Category: Devotionals and prayers

How The Christian Faith Should Inform Our Response to School Shootings

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Devotional and prayer

If we have looked on the news over the last year, we have seen more reports of yet all too numerous barbaric school shootings. To learn from the past, the intercessors, or stable men of prayer seen in the Old Testament such as Daniel, Moses, David or Jeremiah would most likely be in a process of grieving, mourning, or wailing to God, and possibly fasting, throwing dust on their heads and sitting in the oldest sackcloth, in similar kinds of bloody times of war in the Old Testament. Both in Biblical times as well as today, we who know who God is, know Him to be gracious, kind, loving hearted, patient, and redemptive. However, while we live on the earth, to keep our faith alive, we must place before our attention the many good things God has done for us which can be counted as things that range from numerous profound miracles, to everyday type provisions in times of God’s blessing on our nation to keep our perspective accurate. For an accurate perspective, we must count our blessings, and become familiar with the one who blesses nations and makes wars to cease to the ends of the earth, as the scripture says who also delivers people from death. Psalm 46:8-10 reads, “Come, see the works of the LORD, who brings devastation upon the earth. 9 He makes wars to cease throughout the earth; He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; He burns the shields in the fire. 10 “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth.” When we make the choice to lift our eyes up to heaven despite times of bloodshed or unexpected loss, recounting His power to make bloodshed and war to cease, we can benefit greatly as we truly look to the realities of God’s personality alone. This reality can inspire worship, and the worship can take on a purity when we go to God as people who worship Him in faith. What I mean is that when we who trust in Christ take God at his word and familiarize to ourselves the identity of God as is shown to us through the Bible, we hold true the belief that his personality is eternal and does not change. The reality of the stability of God and his power to cause evil to cease should give stability to our faith as long as we are in this dark world.

We can have the hope of safety with God alone, and in Him through faith in Him we have a solid place to stand. When we remember the dark world we live in is not the anchor for our hope, but believe that Christ overcame the world of sin and all temptation, we are inspired to bow before him as king, and we can believe it is He who is our anchor in the midst of tragedies that happen. This can result in a pure kind of worship. This dark world was never a satisfactory place for our hope to be settled in. We must know Christ came to rescue us out of the world laden by sin. he came to settle us in a place where sin and decay does not corrupt. Heaven is the one place God has set apart for himself and to bring to himself those who believe in him who also want to be done with doing acts of sin in their life.

The bloody school shootings we see are just one of a million different things that tell us this world of darkness cannot be, and will not be sustainable as a permanent home for anyone. The world is getting more and more full of sin, and the earth is grieving under the weight of the heaviness of it. As we painfully and clumsily “wake up” to the numbing injuries of these assaults on children and adults but mainly children, we have few words that seem fitting to bring before our God of salvation, except something perhaps like “Lord! Save the people in need! Rescue the dying, both spiritually and physically!”

As we go grieving for the reality that America the country that some of us have grown up in is sadly churning out murderous beasts like these unredeemed killers, it seems so surreal, yet we must process this along with the many other tragedies America has faced, if we aim to comfort the hurting or confused. Why God allows evil has never been fully answered by God or by man at any time but we must still hold the beautiful parallel reality that He allows good to happen to evil people. The Bible speaks of overcoming evil with good and encourages us to not be overcome by evil but to overcome evil with good. One way this can happen is for us to get into the habit of crying out “Lord Jesus, bring people out of their sins! May your salvation change the lives of people in the United States!” “Lord, reveal your stable love to the lost, and woo the dark world to yourself even if it means through these times of bloodshed and broken exasperation.” “Come to us as we come to You in prayer! And grant that would-be murderers would instead be set upon a different road with changed lives, dispositions and plans. May people not lose their faith in times like this!” “Yet, for others that are shell shocked, and worn out with the gun violence in the US, save the broken people of our country out of the pressure they feel in the darkness and may it be redeemed as one of the many ways people can seek you and be led to your light!”

Prayer: Lord, save the lost! Save those trapped in the darkness! Lord, save those who have not yet heard of the God who sits in the heavens and laughs at the plans of the rulers of darkness. You are the God who wishes none to perish but all to come to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are the God who does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked, and you are the God who rejoices not with evil, but you rejoice in the truth. We pray that truth would be upheld, as many children and adults are swooned with darkness and heaviness, and as many barely have the strength to look up. We ask for many to be given the grace to look up and to believe in the God who cares and has deep compassion. We ask for grace to be given to countless children and adults to believe in You Lord as the God who holds the way of salvation, who himself is The Way out of darkness. Lord Jesus as You have called yourself The Way, The Truth, and The Life, You are The Way out of sinfulness, and the way out of evil. You rescue many in this life, and promise a home in heaven with You, in a place separated from all evil.  We ask for the hope of salvation to be shed abroad in people’s hearts because one day Jesus, you will make all things new, and all knees shall bow to You. We ask Jesus for you to visit this hurting grieving world, and for you to bind up the brokenhearted and heal all the wounds, of these our neighbors, these in our community, these in America, in these dark days of evil. We lean on You Alone for salvation to reach countless people dear Lord of Mercy! Amen! 

Keep on growing in the Word! LG

Borders Around the Biblical Jerusalem and How Christians in the United States Can Submit our Prayers for Borders to the Lord

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Devotional and prayer

Students of history will tell you history repeats itself when the lessons The Lord puts before a people fail to be learned by that people. Yet, even more deeply it should be considered that when the Lord would have a people learn a lesson, it should not just be learned, but retained. A lesson retained in the heart should be able to be brought forth from a fountain of wisdom so to speak to be accessible for meditation and reference in future times of need.

During the time Nehemiah came to organize the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem, Israel had been in captivity for about 70 years. The Babylonians were their captors. Some of the Jews had already been released to populate Jerusalem again, and the temple had been rebuilt. It is widely known that Nehemiah led the people of God to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem in a record of 52 days.

Before we get too excited about making 52 days a “magic number” that we tack on any massive project in our minds about saving America today we may imagine ourselves aspiring to, we must first imagine what the heart condition and meditations and posture was like for any average Jew in that day just having come from out of the land of their captivity. They had come from a place where there were no freedoms. They had come from a place where there was no professional advancement or free enterprise among the Jews. They had come from a place where there was much forced physical labor, and forced servitude. They owned no property themselves. They were beggars, and depended on whatever their captors might have thought they could count “as trash or leftovers” that ended up becoming the “savings and capital” of the Jews. In those kinds of times, we can imagine they did not get to eat what they liked, or travel at will, or even see next of kin for any type of holiday or family reunion-like event. They were estranged from the joys of what God had done for them in previous times of victory and their worship of God was most likely gagged by the enemy’s mockery and by their own shame and isolation from corporate times of celebration.

These events and circumstances no doubt created a refining fire I would dare say and a “holy breeding ground” for their hearts to become “ripe with humility and contriteness” and very likely a hunger and perhaps even a deep desire to pursue God for scraps of mercy. Truths from the word of God may have spoken loud and clear to them about how God is a God of mercy and a broken and contrite heart the Lord will not despise. They might have recalled the great mercy and compassion of the Lord from other times of victory in the Old Testament documents they may have had that would have pointed to times where they “would just need to show up for the battle and stand still and see the deliverance of their God”. But whatever the case was in their day, it is logical to believe they knew their God was a God of mercy who responds to a broken and contrite heart. They knew who God was, and they knew who they were—a desperate, helpless group of beggars. This was not false humility—this was their reality. For 70 years.

Our problem today in America is much of America does not know how desperate we are, how Revelation 3:17 is so much more true of us than anything else as a nation. It reads, “Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have no need of anything,” and you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked,”…!

Unfortunately, it is not just the worldly pagans and the lost in America that are like this, but the Lord directs his statement in Revelation to “his bride” which he rebukes and says to the church—“…you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked,”. We can venture to say in our times of coldness to prayer and fasting, we have no doubt some level of lukewarmness to God, and it can be said in those times his church doesn’t even know “…that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked,”. However, the solution God gives is found in verses 18-19: “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, white garments so that you may be clothed and your shameful nakedness not exposed, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.  19Those I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.”

Because of the evidence of the sins in America, and the weakness of our borders and broken southern wall, we have much to cry out to God for. Our God is a God of mercy, compassion, and grace, slow to anger, and rich in love. Let his truth be the fuel for us to seek God in spite of our sins. Let not our sins as a nation or our broken walls and breaches become a “sore spot” for the devil to poke at us to mock or harass and exploit our weaknesses, become a reason to get us to give up praying for protection against invaders and terrorists. Let our prayers and heart condition become like how the Israelites presented themselves before God, as a people aware of their utter weakness, aware of their inability to save themselves or make themselves into anything great, and as a people who looked to their faithful God who had a purpose in establishing a people for Himself, in spite of the problems his own people created for themselves. 

Prayer:

Lord, we recognize our deep sins and apostacy in the United States of America. We ask for you to heal the breaches of the church buried within the USA, and keep us for yourself. Please let us keep our eyes on you as we pray and fight in the Spirit for the welfare of your people in this USA. Please heal the breaches of our walls in keeping our Christian rights alive and well. Please heal our breaches in our voice declaring the truth about homosexual marriage and transgender laws when we need to speak. We pray the right people would hear and listen to the truth. We pray you would soften the hearts of those who love abortion rights and those who get involved in racial battles, whether it be a battle within themselves or a battle within their communities. Remind us in our time in the word how to raise our children and how to live for you in the midst of a dark and perverse generation. Please help us stay the course and pray through these times when it seems like many people are doing what is right in their own eyes. May we pray with passion and contriteness and humility and steadfastness. Lord, we ask for a safe leader in the Whitehouse. We ask for one who will uphold your laws, your desires, your ways, your plans, and your righteousness and goodness. We ask you would remove or crush the enemy and keep us from getting taken over by any invading country. Help us to pray for problems in our political procedures that keep our southern border so dangerous and pitiful and weak and turn it around for our good! Make us not the laughingstock of the nations. Heal our breaches oh Lord, Heal our land! We humble ourselves and pray, and by your grace may we fast and seek your face and turn from our wicked ways, so you might hear from heaven, and heal our land! May we buy from You gold refined by fire so that we may become rich, white garments so that we may be clothed and our shameful nakedness not exposed, and salve to anoint our eyes so that we may see. Help us pray these things Oh Dear God until we see them fulfilled, Oh Dear Lord our Rock and our Redeemer! Lord have mercy! Amen and Amen!

Keep on growing in the Word! LG

“Getting our Worship Right”

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Devotional and prayer

Lord, I am reminded today that “Unless the Lord builds the house the workers labor in vain who build it.” Lord we ask that our hearts would be pliable moldable and our mouths yours and yours alone. My prayer is Lord, show me what I don’t see about myself that is keeping me from serving you more fully—wholeheartedly. Show me if I have any hidden sins that I need to surrender. Help us to count the cost that it takes to serve you at the level you have called us to so far, and Lord please forgive us for any way we have been lagging behind the leading of your Spirit.

By nature we are worshippers. Our hearts were designed by You Lord to long for something or someone to worship. Help us Lord to not make the false assumptions that what I long for in the here and now is as good or better than the goal Paul speaks of to lay hold of that to win the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Phi 3:14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Help us not to worship the goal of worshiping itself. Help us not to be in love with the idea of having “awesome friends” or for that matter, having “great ministries” or even having some spiritual mileage and think we “know our way around the mountain” because by those acts and presumptions we cloud our own vision and secondly we abort the very work we thought was being done “by your Spirit” Oh God!

Prayer: We ask to be cleansed from entertaining temporal loves. We ask to be freed from the delusions of the false promises by people and plans we wanted to give the benefit of the doubt to that at times ended up dragging us and them along in directions that neither we nor they needed to go! Forgive us when our pious grandiosity about our fitness for “the job” ended up doing more harm than good! Forgive us for playing with the false promises this world offers. Forgive us for our pride and self-love, and forgive us for eating it up when people we know may seem to point to that as a viable option about ourselves Oh God! Turn us forever away from the creeping slime of filthy pride that like sewage spreads out along the gutter and seeks to fill our lowly places like water draining into the sewer vents that are open to the world above ground! May we spit out the poison if it has gone past our lips and may we vomit forth a thrust of air and may we reject it with the rejection of evil that Jesus cultivated with firmness and conviction even as a toddler in Isaiah 7:15 which reads “He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right”. And so you had REAL power to reject evil even as a toddler which is clear that you cultivate in your people Oh God before it comes near us or touches our lips again! Oh God! May you give us courage to warn others, and may you touch us to cleanse us as we seek your cleansing, and may you purify our tastes as we commit again our whole beings again to you Oh Lord that we may truly and forever “Taste and see that the Lord is Good! Oh God! Help us! Cleanse us and purify us oh Lord for pure fellowship with You, in our seeking you, and in your love eternal Oh God! Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Fasting as a Way to Improve Spiritual Eyesight and Turn Away From Carnal Indulgence

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Devotional and prayer

If any of us happen to consider fasting today, we can be sure that The Lord will use it in some way for His Kingdom if He leads us to do so.

As young or as old as I am I have gotten to the point of having this pervading thought–When you get older you generally get less excited about things. You also get excited less often about things. This may be because we feel like we have seen it all, or we tell ourselves it will take too much energy to get excited or passionate, or we convince ourselves that if you’re smart you can just end up getting the best things in life coming to your door through Amazon without needing to get very excited. We might tell ourselves that getting pumped up or zealous about something is for the young and naïve and foolish. Everything we do as we get older is about saving our energy, or saving ourselves some trouble or making our schedules run as smoothly and conveniently as possible. Life becomes a lot about what we like and what we have a taste for and what we think will make us comfortable. We need our favorite drinks or teas, our favorite foods when we go shopping, our favorite kinds of books or bicycles, our favorite cookware, clothing, soaps and toothpaste and our favorite pastimes. (Notice I didn’t even get to the topic of electronics—I made this list true even if one doesn’t have a plethora of money, even true for people living in third world countries) Our lives smell heavily of the smell of “ME, MINE and MY, what I like, what I want, what feels good to me, smells good to me,, tastes good to me, relaxes me, what makes me look good, what keeps people liking me, and what KEEPS ME HAPPY!

And although all that is unfortunately true we can all say that if we were honest, I’ll bet each of us could easily think of 3 or 4 big areas in our lives that if God had absolute control of, or to put it in a theologically more correct way—if we absolutely and completely surrendered those areas to the absolute control of our Sovereign and deeply good Father of pure love and lights, then, our lives and potentially the lives of all of those around us would be radically different from an eternal rewards perspective or at least would be taken up several notches spiritually speaking! But, we think what we have is good enough!—“What more do I need!?”, we tell ourselves! I am comfortable, I am warm, I have nice cologne, I look good in my clothes, my car doesn’t need any repairs, my shrubs are well manicured, my home is well furnished, my vacation is planned, and my hotel booking is paid in advance for the holiday coming up, that we forget what it’s like to be cold, to be poorly dressed, have leaky roofs, and holes in our shoes, to have an infestation of insects eating our garden but our garden was all we had to eat from, to have to walk 5 miles for some medicine that our relative really needs or they will die, to be inconvenienced for one entire day to take someone to the doctor, but not too many days out of the year, because we have to get back as quickly as possible to our wonderful lives, and because we can’t afford to take a day off work without pay too often regardless because we have no PTO and no sick pay on this job!!

Now, to use your imagination, if every physical comfort I just mentioned in the comfortable scenario was a metaphor for a spiritual comfort and spiritual health provision, does that mean that if you have all your physical comforts in place we’d automatically be supplied with just as many spiritual provisions and spiritual comforts from God to match all of our material comforts? The answer is an obvious NO! But, I dare say it is soo easy to respond to a spiritual emergency in a “comfortable way” when we have physical comforts. Would you RATHER do the spiritual work with spiritual zeal and spiritual persistence to get rid of the spiritual poverty and spiritual holes in your shoes, or to obtain by spiritual efforts the rare and distant spiritual medicine that you or a family member needs even if you might be saddled with physical poverty, or would you do the spiritual hard labor so to speak that it would take with passion for a whole day if needed to get an enduring spiritual roof with as much zeal and gusto and passion as you would the physical roof in the rainy season of Africa?

Part of the issue I dare say is that when we get comfortable and lose our zeal a lot of times we lose our desperation for change. Nothing is “REALLY THAT BAD!! I LIVE IN THE NICEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD AND I DON’T HAVE TO BE DESPERATE ABOUT ANYTHING!!” we tell ourselves. But can you see properly whether your spiritual roof IS leaking? Can you see properly if you have spiritual holes in your shoes? Can you see properly if you have spiritual insects raiding your spiritual garden on a continual basis? Can you see properly if you have a desperate need for spiritual medicine that is so deep of a need that you might die if you don’t obtain it and that you must compel yourself to go track down that distant rare medicine by walking five spiritual miles because no one else will walk it for you? This physical world BLINDS us with physical comforts and we don’t even perceive WHAT OUR SPIRITUAL NEEDS ARE much of the time even when our spiritual needs are desperate. But we have been called to walk by faith and not by sight!!

Rev 3:14-22 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Origin of the creation of God, says this: 15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have no need of anything,” and you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to apply to your eyes so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline; therefore, be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. 21 The one who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne. 22 The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

In the passage above the elements are in verse 17 that they first said they had become rich and wealthy, then the people grew comfortable and had become lukewarm, then they also said they had no need of anything. Now it is true that not everyone who is rich, wealthy, or comfortable is lukewarm and in danger of being spewed out of the mouth of God. But we must ask ourselves why Jesus warns us that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, (Math 19:24) but no evidence of Jesus saying, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a poor man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Don’t think that I am necessarily against money; I, just like any number of persons (and it should be no surprise) have no doubt found numerous benefits can be had when money is had. But all Christ followers and even the unsaved should be aware of and alarmed about the blindness that wealth can bring when the wealth is gazed at too long. Could it be part of the cost Jesus speaks of in v. 18 “…to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich…white garments..and eye salve…” might be accessed as we draw near to Jesus more fervently, or to draw more closely to Him? Isn’t prayer along with fasting a proven and effective way to draw near to God and to pursue the Lord? Isn’t fasting a discipline we can apply to become spiritually sensitive? We need to be able to see our condition before God in order to “wash and make ourselves clean” (2 Cor 7:1), to cleanse our hands when we are double minded, (Jam 4:8) to cleanse ourselves from common purposes to be a vessel fit for a noble use (2 Tim 2:21). And it’s plainly true, what we gaze at we become like. (Gen 30:38-39, Heb 12:2) When gazing at the natural world, we lose our spiritual awareness, and lose sight of our spiritual optimum and what we should aim for in our spiritual shape, sensitivity, spiritual liveliness, and spiritual virtues. I Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees. For man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” May we seek you for the spiritual vision we need for walking closely with you Oh Lord. Amen.

Prayer: Lord I pray for five simple things today—I pray for the spiritual vision so we can see our spiritual health for what it really is, I pray for the spiritual vision to see what spiritual shape we should take as well, and I pray for the spiritual zeal and fervency to respond to the truth whether it is, either mild or needing our passion that we may respond rightly regarding it. I pray that the kind of change spoken of in 2 Corinthians 7:11 would unfold in whatever way may be necessary in our lives—that we would embody earnestness, godly sorrow, vindication of ourselves, indignation at our own wrongs, fear of doing anything unholy, longing for change and righteousness in our hearts and deeds, zeal and energy and all the sister adjectives that go along with those for the purpose of our needed changes, and avenging of the wrongs we have done! In everything may we demonstrate ourselves to be innocent in these matters, Oh God!

Amen and Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Prayer of Dependence on God-1

Author: Lisa Groen

Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you today acknowledging your greatness, your authority, your power, your all sufficiency and your deep love for us and all the world, and grateful that we can know that because of Jesus’s payment for us, we are welcomed by you to come before you. We thank you for the reality that you are the God of our salvation and acknowledge your desire to save people is greater than we can fully know in this life. We acknowledge your keeping power of us your people is greater than we can fully know in this life. And we acknowledge that yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. We seek that you would be glorified in our lives and in this prayer time. May the blessings of Psalm 1 be granted to all people in all our spheres of influence and that you would let us prosper in all we set their hands to do, and that you would establish the work of their hands as in Psalm 90:16-17…16 May Your work be shown to Your servants, and Your splendor to their children. 17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish for us the work of our hands— yes, establish the work of our hands!

Lord we seek you to fight off the enemy as in Exodus 14:14 which says “The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.” And because of  Numbers 6:24 The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; dear Lord, may those blessings be granted again to us. Lord, please protect us and everyone in our spheres of influence as we seek you and your will and as we seek to live out our faith and callings before you. We seek that you would show lovingkindness to us your people, as is written in  1 Kings 8:23 … that you would “…keep covenant and showing lovingkindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart,”. Lord we are grateful that Jesus fulfilled the covenant and fulfilled the law of God in any place that we fall short, so that we are simply recipients of your grace oh God (Romans 4:4; 11:5–6; 2 Timothy 1:9–10), so may we be given your help, and enabled with strength to follow you, to fulfill our callings and accomplish all your will for our lives. May you fill us with power to will and to act according to all your good pleasure as you desire for our lives. Lord, the many great ways and promises you granted on behalf of your people in the old testament still hold great promise for us today and so we ask that you may grant that you would establish us before you as your holy people as is written in Deuteronomy 28:9. And that the promise of Isaiah 32:18 would be true in our lives which says “My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation and in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places;” We pray for that security and rest and safety in our habitations. Lord, as you are aware of the many people that we have loved or that have been close to us over the year have been affected with illness, hardships, losses and deaths, may you avert the enemy from attacking in any unnecessary way and keep the enemy from hindering us in accomplishing your will. May your will be done and not the enemy’s will Oh Lord. I remember your promise Lord that you are the protector of Israel, and you neither slumber nor sleep, and you watch over your garden day and night lest anyone hurt it. Please may that continue to happen in our lives and spheres of influence. May you guide us in our personal prayer times and devotion times and as we recognize that from you comes any power that we could ever have to do any ministry, or to bear any good and lasting fruit, so we pray that you would continue to use us as you see fit, and make us fruitful in your kingdom. Please heal up any breaches in our walls in any way that our protection may have been damaged, or in any way the enemy may have gotten a foothold. Please deliver, keep the devourer from devouring and grant our loved ones and us too, the safety, health and deliverance they need and that we all need to follow you strongly and to keep our eyes on you as we should, and that we would continue to seek you in everything and that our hearts would be wholly and fully yours. I am reminded of 1 Kings 8:61 Let your heart therefore be wholly devoted to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as at this day. And think of 1 Chronicles 22:12 which says “Only the Lord give you discretion and understanding, and give you charge over Israel, so that you may keep the law of the Lord your God.” And Lord, we do want to keep following you, and you alone are our protection and from you alone comes all of our success, so we ask specifically for the discretion we need, and the understanding we need, and I ask for good discernment also in our plans, our choices, in our motivations and in our work and rest as well. In any way our discernment may have failed, please forgive, and cleanse us and grant discernment and the right responses to situations that we need for the ministry we are doing and at the level we all need to follow you would be granted that we can wholeheartedly and to fully do your will and to fulfill our callings. Moses prayed in Exodus 33:15 “If Your Presence does not go with us,” Moses replied, “do not lead us up from here. Lord, we want to be of the same mind as Moses and have the same approach. We want the approach of David who sought your direction in 1 Samuel 30:8 … saying, “Should I pursue after this raiding party? Will I overtake them?” And He answered him, “Pursue them, for you will surely overtake them and will surely recover all.” But in 2 Samuel 5:23 And when David enquired of the LORD, he said, Thou shalt not go up;…” May we have the responsiveness before you to have the ears that truly hear you even when you might say to us “You shall NOT go up…”

Lord, I pray for those of us and others in our spheres of influence that have been assaulted or wounded by the enemy in the line of battle, we seek you for your healing of us as in Psalm 12:5 “Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, Now I will arise,” says the Lord; “I will set him in the safety for which he longs.”

May you grant us to have the mind of the spirit which is life and peace and grant a peaceful meditation before you as we go on our way today keeping our eyes on you.

Psalm 121

1 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun will not smite you by day, Nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. 8 The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in, from this time forth and forever.

May you be mindful of the prayers of Your people Oh Lord, Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG