the glory because You John 3:16’d me!  By Your Spirit I seek to be the voice You call me to be, I seek to be the visionary, the dreamer / doer, the man after Your heart that my deepest reaches now burn to be.

Yes to You, that is what, by Your Spirit, I want to be…  a  firm, pleasing “Yes” to You.

This journal cannot contain the depth and volume of what has just occurred here in prayer.  Thank You for Your revelation and for Your steadfast grace and mercy that teaches, that reveals, that renews!  You are Great, my God.  You are my TEACHER, You are my life.  I receive Your fresh mercies this morning and I LIVE.  I am Yours, and empowered by the active presence of Your Holy Spirit.  I am grateful.  I am as receptive and ready as I can be at this moment.  I receive Your word, I honor Your presence, I bask in Your greatness.

Yes to You, my Lord.  Let Your glory rise in me anew.  Yes.  Yes.

And now, receive my humble prayers of petition, and enable me to give You glory in words of high praise.  Merciful God, I am Yours.  Yes, yes to You.  I pray these things in the mighty power of Your Name, Lord Jesus, may it be so!

Working On The Love Thing

(Today I read John 11.)

Thank You, Father, for loving me.  Thank You that this very hope and worth that I can now allow myself to see in me also can be seen in anyone else I encounter.  I pray afresh today that You would give me eyes to see every person I encounter as being wonderfully stamped with the words, “Made by God, loved by God.”  Give me a better understanding of how much You love every one of us.  Tune my eyes to the marvelous value that exists in every single person I encounter.  Even those who anonymously annoy me in traffic!  Reveal afresh to my soul how much You love them.  Help me to love more, to love better, to love selflessly, to love without regard or prejudice.  Sort of a charity to all, malice towards none.

I don’t even sense I need to be renewed in any sort of appreciation for humans in general…  what I truly need is a renewal in my view of You.  That’s what really changes things.  If I spend too much time contemplating the depravity and despair-fueled living, I’ll never get this right.  So instead, teach me to walk with You anew today, teach me to love more and live more in Your light, and all these other things will then click into place.  After all, You are the righteous one.  You are the one whose glory and grace and mercy saves us.  May I see that eternal thing in every one of us that draws me to love and care and to see the preciousness that You see (that You, in fact, built in us).

I guess that makes this a confession.  I struggle daily to do this better.  Seems like a pastor would have this down pat, but what an eye opener this journey has been.  I am no less frail than others, but that is no license to stay weak and unloving in any circumstances.  Not that I haven’t witnessed incredible growth in me in this department.  I suppose what it is must be the more I grow, the more I see my failures in regards to this love mandate.  We get so caught up in so many aspects of the walk with You, and yet love fails so easily in our hands.  I need You, I need You!  Help me to love more, perfect me in love.  Give me Your eyes.  Give me Your heart.  Teacher, teach me more about this love; make it my standard.  If I fail, let it be simply a failure not to love enough rather than to not love at all.  Build in me this right thing today.  Let it flow, let it glow in me.

I’m both amused and disgusted by the realization that without this kind of love, I might as well be reading “50 Shades of Gray” as my word of truth, rather than Your Word.  If my mind has not escaped the garbage of an unloving life, then I have utterly and completely missed the heart of Your Good News…  and therefore, missed it all.  This is a lot to pray on this tender subject of love. I would like to think I’m a loving person, but I know that You are a loving God.  So as I walk with You today, fortify me, fill me, renew me, build me, empower me, embrace me, wrap me, send me with love.  Let this be the way Your glory rises in me today.  Let it rise!  And in Your Name, Jesus, let it be so!

Regaining Focus (After A Week Away!)

(Today I read John 10.)

Father, it’s good to be back to this wonderful, sacred routine!  Thank You for the refreshing time away with that beautiful, cuddly baby grandson of mine.  But it’s also good to be home and to be back in these kinds of moments of powerful, life altering early prayer.  Thank You for this habit You’ve developed in me!

Now wipe the sleep from my waking mind and bring me to a place of renewal with You.  Inspire me for the things to come today.  I am racing with a myriad of dizzying needs for the week already before me.  From things I knew would keep me hopping (prep for this weekend) to things I had not expected to deal with (a totaled vehicle from the young man who hit my car just before leaving on vacation).  I’ll admit that “frantic” is a good way of describing my spirit!  Bring me to peace, calm, bring me to the place where I can best serve You.    You have a way of readying me, You know me so well. Let discernment, wisdom, grace and mercy define me.  Most of all, let my personal definition be love; let me love, inspire me to loving acts, build and refresh me in love!  The demands of life can strain me, but YOU can rearrange me!  I give myself to You.  Teach me in Word, give me good conversations, perfect in me the art of deep breaths and healthy pauses!!!

I realize how the enemy can use such cunning ploys to crowd You out of our minds in a way that truly seems to sneak up on us!  I’ve got so many things packed in the ol’ noggin right now – help me to sort out the garbage, organize the useful, as I reaffirm Your Lordship over all!  Let Your glory rise!  Let it rise in me today!

Here’s what I ask for today, and I sense that I want to also ask this for any who come here to share this prayer with me:  I pray for holy, guided focus – keep me centered in You.  I pray for a honing of wisdom, endurance, and discernment that keeps me from disregarding important things.  I pray for power from Heaven to make even the most scrambled moments sacred and useful to You.  I pray for a generosity of spirit and self that allows me to pour myself out to others even when I think I can least spare the time.  I pray for clarity in preparation of the things to come for the worship events this Holy Week.  And mostly, Lord God, fine tune my receptors of Your word coming to my heart so that I am at Your service moment by moment.

And in all this, I praise You, my wonderful, mighty God! You are Lord of all, beginning and end, Name above all names, Master, maker, artist, creator, dreamer/doer, Lord of Heaven’s armies!  You are God Most High, Lord God our righteousness.  You are Father…  daddy…  friend, comforter, healer.  You are wise above all wisdom, You are righteous in all things.  Your love never fails, You are unfailing in faithfulness.  Your mercy astounds me, Your grace overwhelms me.  Even in the darkest points of the journey, You are there!  I SEE Your fingerprints on it all…  in the most inexplicable…  in the things we might use to condemn You…  in the noose some would use to kill any thought of Your goodness…  Your logic and reason prevails.  In our reckless, wrong ways of defining You and demanding that You conform to our narrow, blurred vision, Your righteousness and betterness prevails!  Holy God!  You are Lord!  You are Lord indeed!

You are risen, You are alive, You are good and mighty. All praise to You, my risen Lord, powerful and just and loving to extraordinary degree.  What a joy You are to my sense, what comfort You are to my soul, what peace You are to my cognitive abilities, what perfection You are even in the face of my bullheadedness!  Praise to You, let Your glory rise!  Let it be so!

Applying The Mud

(Today I read John 9.)

Thanks You, Father, for opening my eyes!  Thank You for the mud applied to my pride and ego and angst, and for washing me clean.  Where there remains blindness in me, correct my vision that I may see.  May I be both humble and bold with this truth, this Good News.  May I have endurance, discernment, wisdom, passion, compassion, and an eager spirit.  Break my heart anew for the broken.  Direct my attention again to the hurting. May You be given the glory in all things!

Who is hurting?  Who I am missing?  What things in plain sight am I denying?  Turn my heart to these.  Help me to never again love the ideas of possession and fame.  Help me to be practical in all things.  Develop strength in this humility you are building in me.  May I not only learn to see the person regarded as the least in society as better than me, may I have a spirit that leads me in the way of humble service.  And all to Your glory, my Lord, all to You.

May I not disregard anyone; teach me to see poverty as it exists in so many ways.  Give me a heart and a word for the impoverished wealthy – those who have much in this world, but are famished spiritually.  Give me a heart for the one who is teachable and longs to learn of Your ways.  May I never turn them away!  And then, give me a strong will and the force of Your Spirit to deal well with the stubborn, prideful and embittered.  Not that I’m looking to be surrounded my such things – oh my! – but that you would make me ready and capable of dealing with all manner of human thought and condition as the need presents itself.  I see that my prayer here, as my heart opens to You, is that I will love all people equally, and with Your heart, Your eyes, your passion.

May I be a blessing to many that many will know You as their Lord and Savior!  Let it be so, in Your Name, Jesus.  Oh, my God, my heart cries…  let it be so!

Greater Than

(Today I read John 7.)

You are the Living Water, You are life to me.  You are my King, and I worship You!  Rise, let Your glory shine! Let the world know You have died for us, risen to life, and reign over all things, holding all things together.

Thank You for giving us festivals, but You are greater than any celebration.  Thank You for inspiring songs, but words cannot come close to Your glory.  Thank You for the beauty of creation, but even that will pale in comparison to Your face on the day it is revealed.  Thank You for friendships, family, and companionship, but even they only hint at the beauty held in Your pure, faithful love.  Let Your glory rise, You hold all things together!

O Father, You are remarkable (and I am only beginning to understand this) in all things, You are unfailing and faithful.  You overwhelm me with the joy of Your presence, and yet I know I am able to live in it.  Thank You, all praise and glory to You.

Giver of life, bring fresh life to my day.  Bring fullness to my understanding, bring discernment and endurance to my wisdom.  Let there be confidence that presses me on to good things, yet may I grow even more humble in love, grace and mercy.  Inform me that I may teach well, counsel me that I may give good direction, inspire me that I may encourage others in Your ways.  I want to be bold, passionate, compassionate, and on the move, yet accessible by all and known for love and justice.  Show me Your ways, create in me a clean heart.  Let Your glory rise in me; You hold all things together.

You are mine, I walk with You, and it is so good!  May Your righteousness prevail, may Your light overtake the darkness, may Your glory shine.  Hold me together now that I may walk uprightly yet humbly through this day.

A Feed-the-Five-Thousand Kind of Day

(Today I read John 6.)

Merciful Father, full of grace and peace, I seek to glorify You and lift Your Name.

As I pray, I find myself also preoccupied with thinking of my beautiful grandson.  My arms ache to hold him, and the distance between us seems like worlds.  Then I wonder if that’s how you feel about me at times when I keep myself distant from you – when I don’t invite you into every part of my day.  I suspect You give us these longings for each other so we can better understand Your longing for us.  By the way, thanks for Facetime!  Thank You for creating us with inventive minds to create such things as that…  what a blessing to be able to use technology in positive ways to stay in touch.  Thank You all the more for the privilege of prayer that immediately reminds me of Your closeness, Your faithfulness to me.  Thank You that while I know You are always near, prayer is just the face time I need with You!  What a refresher.

So be sure and build up my grandson today.  I pray that You will raise him to be a mighty man of God.  Assist him, fortify him, walk with him that he may walk in wellness and wisdom every day of his life.  That’s quite a thing for someone who is still a baby…  but then, he is quite special, isn’t he?!?!  Thanks, Father.

Remind me of You every moment today.  Be rich in between the lines of all I do, and in the very atomic structure of all things that I must accomplish today.  May this be a day of good things.  Even if it gets a bit rough and rocky at times, stay at the forefront of my mind that I may please You.  Be my words always.  Be my heart always.  Be my mind, my attention span, my character, my integrity… You are my all in all, be all today.

I find myself musing that just as I’ve prayed for my grandbaby today, I still have so much to grow into myself.  Much to learn.  Much to do.  Father, for every frivolous day I’ve spent, give me “feed the five-thousand” days so that I may offer what good I can to see You multiply it for the good of many.  Make me a blessing.  Inspire me to betterness (I like that word-idea!).  Let Your glory rise…  yes…  that’s what I’m praying…  let Your glory rise in me today!  For Your Name’s sake.  Let it be so.

Worthless?

(Today I read John 3.)

Father, Father…  that You would become greater and greater, and I would become less and less!  Father, thank You that You don’t smash me under Your thumb (like You could, if You wanted), but You show me the way to true life and joy and peace through getting over myself and my stupid, death-inviting ways, and allowing You more and more place in my life.  Take more now.  Be greater in me now.  Find a place that I’ve held back and show it to me now that I may give it to You.  All for You, Jesus, all for You.

I’ve never regretted giving You more.  It’s when I’ve held back that regrets have metastasized.  I sense that these recent days have been in the flow of drifting aimlessly rather than purposely setting course towards Nineveh.  Lord, I am here ready to be redirected, to hear and obey!  Swallow this Fish up and urp me on the shore where I need to be today.  Strengthen me, give me Your wise discernment, help me in my step of faith that passion may grow.  Thank You for the release, the joy, the relief, the rightness, the peace, the “rest” that comes in following after You…  even though it may create some restlessness in the process!

I’m thinking a lot of the picture of Samson I got from watching the Bible miniseries on TV again last night.  What another stunning example of weakness and strength – our weakness, and the strength You build in us.  Father, I know that You did not make me a physically strong man like Samson, but You are showing me an inner strength I never knew I had.  I used to think my life would be swallowed up by depression and feelings of worthlessness.  I thought I needed to accept that I was not a strong leader of men or as charismatic as some leaders.  I bought into the idea that I lacked what I needed to do the work You called me to.  It all led me to lean heavily on You – but what I didn’t reckon was how You would build me stronger the more I learned to walk with You.  These morning prayer times have been a phenomenal work-out session for me in building strength.  You have given me a godly confidence and faith that I never thought possible.  And I’m learning that even as I grow in expectation for what You can do in me, You continue to instruct me with Your ability to do far more than I’d thought possible.

Bless Your Name, my Lord, my Savior, my friend!  My God – God of Abraham and Isaac – God of great women and men through the ages – You are mine, and I long to be fully Yours!  I understand that these aren’t merely words being entered with keystrokes; even now Your Spirit is helping me to pray bigger than I could have imagined!  Do that for the one reading this as well – give them bigger prayers for themselves than they’d ever dared to pray before!  Raise us up together to be a mighty generation in Your Name!  As we partner with the testimony of the ages, hand in hand with Samson and David and Paul and Peter, let us arise despite weakness and allow You Lordship of all we do!  Make us light in a sin-darkened world.  Let Your Glory rise in us!  May it be so today, in Your Name Jesus – yes, let it be so!

Learning Curved

(Today I read John 1.)

Good morning, Father…  Word that became human and lived here…  Savior, full of unfailing love and faithfulness.  Though we see by faith, I too have seen Your glory and it is on the rise!  Let it rise in me!

Lamb of God, thank You for Your abiding presence.  Thank You for Your unending mercy and grace.  Thank You for these fresh mercies that fall even this morning!  Thank You for taking the cross to forgive my sins.  And thank You for Your mighty resurrection!  True life escaping death, victory assured for all who call on You in faith!  Praise Your Name, beautiful Lamb of God!

Overcomer, overcome me.

Father, I sit here with You this morning reminded of my frailty as a pastor.  I have let something go on for too long, and it has become an embarrassment to the work we do.  Yet I am reminded of how you have strengthened me and built me as a leader.  Let the resolution of this problem be one that helps me to serve wiser, smarter, more efficiently, and that blesses everyone who comes in contact with our ministry work here.  May Your Good News permeate my slowness to resolve a sticky situation!  May it come out in glory and in honor of You and Your unimpeachable character.  May I, in fact, wear Your character well.  Renew me and give me wise discernment that will carry on with me through all of my days.  To You be the glory!

I pray for the strengthening not just for me, but for each one who walks in Your counsel.  May this be the day of great new hope for this community.  And I cannot selfishly hold back a drop of what You are doing – let it flow through this land and sweep around the world!  May the chains and bondage of false religion be broken, may the death-traps of theological bravado be snapped, may the weight of unbelief be broken by the power of Your grace-filled loved evident in every believer.  May it be so in me!

Lamb of God, You are worthy, You alone.  You are God, and Lord of me.  Right now, assist me to abide in Your presence, becoming made into Your character and integrity more and more every day.  You are so good to me, Your unfailing love once again overwhelms me!  Come, let’s commune together as I contemplate You, my friend.