Wake Up, Fuzz Brain!

Wow, I sure need to pray for life this morning.  The fuzz in my brain is clogging my lint trap!  Father, I need a cool blast; there is much to do today and I don’t want to waste a single moment.

Clear my mind that I will think well, articulate well, respond well, plan well, dream well, study well and attend my duties well.

Clear my eyes that I won’t miss a thing you’re showing me.

Clear my schedule of any time waster that is conspiring its way onto today’s agenda.  Let’s make this day count!

Clear my heart of any passions that are distracting me from my greatest passion.

Clear my cache of any stale remnants of my past, of things forgiven, of things the enemy loves to use to distract me and bring me down.

Be at my center, Jesus.  Shake me, wake me and set me to the tasks that lie ahead.  Empower me in such a way that I may indeed do all things I do wholeheartedly, knowing they are for You.

Let it rise…  let Your glory surround this day, let Your glory inhabit this day.  This day is Yours, You made it, and I will celebrate its promise and hope.  Let it be so.

Fresh Rising Hope

I can’t run, I can’t hide from Your presence.  Your fresh falling mercies await me at the start of the day.  Even when I walk through the dark places, I will not fear, I will  not cry.  You are mine, I am Yours – this life if full of promise and hope.

I trust You, my hope is in You alone.

Worthy is the One who stands above the ages, whose victory is already won.

Name above all, priceless pearl, greatest treasure.

Jesus, how I love You, how I adore You.

Make me today the kind of man that loves beyond any qualification or justification.  Give me a generous helping of that unprecedented, supernatural love that sees sin like You do through the filter of Jesus.  Make my concern not the measure of quality in the person, but the measure of how much You love them in the first place.  Give me strength to do this, it’s not in me without You.

Let Your glory rise, let it rise in me today.

A Daily Recognition of an Unstoppable Yes

Lost in the waves of opinion and graceless talk, I find myself leaning hard into You this morning, my Lord.

Stranded in fields of needless controversies and unrighteous indignations, I seek Your path – I covet Your counsel.

Father, I can’t imagine how You process the divisiveness and ingrained hurtfulness of those of us landlocked by earth and bound by flesh.

It’s Your daily deliverance in the form of new fallen fresh mercies that I crave for my soul’s renewal.  I only know what is right by seeing You first.  I only know what to tolerate by setting my tolerances to Your heart.  I only know what to say by listening first to Your Word and Your words.  I only know how to live in health by allow You to be my physician.

How can I please others?  That proposition seems, at best, win-some-lose-some. How then, can I bring joy and glory to Your heart today?  My highest satisfaction comes from a sacrifice with an aroma pleasing to You.

May Your compassions and passions be mine.  Great and awesome God – above all things, creator of such beauty, giver of life – I celebrate You, lifting high hands of praise.  All glory and honor to You, my King.

Recenter my heart.  Recalibrate my senses.  I’ve hit a few bumps in the road, and they seem to have left me a bit skewed.  Center me again in You so that I may know the fullest life.  Breathe through me here in this moment so that I may know Your life and freedom.  Thank You that I don’t need do-overs or restarts…  just daily yeses and daily “let-it-be-so’s”.

Let Your glory rise…  fresh and new and wonderful in scope.  Measureless, timeless, priceless…  let it rise in this community today, let it rise in this nation, let it rise in this planet.  All to You!

Twist Cone (Struggle, Peace)

What a remarkable peace and contentment I find in You.  Once I peel away all the noise and distractions, I experience it even more convincingly.

I am so grateful for the ways You center me and bring focus and truth.  When I grapple for a hold, you provide a ledge to stand on.  When I struggle to make sense of things, You provide calm assurance even in the midst of mystery.

This is happiness, this is joy, this is the place You made for me.

What’s so amazing to me is that I find my way to these realizations so much easier these days.  Even in the midst of the twisting and turning and pressing and aching of life, there is You.  In You I find mercy, I find discernment, I gain wisdom, I am brushed by peace.

It almost seems like my life is like one of those soft-serve twist cones…  chocolate and vanilla clearly swirled yet uniquely identifiable.  As struggle courses through the veins of another day, there is also peace and joy right along beside it.  Each one eventually contributing to the flavor.  Could it be that the thing we most hate to admit is true – struggle and turmoil is just as essential to life as peace and contentment?

Whatever may be true about those things, I rest in Your goodness and rightness.  I sleep well completely in Your hold whether my body knows safety or threat.

Thank You for these blessed reassurances.  Thank You for Your peace that goes well beyond my ability to comprehend.  Thank You for the quietness of these times with You that I may be ready for the blinding noise ahead.

In all things, glory to You my King.  Let this be the surest thing today: that Your glory is on the rise, and it is rising in me as well.

Needful Things And Urgent Things And My Responses

Hey Father, any chance you can add a couple of hours to this day for me?!

OK, so at least I can laugh about not getting it all done.  I also thank You that not getting done what I thought I needed to do meant doing things that You put before me…  people things…  taking care of my people in the moment.  And I love that privilege.

So perhaps what I should be praying is that You would assist me to be more productive and efficient today.  Save me from my own personal time wasters.

Keep me aware of the importance of my time.  Help me to stay sharp.  Let the rabbit trails only be the ones You are leading me down!

When interruptions come…  and again, I know this is part of why You put me here…  help me to immediately focus 100% on the person who needs me.  Kind of like the “silver and gold have I none, but what I do have I will give you” sort of thing.

Let there not be one single person who feels like they’ve interrupted or disturbed me.  Lord, I’m not asking for patience…  that would be rather condescending.  I’m asking for passion for the people I serve…  a passion to love them better and stronger!  Not that I don’t already feel that…  I just need it amped up as I also struggle with other pressing things.

Now, as for the other pressing things…  give me the wisdom and discernment I need to care for that which is necessary (and to do those thing well), and to set aside that which isn’t truly needful.

Ah, and that last line reminded me of the most needful thing of all.  I need to take every opportunity to praise and worship You in the midst of it all.  It keeps me grounded and focused and connected and You know all that already!  Deep breaths, holy pauses…  I need more of those.  So I take some now.  I worship You alone.  I say, “Let Your glory rise afresh in me today!”

Ugh.

Ugh.

A groan before the waking.  Lord, as I put my prayer thoughts into the words of this journal, I realize I don’t always have enough words.  I don’t always have the right way of expressing myself, and frankly sometimes there is such a cacophony of words in my mind I don’t know where to start.  So today, I start with “ugh”.

I like the listening part of this prayer – at times it seems so much easier than the journaling.  There, I can just listen and soak in Your words and pour it all into worship.

Here, I confront the part of me that needs expression.  You instruct us to tell You what we need, then lift words of praise.  That seems to be evident in the Psalms as well.  But today, even though the praise is no struggle, the grabbing hold of what I need is vexing at best.  Ugh.

So I lift up hands to You.  I lay my pride bare before You.  I confess the sadness that has enveloped my heart in these days missing my grandkids.  I think about how I may have spoken one sentence too much on occasion recently.  I realize the innocent error that I made, with intent to welcome, but ended up making an error that I hope you masked in the ears of the one I was talking to!  Ugh.

These “ugh” prayers have such importance because I know that the enemy wants me to live in the disaster zone and forsake moving along with You.  So I pour out the ugh, I wait for Your counsel, and I choose to move on with You.  Let’s walk.

Glory to You, all glory my King.  You alone are what my heart longs for; You alone are satisfaction when I hunger and thirst for better, deeper, stronger things.  Your words are my instructions.  Your whispers are my relief.  Your Spirit is my strength.  Your movements are greater and better than my haphazard twitches!

Beginning and End, Lamb of God, precious Savior, Lord and friend.  Father, I love You.  Let Your glory rise in me, let it rise in this community, let it rise across this earth.  May Your glory be made known to all.

Make me a blessing to others today.

Head First, Heart Following

In Your graciousness, in Your mercy, find me waiting here, Father.  I lay me down before you, expectantly, enthusiastically.

I wait for You, head first, heart following.

I wait for You, listening for Your counsel.

I wait for You, not inactively, but in active service to You.

I need Your words – there are deep, difficult things happening around me.  People in great pain today.  Huge question marks pounding on hearts.  Give me Your words, I accept Your counsel.

I need Your direction – my ministry community is about to embark on a significant prayer journey together.  Season us with Your graces, pepper us with Your wisdom, excite us with Your vision.

I wait for You, head first, heart following…

Let Your glory rise…

Rickety Bridges and Slippery Stones

Father, my soul sings out:  “Lord, I need You!”

I abandon as much of my pride and my whims and my selfishness as I can…  help me to scrape away more…  and I come as completely ready and available as possible.

This has become a day of great excitement and joy and great sorrow and searching.  How do such things live together side by side?

For the things that are thrilling my heart…  I lift my hands and praise You!  Glory to You!  Glory to Your Name.

For the things that baffle me and that over-modulate my emotions, I surrender to You and say, “Be mine, be my way.”

When I come to the rickety bridges and the slippery stone paths, make the way clear and fit to walk on.  I will follow You, I will trust You.

When I come to the sunny fields and shady trees, I will rest there and give You praise.

Today I walk down a road that I don’t really want to travel.  My heart is heavy and hurting.  I celebrate with gratitude the blessing that precedes this sorrow, and I pray for Your strength and courage in this thing I must do today.

Then, after the grieving, I will dance again.  I will dance for You.  Even through the sorrow, let the joy remain a constant.

After the rain, the sun will come!  I will celebrate You under the darkest cloud, and I will sing Your songs even when the thunder tries to drown the sound.

It’s then that if I know You, You will make a path fit to walk on, and we will continue on down this road together.  And it will be good.  I love You, my Lord.

Let Your glory rise.

The “Find My Way” Prayer

Good morning, Father!  Let this be a day of peace and revelation!

Bring peace to my heart.  Take the questions, and pangs of sorrow, and darkened glass and let me see, find, and experience Your peace.

Speak to me so that I may live according to Your wisdom.

Reveal something fresh to me so that I can find You again in Your revealed Word.

Help me to be quiet – temper the nervous clambering that goes on in my head – so that I may focus better on You.

In the spirit of Paul’s reminder to tell You want it is I need today, and then bring You praise, I bring a hefty list of questions and needs today.  The heart of them all is this:  how shall I serve You?  How shall I serve others?  I seek You in these things.

And then, my heart overflows with gratitude for the remarkable, extraordinary, faithful God that You are.  Thank You for Your love that goes cross deep and resurrection wide.  Thank You for Your patience and Your providence.  Thank You for Your beauty painted and portrayed all across nature.  Thank You for Your beauty revealed in those who love You.  Thank You for Your beauty that emerges when the lost and broken find Your truth.

Help me to find my way.  I will follow You.  You go first, and I’ll follow on the ground You have prepared for me to walk on.

Along the way, may there not be a useless breath or a wasted step.  Make me a blessing to others.

All glory and honor to You, my Savior, my Lord, my friend, my God.  Let Your glory rise in me today.

I Want This Day To Be Different

Good morning Father.  I want this day to be different.

Not that there’s anything wrong with the way you created or blessed other days.  But I want this one to be different.

Not that I have earned a greater reward or deserve better.  I simply want this one to be different.

I want to know you better, to find that I’m following better, to speak fewer hurtful words and to cross fewer harmful lines.

I want to break fewer hearts and to mend more hurts.

I want to speak better of You by the things I do…  both in public and in private.

I want to listen more, to discern more, to ask more important questions.  I want to see hearing become doing.

I want to solve the root heart issue at play when my words are bitter or destructive.

I want to bless more people.

I want to make someone’s day a bit better, not a lot worse.

I want to feed someone who is hungry and to encourage someone who is down and lift someone who has fallen.

I want to grumble less when I’m hungry, down, or flat on my face.  Teach me to pray more in those times.  They’re all good places for seeking You.

I want this to be a better day not because the weather is better or the entertainment rocks or my body and mind feel stronger today. I want this day to be more about You.  That makes it better for me.

Teach me something new about Your ways today so that grace may become super-charged in me, so that I can pour it out to others in abundance.

In Your tenderhearted kindness and mercy, make me more tenderheartedly kind and merciful today.  That would be so much better than the option.

I want only You.  I bring all of me.  Let this day be different, my Lord.

You are the Name of above all names, Savior and Lord and creator and artist and friend.  You are Lord of Heaven’s armies, and You are Lord over this earth.

You are great and worthy of praise!