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“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you”  Deuteronomy 31:6 (NIV)

There is an old German proverb that states, “Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is”.

When I was a young kid, my older sister would often tell me scary things about the night so that I would crawl in bed with her and snuggle (I guess I was cute at one point in my life).

Needless to say, I grew up being terrified of the dark. My young mind would imagine all the dangerous possibilities that loomed in my bedroom, hallway, or right outside my window.

My fears were paralyzing. I was especially scared to death of death. It wasn’t until after I accepted Christ into my heart as a college freshman that I could start to cope with being in my house alone. There’s an old saying, “feed your faith and your fears will starve to death”.

I “starved” my fears with the last part of today’s verse. I made God my close friend. I still talk to Him knowing that He understands and is right with me.

We all have different fears that can paralyze us to some degree; rejection, authority figures, taking a risk, talking to new people, being without a friend nearby, losing loved ones, death, making a mistake, clowns, running out of money…

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, make me ‘strong and courageous’. Hold my hand as my Friend and Protection as I face and work through my fears. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“And I pray that you… may have power…to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ”   Ephesians 3:17-18 (NIV)

When I had my first child I started to get a fuller understanding of today’s verse.

My son, as an infant, didn’t have to do anything for me to get me to love him. He couldn’t do anything to get more of that love, because he had it ALL already.

As a toddler, he would have times of  being selfish or ornery. I still longed to hold him and have his chubby-little-indented-knuckle-hands wrap around the back of my neck .

As a teenager, he could get mouthy and rude. But I still strongly desired the best for him.

Basically, I adored him and still do. I adore each of my four kids. But, it’s not even close to how vast God’s love is for each of us.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, thank You that You personally and intimately adore me. I need it. Help me to pass it on. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”   Matthew5:5(NIV)

The word ‘meek’ was used to depict the Roman horse. These horses were big with rippling muscles. They had the power and girth to trample and reek serious havoc if they were to run wild amongst the village. But they were very tame and obedient to the rider.

The common feeling we get from hearing the word ‘meek’ is a timid, feeble being that cowers into a corner. But Jesus was referring more to the Roman horse, massive strength that is under control.

I think it is easy to be “bad”, follow the crowd with our morals, show anger, gossip, complain… It is much harder to hold back what we say, do right, and trust God to avenge our “enemies”.

Be like the Roman horse that could do serious damage, yet reigned in and controlled by God’s Spirit within us. “Meek”.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, help me to depend on You moment by moment so that I can direct my focus on doing right, helping and encouraging. Also, control my words, anger and damaging actions. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance” Ephesians 1:18

The Apostle Paul was telling his friends in Ephesus some things he was asking God to do for them.

Having Anatomy classes in college leads me to believe that the human heart doesn’t have eyes. I know this is just a picture of our inner being grasping an understanding.

If we think we already have a full understanding of life, people and God, we are kidding ourselves. The ‘eyes of our heart’ are closed.

He wants us to continually seek insights about, daily life banked against His bible, the complexity of people, and especially the vast riches and personality of God.

So if my heart had eyes, I would want those lizard-like ones. Those eyes that can look in all directions, behind, sideways and ahead. As I try to understand, I want to consider the past events, present circumstances, and then look ahead to my future actions based on this understanding of God, people and daily life.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, please continuously open the “lizard eyes” of my heart. Keep ‘enlightening’ me about life, people and You. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“In the morning, O LORD, You hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before You and wait in expectation” Psalm 5:3 (NIV)

We go through the day reacting to the many issues and concerns that are in our paths. It gets stressful.

Today’s verse is a piece of great advice from God. He knows that we are at our “blessed best” when we take time, in the morning, to sit before Him and think through our day. Then give Him our requests, a petition for guidance and a plea for clear minded decision-making.

Picture the shepherd leading and protecting his sheep. One maverick lamb decides to skip the morning briefing about the day. He runs ahead of the wise shepherd, making quick choices and fighting all his own battles without leaning on the strength and wisdom of that shepherd.

At the end of the day, the impatient, selfishly motivated little mutton, sits down and says, “Mr. shepherd, get me out of all these messes. I’m so tired, where were you all day to help me avoid them?”

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, remind me to meet with You in the morning and  lean on You as my Good Shepherd, so that I can be at my “blessed best”. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” James 1:15 (NIV)

When we receive Christ into our lives, we get the Holy Spirit. We now have access to God working inside us, developing our character, molding our thinking, and especially, cleaning up our ugly habits and wrongs.

My son has had this horrible wart growing on his knuckle for years. Every once in a while he would  attempt a quick fix cure from the drug store. All this did was create an armor “super wart”. He even tried to cut it out due to complete frustration. It only came back bigger and stronger (looked like a 6th finger).

I told him of a cure. When apple cider vinegar is dipped in cotton and taped to the wart every night for several weeks, the virus will slowly die. My son gave up after one attempt of course, but I encouraged him to persist.

Slowly he saw the “monster” turn black and die after continual and consistent treatment.

Our deep embedded sins and insecurities take time for the Holy Spirit to erode out of our lives. Our treatment needs to come in the form of continual and consistent confessing (admitting) to God, asking Him to change us, and even recruiting others to pray and ask us how we are doing.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, do a work in me so I can experience life to the fullest. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“These trials have come so that your faith, of greater worth than gold, may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor” 1 Peter 1:6-7

It seems that our goal is to have everything go smoothly. We want enough money, health and good fortune to have a good life for ourselves, family and all those around us. We hate glitches.

We hope and pray that no “disturbances” come our way; an injury, sickness, troubled child, job issues, financial stresses, spouse frustrations or any bad news that disrupts our smooth road.

In God’s economy, He values our faith, or trusting and depending on Him, of much greater than our clear sailing. We have to admit, those “disturbances” drive us to our knees. They raise our awareness of our need for His intervention in our lives. They are DIVINE REMINDERS of His presence.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, help me to value what You value; faith and dependence on You. Get me through the tough times, but use those DIVINE REMINDERS to drive me closer to You. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity” Ephesians 5:15-16 (NIV)

Time management becomes more critical the older we get. Managing the hours we have been given to live life gets harder as our responsiblities increase.

When I am asked if I have a prayer request, I always say, “Yes, please pray for my TIME MANAGEMENT”. Over the years I have seen God work on my organization skills, as well as, help me weed out time wasters.

The days of my youth are long gone. Those good ol’ days when my biggest dilemma was to figure out who I was going to play with or what cartoon I was going to watch.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, show me how to best use my time. Continue to work on my TIME MANAGEMENT. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” Philippians 2:4 (NIV)

Something happens after we give our hearts and lives to Christ, we get His Spirit working in us. The cool thing is that His Spirit really ignites in our being more and more as we become “others-oriented”.

We grow up being self-consumed or self-absorbed. So it takes a lot to break this cycle and think about the ‘interests of others’ then attempt to meet their needs.

When we do, with His strength, the fruit of that Spirit (see Galatians 5:22) grows and invades our character. “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” is the fruit of a blessed and fulfilled person.

I remember learning that I need to “put myself in THEIR shoes” or “walk a mile in THEIR shoes”. Place myself in THEIR situation, upbringing, struggles and perspective to truly understand and help.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, give me the heart to see the needs of others. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“Why, LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” Psalm 10:1 (NIV)

David was praying an honest prayer to God. He “felt” God was ‘far off’. Also, he was going through a difficult time and “felt” like God wasn’t around to step in and straighten out the situation.

There are many times we don’t “feel” like God is around to listen to us, especially when things aren’t going our way. Feelings and emotions vary and change, but we need to place our faith in the “fact” that He is present and listening.

He wants us to just be honest with Him during our times in prayer, just like David was in the verse today. Don’t candy coat it. Tell Him how you feel. Give Him your frustrations. Let Him know about the troubles you are agonizing with.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, I know You want my honest prayers. Thank You that You long to hear my frustrations, disappointments and worries. Meet me in the midst of my cries out to You. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.