Prayers

Father, I am incredibly thankful. Who am I that I should receive Your miraculous love? Who am I that I should receive Your blessings? I have so much that comes directly from Your loving hand: devoted wife, supportive parents and siblings, encouraging friends, dedicated church family, physical health, and the prayers of your saints. Why should I receive these blessings from You? I have no answer Lord. Only out of the abundance of Your mercy, kindness, compassion, and love. You are so loving, Father. You show us how to live with perfect love because You are perfect love. I am blessed with countless intangibles. Your love is good. Your love is beyond compare. You are God. Thank You for watching over my family. Thank You for meeting our needs. Thank You for peace, joy, and prosperity. Thank You for being patient with my stubborn soul. Thank You for this nation and its leaders. Thank You for medicine and healthcare. Thank You for food, clothing, shelter, and all the extras. Thank You for blessing me with laughter and fun. I have much for which to be thankful.

Lord, I pray for the people in my life who are experiencing turbulent circumstances. I ask that Your Holy Spirit would drench my friend who is struggling with a spiritual crisis. She is regularly bombarded with numerous philosophies of life and I can tell that she wants Truth. I am asking for You to guard her heart against Satan's arrows. Protect her from the influence of her society and worldly friends. Replace her fleshly thoughts with Holy Truth and make her see the Light.

Jesus, please tend to the needs of my friends who are undergoing a family health emergency. Use this time to solidify their family and their faith. Draw them together as one as they have united in Your Name. Guide the thoughts and actions of the medical team as they address the physical needs of their loved one. Give them Your peace and joy - regardless of what may come of this trial . Love them in a way that they can sense Your Spirit.

And Father, please continue to develop me as Your son and servant. I have far to travel in this process, for sure. Let me refuse complacency. God please instruct me on the right ways to honor You and glorify You to this world. I pray that Your message of selfless love would permeate my being and pour out of my life onto all that I encounter - through word and deed. I pray that I would "set myself on fire and burn for the world to see" as Wesley prayed. May Your fame be the concern of my life. Teach me to use the influence and resources I have from You to meet the needs of others in a God-exalting fashion. You are worth my life's devotion. Help me to live in You.

Busy Busy

I can't say enough about how refreshing DNow was for my heart last weekend! Physically though, it was draining! And because of all the energy I put into the planning process I am now a little behind in some other areas - like school. Seminary is probably one of my favorite things right now, but often it can become very overwhelming. No one ever said it would be easy. I am extremely thankful to have this excellent opportunity to be a student of DTS - even in the difficult times. It will be interesting to see how hard of a time I have playing catch up over the next few days. With prayer and discipline I think I can do a decent job, but we'll see. I've been listening to the Hank Murphy Band and to Lecrae today - good stuff. The message presented through their music is phenominal. It's impressive to know that God is using so many different means to spread His gospel. It's a great reminder that my goal shouldn't necessarily be to become a good student, good pastor, or good husband. Rather I need to become a servant of the One who served me in the greatest way possible. All the other responsibilities will become easier when I get my focus established properly.

Disciple Now 2009: GameTime

What an incredible experience for me! I thoroughly enjoyed DNow and I am very thankful for the way I was refreshed spiritually. I am certainly drained physically, but my spirit is encouraged. Planning the retreat was intimidating, to say the least, but all in all I'm thankful for the way everything came together. The church family of the Crossing thoroughly impressed me as I watched them work together with the attitude servant. Everything they did was above and beyond the call of duty. Our guests, Hank and Nathan, were right on. Hank never ceases to hit home with my heart through his ministry of music. His lyrics, talent, and passion combine to create moving music. Nathan was well studied and very relational in his discussions. All of his stories and illustrations brought home his Biblical teaching. I am very thankful for the work God has performed in their lives.

God, I have started today miserably. Rather than waking up at a decent hour I slept in like a lazy man. I am lazy. And Father, I also confess that mornings are one of the most difficult times of my day especially for facing temptation. Today I am off to a less than honorable start for sure. So Father I commit the rest of my day, breath by breath, to You. Not to myself, the people around me, or their thoughts about me. Father I just pray that You would convict me of the choices I make and the attitude of my heart. My goal today is to honor You and actually spend time with You, not just spend time about You. Be with me today and rescue me from my sinful nature as only You can. It is for freedom's sake that I have been freed and freedom sounds so nice. Lord give me a heart of patience and compassion. Make me strong against temptation. Give me the desire to pursue You as I know You pursue me. Thank You for loving me so passionately and giving Your life for me. You are worthy of all my love and adoration. Thank You for your undying pursuit of making me like You - holy and loving. Thank You for showing me true love that I may show it to those around me. Lord, take control of all that I am.

Lord I admit that I am currently experiencing perhaps one of the most testing times of my life. I constantly feel as though my faith in You is being brought into question. Do I really believe that You are in control with all the in's and out's of my life? If so, do I really believe that You have my best interest in mind? Lord, in my heart I know that You are God. In light of that fact I must confess my pride and selfish nature. It should not matter if things are easy or pleasant at this point in my life. What should matter is Your glorification. My purpose in life is not to be successful, happy, responsible, or even "Christian", but instead to glorify You. Lord I must lay down my desires and plans. I need to take up You. I believe you would have me seek You instead of Your plan. I know that's how I feel with the people in my life. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Lord, I want to be obedient. I have daily regrets about my attitude and actions. I battle depression, laziness, and doubt. If, however, I would just spend my time with You and focusing on honoring You then my days would be different. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Are these evident in my life? They would definitely be much more evident if I would forget about doing things my way and spend my life doing things Your way, the way of the Spirit. My new prayer is that I would seek hard after You and seek to be obedient breath by breath. Forgive me for making this about me instead of You. Jesus thank You for knowing that I needed your blood applied to make up for the sin in my life. Thank You for sacrificing Your life for my sin. I am after the freedom that only You can provide. Freedom.

Jesus, I am here. Please be the big, huge God that you are. I need you to take over in my life. I am through trying to control it and make it work out the way I see it should. I am unhappy doing things my way. I have tried and tried. My plans fall apart at the seams and nothing works as I want it to. Rather than proving to everyone how big of a Christian I am I think I am proving to myself how selfish and sinful I can be. Jesus thank you for always being within reach of my rescue. I believe you will catch me when I stumble. I believe you are faithful. Thank you for being true to your word. I need your help. Show me your way so that I may follow. I desire to be in your will Father. Thank you for humbling me and teaching me to rely on you instead of myself. You are everything that I will ever need and more. You are sustenance. You are life-blood. Jesus, only you can free me forever from the sin of this life. Take control and make me pure in your eyes. I pray that you would look on me and see your precious, pure blood applied to my heart. Father, I need you. Please take me and use me up until there is nothing left. You are. You are. You are. I am not, Lord, but You Are.

Given the Chance

Perhaps one of the biggest problems with Christian people is that we rarely give God a chance to do His thing in our lives. I believe that God would love for us to trust Him more with the choices that we make in our lives. Also, I think that we should give Him a chance to conquer sin in our lives. It's been my experience that most people seek to deal with temptation individually. We think that we have the ability to outwit, outmaneuver, and outperform temptation with self-control, willpower, and knowledge. The truth is, Jesus is the only one to conquer temptation and defeat Satan. That's why it's foolish for us to attempt to battle temptation with our own strength. We must realize, humbly, that we are fleshly creatures with a tendency to live for ourselves - not God. He is the only one who can provide the holiness we need in order to effectively combat our spiritual enemy. We must give Him a chance. Until then we will continue to run on the treadmill of defeat and shame. Jesus proved His power on the Cross and offers His help to us in order that, like Him, we can be victors against the Evil one. We must give God a chance. We must give prayer a chance. We must give His Word a chance. He will prove Himself in His way and in His time if we allow Him. Give up on yourself and give in to Him.