Heavenly, Holy, Gracious Father,
Thank You for another day. And for loving me enough to send Jesus to die
for me. May my life be a Thanks Offering
for that beautiful, priceless gift. And
I truly, deeply thank You for the wonderful blessings of a good marriage, good
children, and our good health. Life is
sweet! You have been so good to me to
grant me these things. Anything else is
just bonus. Please protect them! Protect my marriage, my children, and our
health. With these, I am rich beyond
belief!
Guide me today according to Your
Will and for Your glory. Fill me anew
with Your Holy Spirit. Help me discern
Your leading and grant me the strength to obey.
Help me walk in wisdom and gracefulness.
Give me eyes to see and ears to hear
what You want for me and from me. And
help me to notice and be thankful for the blessings and gifts You have given
me. (*Thank Him now for specific things
or after the prayer.) Help me also to
notice how I can be a blessing and a help to others.
Search my heart and reveal any sins
or obstacles between us. (*Pause and
listen now or after the prayer.) Forgive
my sins as I forgive others. Create in
me a pure heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Provide all we need for today. And help me to be content with it, for You
have decided that it is enough. You are enough! Help me to glorify You with what You provide
today, with what You give or take away.
Pour out on us Your love, grace, and
mercy, for we are bankrupt without these.
Protect us from evil and surround us with Your Heavenly angels, for we
are desperate for Your care and protection.
We cannot fight this battle without You!
Help me to follow and not lead - to
surf and not ski - as I humble myself under Your mighty hand, trusting that You
will lift me up in due time. And help me
have enough faith to never “shorten Your arm,” but help me rest in Your wisdom,
power, and timing.
Take the little that I can do and
offer, and multiply it for Your glory and Your purposes. Make something beautiful and useful out of my
shortcomings and weaknesses. And help me
be more like Jesus!
I once again commit my family and my
path to Your gracious, wise care. May
Your Will be done in and through our lives.
And may all we do be for Your glory.
Help me remember to live for eternity, and not for the temporary.
Guide and protect our country and
call us back up to being a nation “under God.”
Have mercy on us and do not give us what we deserve. But send Your Spirit to start a revival, for
we are in desperate need of You!
Be with my boys as they grow, and
with their future wives. Guide them all
to being humble, wise, intelligent, strong, godly adults. Keep them all safe and pure until
marriage. Help them to find each other
at a young age and to commit to godly marriages. And help them to discover what it is that You
want for them and for their lives. Bless
their families. And I ask that You bless
Jason and me with many more healthy, enjoyable years.
Is there anything right now that I
need to commit to Your hands? (*Pause,
listen, and pray it over to God.) And
speak to my heart right now about anything that You want me to know, do, or
pray. (*Pause and listen.) And I pray all of this in Jesus’ most holy
name, Amen
(And then, I try to spend some time praying for
other people and just talking my thoughts, feelings, and fears over with
God. And I do this all throughout the
day because I need to talk things over with Him. I just can’t face the day, the
discouragement, or the Enemy on my own.)
So now I’ll tell you why these lines are so
important to me.
“Heavenly, Holy,
Gracious Father,”
Every
day, I need to remember that He is a God that is far above me, heavenly and
holy. And that He is gracious, that He
pours out His goodness to me every day, in many ways. If I have the eyes to see it.
“Thank you for another day. And for loving me enough to send Jesus to die
for me. May my life be a Thanks Offering
for that beautiful, priceless gift.”
I
don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel like I don’t have much to be “happy”
about. My life isn’t what I would have
wanted it to be. It’s full of
loneliness, financial troubles, a run-down house, scattered family, little
success and encouragement, a broken home life as a child, constant fears and
discouragement and feelings of failure, and a pervasive longing for our Real Home. I’m just not a “happy” person. I am not “happy” with this life. And so before I say anything else, I need to be deliberate about thanking God for what matters most: another day, His love, and salvation. I thank Him that He gave me another day to live, to love my kids and my husband, to work for His Kingdom, to draw nearer to Him. I thank Him that He loves me, enough to die for me. I need to be reminded of this amazing love sometimes, especially when I feel like life is against me. And I remind myself that my whole life is meant to be a living sacrifice for Him, a thanks offering for all that He did for me. He gave His all for me, and so I need to be living completely for Him.
I truly do long for the Lord to come back again as soon as possible. I pray for it nearly every day. There is very little that this world holds for me, and I long for our true Home. I understand what Paul meant when he said, “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” (Phil 1:21) But instead of lamenting the fact that we aren’t Home yet, I have to consciously remember that each day is a gift. An opportunity to draw nearer to Him, to reflect Him to others, to do my job for His glory, to pour my life out for Him out of thankfulness, and to enjoy His goodness.
“And I truly, deeply thank You for
the wonderful blessings of a good marriage, good children, and our good
health. Life is sweet! You have been so good to me to grant me these
things. Anything else is just
bonus. Please protect them! Protect my marriage, my children, and our
health. With these, I am rich beyond
belief!”
This
part was added on 4/15/14. For the
longest time, I had been struggling with a sort of depression, feeling like
there are so many things that just aren’t going right in my life. And on 4/15/14, I was reading a book at the kitchen
table when I suddenly felt the heavy chains of depression and anxiety slip off
my shoulders. I felt a freedom and a
peace that I haven’t felt in a long, long time.
And I don’t think that I did anything to make this happen (other than
hanging in there through the hard times, constantly running after God), but I
believe it was a work of the Holy Spirit.
I was reading about a family who lost a child to cancer. And it deeply hit me how incredibly blessed I am just to have my children, a good marriage, and our good health. With these three things alone (along with my faith in God, of course), I am rich beyond measure. And I need to constantly remind myself of this. I need to constantly thank God for these gifts and remember how blessed my life is because of them. Everything else (besides winning souls and bringing God glory) pales in comparison.
In all honesty, I have never taken them for granted. I have known a lot of loss and heartache. And I have always expected bad things to happen. And so I have always considered these things blessings. But for some reason, it hit me so much deeper in my spirit today. Just thinking about the goodness God has poured out on me through these three things tapped into a deep well of joy that’s been closed for a long time. Every other concern fell by the wayside as I was filled with this incredible sense of gratitude and God’s goodness. And it felt so refreshing. It released a sense of peace that I haven’t felt free to feel in a long time because of all the concerns and disappointments that have filled my mind.
I know, of course, that God could allow these things to be taken from me. I often find myself afraid that if I enjoy some blessing too much, He will take it away just to test me. (But if I don’t enjoy it then it will look like I am not thankful for it and so He’ll take it away. I can’t win when it comes to my own mind.) And I know that anything that we value becomes a prime target for Satan, because he knows that hitting those areas will really hurt us. And this is why I pray daily for protection over these things. It is a spiritual battle that we are in. And prayer is a huge weapon in this battle.
But for today, God has allowed me to have these blessings. And as long as I have them, I will remember how truly rich I am. I really don’t need more than these things. I don’t need all of the things that I think I do. I can live with a lack of friends, family that doesn’t visit with each other, a half-finished house, unexpected house problems, garden pests, financial struggles, an unclear future, dashed dreams, etc.
I can live with those disappointments and struggles because I have been blessed in the ways that really matter. God has walked with me through all my hard times. He has met me again in my pain and released me from the bondage of depression and anxiety (at least for now, but I’ll take it). And He has graciously allowed me to have a husband I love, four wonderful and healthy children that we truly enjoy being with, and good health all around. I really have nothing to complain about! God has been good! Life is sweet indeed!
“Guide me today according to Your
Will and for Your glory. Fill me anew
with Your Holy Spirit. Help me discern
Your leading and grant me the strength to obey.
Help me walk in wisdom and gracefulness.”
It is so easy to forget that we are
supposed to be doing His Will every day, that we need to get our will in line
with His instead of praying that He gets in line with ours. It’s so easy to want what we want and get
discouraged when God doesn’t give it to us.
And so I remind myself daily that this whole life is really about
getting His Will done and bringing Him glory.
And I ask His help in this, that the Holy Spirit fills me with a fresh
sense of Him every day and helps me to listen and obey. Because left to myself, I wouldn’t be able to do this, nor would my humanness want to do this. I need His help in this. And while life may not always be what I want it to be, I desperately want to live with the wisdom that only God can give. And I want to walk in gracefulness, a character trait that has always intrigued and impressed me.
“Give me eyes to see and ears to
hear what You want for me and from me.
And help me to notice and be thankful for the blessings and gifts You
have given me. (*Thank Him for specifics
now or after the prayer.) Help me also
to notice how I can be a blessing and a help to others.”
I want to want what God wants for me
in this life, not just what I want. My
view, my priorities, and my desires are so small compared to God’s. And so I ask for the eyes and ears to discern
what He wants for me. And what He wants from me - the things He wants me to do,
the lessons He wants me to learn, the character traits He wants me to develop,
the things He wants me to give up or be content with. I want His eyes and ears when I look at my life, at the things He has already given me that I need to notice and be thankful for, the priorities He wants me to focus on, the things He expects out of me, and the ways that I can be a help to others. Because other people are a huge priority to God. And it is so opposite our natural tendencies that I need His help in remembering to make them a priority of mine, too. Just praying this reminds me to really see other people’s needs, to reach out to them, even if just in a kind word or a smile. It helps me remember to “live Christ” to them so that they might come to know His great love, too.
“Search my heart and reveal any sins
or obstacles between us. (*Pause and
listen now or after the prayer.) Forgive
my sins as I forgive others. Create in
me a pure heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
We are told to search our
hearts. Psalm 4:4: “. . . when you are on your beds, search your heart and be silent.”
Psalm 139:23-24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
This isn’t just a suggestion. We need to be deliberate about letting God search our hearts and root out anything that is displeasing or dishonoring to Him, anything that interferes with a truly authentic, complete relationship with Him. Sins, fears, doubts, feelings, thoughts, etc. There is so much that gets in the way, between us and God. And so we need to be always searching, letting God constantly purify our hearts.
And we need to take it seriously when God says that He forgives our sins as we forgive others. (Matt 6:14-15, 18:35, Mark 11:25)
Yet how many of us just consider this poetic?
But it’s not just poetry.
Being unforgiving to others, holding grudges, shows that we don’t truly understand God’s grace and mercy and love and forgiveness, that we do not truly understand what happened on the Cross and what it means for us, what He did for us. He died for all sins, not just our own. On the Cross, He paid the price for the sins of those who wrong you, leaving you with no rights to hold it against them. (He paid for your sins too, freeing you from the need to punish yourself further for them.) And He alone has the right to judge and condemn anyone because all sins are ultimately sins against Him.
And unforgiveness towards others puts up a wall between us and the Lord. We cannot have the kind of relationship with Him that we were meant to have if we have unforgiveness in our hearts. Being unforgiving doesn’t just hurt the other person; it hurts us and our health and, most importantly, it destroys our fellowship with the Lord.
And so we need to ask God’s help in searching our hearts daily for anything that gets in the way of our fellowship with Him, anything that grieves the Spirit, because we need that intimate fellowship in order to have the best, most rewarding, most God-glorifying life possible. (And if we need it, we should ask for His help in forgiving others. He will help us do what we cannot do on our own. Forgiveness isn’t based on our feelings. It’s a conscious act of the will.)
I also pray for a pure heart and a steadfast spirit (Psalm 51:10) because a pure heart is so rare nowadays, yet it is so valuable and precious to Him. And I cannot get one on my own. I need His daily help in purifying my heart. And I desperately need a steadfast spirit because there is so much in life that seeks to knock me down. I need God to help me as I faithfully trudge through each day.
“Provide all we need for today. And help me to be content with it, for You
have decided that it is enough. You are enough! Help me to glorify You with what You provide
today, with what You give or take away.”
If there is one thing that God is
teaching me, it’s to learn to be content with what He gives. If we focus only on what we don’t have, we
will be constantly discouraged and depressed.
But I try to remember daily to be thankful for my daily bread, and with getting only that much. Because that’s what He has promised – daily bread. Not tomorrow’s or next week’s, but
today’s. He will give us just what we
need to get through today. It’s not my job to be concerned with how He gives gifts or with what He doesn’t give or with what He gives someone else, but to glorify Him with my life as it is, with what He has chosen to give me or not give me. I need to be able to praise Him and to say, “Blessed be Your name,” whether He gives or takes away. (Job 1:21)
Oh, how He has been teaching me this lesson a lot lately. And it hurts at times. But when I learn to be content with the “take away,” the bitterness is replaced with a bittersweetness, with spiritual blessings that far outweigh the momentary troubles or pain or loss. Because I am learning to find Him and His goodness and blessings in the pain and longing and heartache. And as long as I know He’s there with me, that’s good enough for me. Because He is all I really need, no matter what’s going on in my life! And that makes me spiritually rich!
“Pour out on us Your love, grace,
and mercy, for we are bankrupt without these.
Protect us from evil and surround us with Your Heavenly angels, for we
are desperate for Your care and protection.
We cannot fight this battle without You!”
I have a hard time praying that God
pours out His blessings on us, like the “prosperity gospel” preachers
teach. Instead, I am learning to pray
that He helps me be content with the life He has given me, to notice the
blessings that are already there. To
find Him in it. But I have no problem praying that God pours out His love, grace, and mercy. Without these, I would be hopelessly sunk. But praying that He pours these out also means allowing Him to do it His way, not telling Him how He has to bless us and care for us. I don’t care as much about how He does it, I just desperately need to feel and grasp His love, grace, and mercy daily. It’s what keeps me going.
And I know (thanks to those five months of demonic harassment that I wrote about in “Supernatural Stuff and the Armor of God” at myimpressionisticlife.blogspot.com, under the “Iron Sharpens Iron Bible Study” label) that we are in the middle of a spiritual battle every day. And I cannot fight that battle without His help. I cannot deal with the onslaught of discouragement, fears, attacks, temptations, etc., without His help. And so daily I pray for God’s help and protection in this battle. I pray for protection every night as we sleep. I know that we are absolutely helpless and vulnerable without Him, without the Holy Spirit in us who is greater than the evil one. And so I throw myself on His care and mercy daily.
But how many of us don’t live like there is an unseen world at work around us all the time? An enemy who seeks to kill, steal, and destroy (John 10:10)? Who walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8)?
Oh, the blinded eyes! The casual, distracted, ineffective, and self-reliant lives that we live when we forget that we are in the middle of a spiritual battle all day, every day, and that only God can truly give us the help we need. We need to do our part and take the battle seriously, take up our armor daily, and ask for God’s help to make it through another day of battle.
“Help me to follow and not lead - to
surf and not ski - as I humble myself under Your mighty hand, trusting that You
will lift me up in due time. And help me
have enough faith to never “shorten Your arm,” but help me rest in Your wisdom,
power, and timing.”
If there’s one thing I am learning
to want, it’s to be able to follow Him in humble submission instead of trying
to lead with my own wisdom and desires and efforts. I want to be able to patiently wait on Him,
humbling myself under His hand until He chooses to lift me up in His time and
His way. (1 Peter 5:6) I want to be able to wait until He points
the way or gives a direction instead of trying to force something on my
own. Or as I like to say, “Surf, don’t
ski!” Here’s what I mean by that:Water skiing is when we start up our own little motor on a still lake, and we attach our own little rope to the boat, and we cruise around by our own little power, saying, “Hey, look at me. I’m making things happen.” But surfing is when we sit quietly with our boards, waiting and watching for when the waves pick up and the conditions are right. And then we jump on our boards and ride the waves that God brought through His power. One is about leading and making opportunities, and one is about following and taking opportunities. And I’m learning to surf instead of ski.
And the “shorten Your arm” part is from one of my favorite verses from the Old Testament.
Numbers 11:23: “The Lord answered Moses, ‘Is the Lord’s arm too short? You will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.’“
Is the Lord’s arm too short? This isn’t what someone else was saying about God. These are His words. “Is the Lord’s arm too short?” It’s like He’s asking Moses, “Who do you think I am? I created the universe, but you still don’t trust Me with your little concern! You still don’t think that I am capable of so much more! Well, just watch Me!”
I love that verse. I LOVE that verse. I want to write it on my wall where I can see it daily. “Is the Lord’s arm too short?” I know that He is asking me this same question all throughout the day. And I want to be reminded daily in prayer that God’s arm is so much longer than I act like it is. I do not want to shorten it with my fears that He won’t be able to handle some concern that I hand over to Him. But I want to remember that it’s about His wisdom, His power, and His timing. And I can rest secure in knowing that He is so much bigger than me!
“Take the little that I can do and
offer, and multiply it for Your glory and Your purposes. Make something beautiful and useful out of my
shortcomings and weaknesses. And help me
be more like Jesus!”
As
I get older, I am more and more aware of my shortcomings and weaknesses, my
inability to handle life on my own and to accomplish the great things that I
once thought I could. And so I have to
ask every day that He takes the little bit that I can do and that He uses it,
multiplies it. I don’t feel like I have
much to offer, but I pray that He can be glorified by it. And I hand my weaknesses over to Him daily,
asking Him to make something beautiful out of my messy life. And I pray for His help in resembling and reflecting Jesus more and more. I love the song “My Jesus” by Todd Agnew. It’s about becoming more like the Jesus of the Bible (the servant, the one who got dirty, who got in there with the sick and the broken, the one who poured Himself out for others, who stored up heavenly treasures and not earthly ones) instead of trying to become more like the polished-up Jesus that we find in some churches (the one who seems like a poster boy for affluent, successful, beautiful people, the one who seems to say, “Follow me and you’ll have a good, comfortable life with lots of bling”).
Following Jesus doesn’t mean we’ll have an easy, successful, pain-free life full of earthly abundance. Instead, we’ve been warned that if we follow Him, we will face persecution, temptations, hatred, attacks from the enemy, a long spiritual battle, dying to self, and, eventually, we’ll find our rewards in Heaven. We’ll hear those wonderful words, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” And it will all have been worth it!
“I once again commit my family and
my path to Your gracious, wise care. May
Your Will be done in and through our lives.
And may all we do be for Your glory.
Help me remember to live for eternity, and not for the temporary.”
It’s all-too-easy for me to panic
about my fears over health, my kids, our safety, and any problems that come
up. I have struggled constantly with
discouragement and worry over the years.
I am not one who skips and hums through life. I wring my hands and “wait for the other shoe
to drop” and always feel like God is going to test me like Job by taking away something
or someone that I love. I’ve lived my
life on edge for years.And so it is critical for me to give my family over to Him in prayer, to remember that He is a gracious, caring Father and that He is much more capable than I am at watching over us. I am so prone to worry over everything, even things I can’t control or shouldn’t control. So I have to consciously place us in the hands of the One who does control everything.
And I remind myself that what I really want is His Will, not mine. And so I expect that things will happen that I did not want to have happen – trials, upsets, waiting, a “no” to my desperate prayers. But if I have sought God’s Will (and I am obedient to do my part) then I can trust that whatever happens is because He allowed it and will use it for His purposes. After all, it is all about His glory! And whatever He allows is for His glory, for His Kingdom.
As hard as it may be, I need to get my will in line with His, to seek His glory over my own comforts and desires. Because that is what will last eternally. It has been a goal of mine to consciously live for eternity and not for the temporary, to work for what will last after this earth is destroyed. I desperately want to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” My own desires for comfort and happiness and security can pull my focus away too easily from what really matters, and so I pray that God helps me keep my priorities straight. Eternal, not temporary!
“Guide and protect our country and
call us back up to being a nation “under God.”
Have mercy on us and do not give us what we deserve. But send Your Spirit to start a revival, for
we are in desperate need of You!”
I am thoroughly convinced that our country
desperately needs a spiritual awakening - a revival - because we are headed in
some really bad directions. Society is
doing everything it can to erase God from the public mind, to criminalize
Christianity, and to flat-out defy God and snub their noses at Him. Even churches are getting away from the Bible
and true Christianity. My goodness, I am afraid for us! And so I lift our country up in prayer often. And I seek to intercede for us, to appeal to God’s mercy. Because I feel that we have earned ourselves some very serious punishments and consequences. And if He were to deal with us according to His justice - to give us what we really deserve - we’d probably be decimated and become a shell of what we once were. (We pretty much are already a shell of what we were.) And I pray that God calls us back to being a nation that glorifies Him, that seeks after Him. Because if that doesn’t happen, God help us all!
Change starts with us. Revival starts in our hearts, and spreads to our families and our churches and our communities and, finally, our country. But it has to start with us seeking God, aligning ourselves with the Holy Spirit, and humbling ourselves before our mighty God! Come on, Christians . . .
2 Chronicles 7:14-15: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.”
2 Chronicles 16:9: “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”
How many of us will He find?
“Be with my boys as they grow, and
with their future wives. Guide them all
to being humble, wise, intelligent, strong, godly adults. Keep them all safe and pure until
marriage. Help them to find each other
at a young age and to commit to godly marriages. And help them to discover what it is that You
want for them and for their lives. Bless
their families. And I ask that You bless
Jason and me with many more healthy, enjoyable years.”
This is a personal part about my
family. I’m asking God to help raise my
boys to be what He wants them to be, because I know I can only do so much when
it comes to raising them up right.
Basically, once again, I’m asking Him to work through my weaknesses, to
help my boys become godly, wise young men despite the ways I fail. And I pray God’s protection over their future wives, that He protects their minds, their bodies, their innocence. It is my desire that my boys find godly wives while they are still young-ish, before they all make their own “independent lives” and then find it hard to mesh lives with another person. I pray that they all find each other before they have had too much time to mess around sexually. I would rather that they all find someone when they are fresh and new and pure, and then they can build their lives together.
Not everyone will agree with me, but I feel it is far more risky for people settle down later, with all the temptations out there to mess around with lots of people and all the baggage that can be brought into a marriage and all the selfish patterns that a person gets used to when they’ve been on their own too long. I’d rather they find someone early and commit to godly marriages, to building a strong marriage in the Lord together. But that’s just me.
And of course, I pray that God allows my husband and I to have many more years together, raising our children and enjoying our grandchildren.
“Is there anything right now that I
need to commit to Your hands? (*Pause,
listen, and pray it over to God.) And
speak to my heart right now about anything that You want me to know, do, or
pray. (*Pause and listen.) And I pray all of this in Jesus’ most holy
name, Amen”
I think this speaks for itself. But what I’m trying to do is to remember to
listen. It is too easy for me to do all
the talking and requesting. But I want
to listen more, to be sensitive to God’s leading and the promptings of the Holy
Spirit. And so I spend some time after
prayer to just be still before the Lord and to hear if there is anything He
wants me to “know, do, or pray.” (Although,
I’ll be honest, He doesn’t talk back as much as I wish He did.)Also, I search my heart to see if there is any concern or fear that I am failing to hand over to Him. This way, I remember to seek His help with everything, even the things that I sometimes feel like I can handle or that I forget to take to Him right away.
And this is my basic Everyday Prayer
and what it means to me! What about
you? How about writing one for yourself,
too! What would you include?
