Conversations, Reflections & Meditations


	Main Page \| My Articles for The Life Connection \| Prayers and Meditations \| Poetry Haida Gwaii Reflections \| Education & Home-School \| Family
Sign Guestbook \| View Guestbook Comments? Questions? [email protected]	Prayer topics Gentle Me, Lord You Were There All the Time! Make the Most of Every Opportunity Make My Home a Lighthouse, Lord Trusting God - Not Just Psyching Myself Up Class 6 Firestorm Gentle Me, Lord Date: August 15, 2003 Dear Lord, I want to (formally) hear Your voice. What would You say to me today? .... Peace, my child, my dear child. You have chosen the right thing, to follow Me and My will. But you still need to sit still, relax, give Me full rein over the details. Total calm. Total peace. Right into the pit of Your stomach. No more butterflies. Just happiness and joy in Me as I unfold My plans for You. Day by day, step by step. Allow Me full control, child. Wait. Patiently. Listen. Rest. Give it all to Me. I will work it all out. ... Thank You, Lord. Yes. Time to rest in You. I even try too hard to trust and rest! I'm a control freak. Gentle me, Lord. Help me to choose to gentle myself. Thank You, Lord. amen. Return to the top You Were There All the Time! Date: August 16, 2003 Oh dear Jesus, You are so wonderful and gracious to me. Thank You for the spiritual armour You have provided. Thank You especially for the helmet of salvation, which has washed away my sins, and made me holy in the eyes of the Father, and allowed me to come out of death and into the life of fellowship and relationship with Him! What a mighty God we serve! I love You, Lord! Thank You for all You have taught me over the years, especially in th last few years, especially here in this community, since 2001. I was just looking through my little prayer and devotional book and reading those wonderful prayers and verses - what wonderful memories and blessings and support and guidance and protection and caring even in time of terrible "trouble" they represent. "You were there all the time!" Wow! Awesome, wonderful Saviour God! Hallelujah! Lord, You know how I have been concerned about what kind of job I might be able to get, and my children's needs, and all those things. Help me, please, dear Jesus, to do what is Your will, not mine... But these are the desires of my heart, and I am presenting and sharing them with You as Your word directs - and I know You will provide what is best, what is in Your loving will. Thank You that You have the the longtime picture-at-a-glance, and see 100% clearly, for I am so small, and so blinded and confused in even small things. Hold me in the palm of Your had, dear Lord, yes, me and my family, too, and all those who trust in You, Lord. Thank You! Lord, I know this move is Your will and that You have all our needs in Your hands. Praise Your Holy Name. Amen! Hallelujah! Please just take this whole situation and work it out for Your glory, dear Lord. You do know our needs and You so care. And Thank You so much for helping me not to worry about all this. Thank You that I am Your child and You care and You provide. Jehovah Jireh, my provider, Your grace, Your love, Your salvation, Your will, Your direction, Your provision - all is sufficient for me! Amen! Hallelujah! Return to the top Make The Most of Every Opportunity Date: August 17, 2003 Lord, please be with all our relatives at the family reunion. Lord, I was just now thinking that if I was there, I would be compelled to share Your gospel, Your good news. For My very own cousins and aunts and uncles are lost and dying without You. And that is the reason why I have been feeling for some time that my life is aimless and purposeless and pointless and unfulfilling and not making a difference - because I have not been fulfilling the one single key central most important purpose You created me for - that is, to glorify You by living totally for You, and in obedience and love for both You and for others, pointing all those others to relationship with You. That is what it is all about. Wow! You have answered my prayer and brought understanding and passion to my heart. You have done Your part. But oh dear God, now I must stop being perverse and unbelieving, and must start to choose to believe totally and to walk in Your truth, to uphold it, to obey it, to turn to Your right and good way, to walk in obedience to Your great comission. Amen and amen! Thank You, Jesus! I accept Your full Holy Spirit, Lord (since I already asked!). I choose You today. I choose life and not death. "Lead on, oh King Eternal. The day of march has come. Henceforth in fields of combat Your tents shall be my home... And now, O King Eternal, I sing the battle song!" The victory song! The question in my devotional asks, "Suppose someone accused you of not being a Christian. What proof could you give them of the fact that you are a true child of God?" Well, the Word of God says I am a child of God because I have believed in my heart and have confessed Him. But have I really confessed Him? What does that mean? Sure, I've told some other Christians. But have I "confessed Jesus Christ with my mouth" to the lost world around me? No. I really haven't. Look at the simple opportunities I miss. So many people ask me why we are moving. Sure, there are more school courses and job opportunities. But those are just surface issues. The real issue is walking in God's will as a child of God, going where He wants me to go and doing what He wants me to do. So when people ask a simple question like, "Where are you moving? Why?" I have a perfect opportunity to share my relationship with Christ and His will and role and leadership and salvation in my life. And I haven't done that. Forgive me, Lord. Help me to make the most of every opportunity for the time is short and the mission is paramount: it's a question of eternal life or death, of eternal relationship with or eternal separation from (horrible, horrible fate!) my Creator, Saviour, God! Return to the top Make My Home A Lighthouse, Lord Date: August 18, 2003 Thank You for what the pastor reminded us of, from Your Word. Transformation in my home will come from You, but You will use me. When Your Holy Spirit is in me, Your presence (through the Spirit) covering me becomes the covering for the home. You start with individuals to then reach families, communities, and the world. Oh dear Lord, I want our little home to become a lighthouse - even here in the next two weeks, and then in our new home - to the uttermost parts of the world. Lord, as soon as I saw our new home I saw it as the center - the spoke - of a mission field. I want my home to be like John Mark's mother's home, a place where people will know the church meets there. I want people getting saved in my home. I want to be violent for the kingdom of God. I want the doors of my house, and my life, to be wide open. I want my home to be a center of hospitality for Christian travellers passing through. I want to go out into the highways and byways and compel people to come in to meet Jesus. I want to bring sinners to my Saviour. Thank You Lord, for sharing Your great vision with me through the faithful preaching and teaching of Your servants, and through Your Word and Your Spirit in my life. I want to get up and run out into the strets and bring people, all those poor lost sinners, to You, who created them and love them. I love to hear Your voice, Lord, to recognize Your voice speaking to me through Your Word, through Your preachers, through Your Spirit, to me. Wow! Praise God! I do hear God speak to me. How could I ever doubt or wonder if God is real? Get behind me, satan. You are the liar of all time! God alone - Father, Son, Spirit - is forever, eternal, all powerful, all knowing, all loving ad caring. Praise God's holy Name. I am chosen!!!! Return to the top Trusting God - Not Just Psyching Myself Up Date: August 23, 2003 It seems to me as I read through the Psalms yet again, that there are a lot of wonderful new psalms, though every one has familiar passages. How awesome Your Word is, Lord. You speak through it relevantly for every day and it never gets "old." Like Your mercies, Your Word is new - and fresh - every morning. Great is Your faithfulness! How great and mighty and wise and incredible You are. Amazing grace! Amazing Lord and God and Saviour and Guide! Thank You for Your Spirit. Fill me again this day. May this whole day be for Your glory. Yes, Lord, yes. You are with me, with us. You are my refuge, strength, stronghold and very present help. I give all my day, all my life, to You. I choose not to fear, but to relax, let go, stop striving - be still - in all things, for You are present and You are in control. Amen. Hallelujah. Satan is always trying to whisper to me that I'm just trying to psyche myself into trusting God. Well, I don't have to psyche myself because the evidence is firm: God is real and in control. I have seen it, all God's people have seen it. And satan, you have seen it, and because you have turned against God, you fear and hate His control. That's the only reason you try to plant these whining, cowardly, selfish, sneaky (snake-like!), lying suggestions in my mind. I have the Holy Spirit within me. I am washed in the blood of the Lamb, I am made righteous - yes, perfect - in the eyes of God. I am a child of the King. My Father loves and cares for me and protects me, and is helping me grow and mature into the image of Christ. So even the bad times are great. And I, with all my weaknesses and faults, get to be in a moment-by-moment, eternal, personal relationship with my God and Father, and have the honour of glorifying Him forever. With all that, who needs to be psyched up? Not me! Thank You, Lord. .......... Lord, You are providing for all our moving needs so wonderfully. So I know You know about and have a plan for our car. It is not working well. Oil smoke just pours out of the engine. It sure looks like it is on its last legs. Lord, You know I need transportation for work next week, and for registering the children at school, and for church, and for moving. Dear Lord, You have worked out all the other details so well. So now I give you this "problem" and ask that You will either fix the car or supply us with another vehicle. Thank You for Your love and care. Return to the top Class 6 Firestorm Date: August 23, 2003 Dear Heavenly Father, Good morning! My goodness, morning came fast and early. I did go quickly to sleep after speaking with You - praying - and reading Your Word, knowing You are in charge. Then my son woke me up a bit past 11 pm to say that the wild fire at Kelowna was racing into the city and 30,000 people had been evacuated. I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't, so I watched the news until midnight. Then I couldn't get to sleep for what seemed like a long time. But finally I really called out to You, and You graciously granted my request - as You promise to do, if it is in Your will, in Your best purpose for You, and for Your glory. I can finally handle and understand that at least somewhat.... And then suddenly the alarm rang and it is morning. I just tuned into the end of the 530 am news to hear that Okanagan Falls is now on evacuation alert. Oh my! It was so windy all night, and that fire has apparently grown really big now, too. Dear Lord, thank You for the calmer weather right now. Could You send some real rain? I know these fires are what are called an "act of God" and I know these things happen all over the world with devastating effects for people's lives. I guess I'm just not used to it coming so close to home. We're not a tornado/ volcano/ earthquake/ tsunami/ hurricane/ cyclone/ flood zone at all. But it turns out that we are a "class 6 firestorm zone." They said on the radio that there are walls of fire 400 feet high. The houses were just totally consumed, with nothing left but concrete foundations. And yet they also showed, on TV, a house still standing, virtually untouched, right in the middle of the burned out area. I know You are in control of all things, Lord. But how do You make these decisions, I wonder? Or is it we who make them, in our tiny human "wisdom" with our so-called forest management policies, and our choices of where to live, and our cast-off cigarette butts, or burning vehicles on the side of the road, or campfires... or nature's lightning strikes and droughts...? I wonder what will happen to all those people? Did they have insurance on their fancy homes? They say the homes are worth $250,000 to $1,000,000. What do the people do until they rebuild? Do they even want to rebuild in the middle of a burned-out landscape? I heard on TV that people are already starting to rebuild at Barriere, just 2 or 3 weeks after they were burned out What about lost businesses and jobs? Children ready to go back to school? Do people get angry and blame You, Lord? Or does it pull them toward You? Or does it all depend on the person? Or maybe they don't think of You at all. Do Christians actively use this kind of thing as an opportunity to show Your love? I hear Trinity Baptist in Kelowna has set up as an evacuation site for up to 2000 to 3000 people. Would I want to take people into my home and feed and care for them? Or give money to the cause? So many questions. My mind races, Lord. Please help me put on the mind of Christ, and be restful, peaceful, calm in the midst of the storm. Thank You. ....... "Lo, I am With You Always" I did wonder off and on during the night about our car situation, and I found myself falling into my old habit of creating scenarios of how to solve the problem, and then started to worry about it. But oh, dear God, You did help me to remember to leave it with You, over and over. How easy it is to "take it back." I am beginning to see how truly vigilant we have to be against our old fleshly nature and the mind games of the enemy and his foes. Oh dear God, thank You for helping me so far, and please continue to help me, now and in the future, by the power of Your Holy Spirit and the spiritual armour You provide for us, and because of Your great salvation and love and kindness, care, mercy, compassion, to resist the devil - and he will flee! This is Your will, Your Word, Your promise! Help me to put on the whole armour of God so that I may stand firm against the schemes of the devil (Eph 6:10 f). Help me to remember that any strength I have is Your strength and might, never mine. Help me resist and stand firm, with my loins girded with truth, the breastplate of righteousness, my feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, with all prayers and petitions, praying at all times in the Spirit, on alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. Oh, Lord, what would I do without Your Word and Your Spirit? This is something I am a bit worried (concerned?) about in regard to working early hours. How will I be able to spend enough time with You? Well, I can make use of the spare moments like coffee and lunch breaks, TV time, and so on. Thank You for Your love and care to us, for preserving us from the fires just over the mountain next to us, for Your clear guidance in this move, and so on and on. Thank You for the work You are doing in my children's lives. I see Your Spirit moving so strongly. Praise Your holy name! Lord, I just heard You speak to my mind and heart: "Lo, I am with you always." Thank You, Lord. Good times or bad times, You are with me and Your presence is all I really need. The temporal blessings are nice but not necessary in the eternal picture, and they are meaningless without You. All I really need (and Lord, all I am learning to want) is to be with You and Thank You, Jesus, for Your great salvation, for reconciling me to God. Amen! Thank You. Hallelujah. What a wonderful, loving, mighty, merciful God we serve. Amen and amen! "Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth? ... Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to the Lord." (Lam 3:38,40) I keep thinking about this, Lord. We are such an affluent society. Yet generally we are so secular, so unaware of You, or maybe we're just aware of us only. I know Your goodness extends to the evil people as well as the good. And that bad things happen to good people as well (sometimes it seems it happens to good people even more than to evil people). Still I keep wondering if maybe all these "acts of God" aren't meant as some kind of punishment for evil, and as a wake-up call to us to return to You? Lord, that is what I want to do every day: "... examine and probe our (my) ways, And let us return to the Lord." Return to the top
Main Page \| My Articles for The Life Connection \| Prayers and Meditations \| Poetry Haida Gwaii Reflections \| Education & Home-School \| Family


	Main Page \| My Articles for The Life Connection \| Prayers and Meditations \| Poetry Haida Gwaii Reflections \| Education & Home-School \| Family
Sign Guestbook \| View Guestbook Comments? Questions? [email protected]	Prayer topics Gentle Me, Lord You Were There All the Time! Make the Most of Every Opportunity Make My Home a Lighthouse, Lord Trusting God - Not Just Psyching Myself Up Class 6 Firestorm Gentle Me, Lord Date: August 15, 2003 Dear Lord, I want to (formally) hear Your voice. What would You say to me today? .... Peace, my child, my dear child. You have chosen the right thing, to follow Me and My will. But you still need to sit still, relax, give Me full rein over the details. Total calm. Total peace. Right into the pit of Your stomach. No more butterflies. Just happiness and joy in Me as I unfold My plans for You. Day by day, step by step. Allow Me full control, child. Wait. Patiently. Listen. Rest. Give it all to Me. I will work it all out. ... Thank You, Lord. Yes. Time to rest in You. I even try too hard to trust and rest! I'm a control freak. Gentle me, Lord. Help me to choose to gentle myself. Thank You, Lord. amen. Return to the top You Were There All the Time! Date: August 16, 2003 Oh dear Jesus, You are so wonderful and gracious to me. Thank You for the spiritual armour You have provided. Thank You especially for the helmet of salvation, which has washed away my sins, and made me holy in the eyes of the Father, and allowed me to come out of death and into the life of fellowship and relationship with Him! What a mighty God we serve! I love You, Lord! Thank You for all You have taught me over the years, especially in th last few years, especially here in this community, since 2001. I was just looking through my little prayer and devotional book and reading those wonderful prayers and verses - what wonderful memories and blessings and support and guidance and protection and caring even in time of terrible "trouble" they represent. "You were there all the time!" Wow! Awesome, wonderful Saviour God! Hallelujah! Lord, You know how I have been concerned about what kind of job I might be able to get, and my children's needs, and all those things. Help me, please, dear Jesus, to do what is Your will, not mine... But these are the desires of my heart, and I am presenting and sharing them with You as Your word directs - and I know You will provide what is best, what is in Your loving will. Thank You that You have the the longtime picture-at-a-glance, and see 100% clearly, for I am so small, and so blinded and confused in even small things. Hold me in the palm of Your had, dear Lord, yes, me and my family, too, and all those who trust in You, Lord. Thank You! Lord, I know this move is Your will and that You have all our needs in Your hands. Praise Your Holy Name. Amen! Hallelujah! Please just take this whole situation and work it out for Your glory, dear Lord. You do know our needs and You so care. And Thank You so much for helping me not to worry about all this. Thank You that I am Your child and You care and You provide. Jehovah Jireh, my provider, Your grace, Your love, Your salvation, Your will, Your direction, Your provision - all is sufficient for me! Amen! Hallelujah! Return to the top Make The Most of Every Opportunity Date: August 17, 2003 Lord, please be with all our relatives at the family reunion. Lord, I was just now thinking that if I was there, I would be compelled to share Your gospel, Your good news. For My very own cousins and aunts and uncles are lost and dying without You. And that is the reason why I have been feeling for some time that my life is aimless and purposeless and pointless and unfulfilling and not making a difference - because I have not been fulfilling the one single key central most important purpose You created me for - that is, to glorify You by living totally for You, and in obedience and love for both You and for others, pointing all those others to relationship with You. That is what it is all about. Wow! You have answered my prayer and brought understanding and passion to my heart. You have done Your part. But oh dear God, now I must stop being perverse and unbelieving, and must start to choose to believe totally and to walk in Your truth, to uphold it, to obey it, to turn to Your right and good way, to walk in obedience to Your great comission. Amen and amen! Thank You, Jesus! I accept Your full Holy Spirit, Lord (since I already asked!). I choose You today. I choose life and not death. "Lead on, oh King Eternal. The day of march has come. Henceforth in fields of combat Your tents shall be my home... And now, O King Eternal, I sing the battle song!" The victory song! The question in my devotional asks, "Suppose someone accused you of not being a Christian. What proof could you give them of the fact that you are a true child of God?" Well, the Word of God says I am a child of God because I have believed in my heart and have confessed Him. But have I really confessed Him? What does that mean? Sure, I've told some other Christians. But have I "confessed Jesus Christ with my mouth" to the lost world around me? No. I really haven't. Look at the simple opportunities I miss. So many people ask me why we are moving. Sure, there are more school courses and job opportunities. But those are just surface issues. The real issue is walking in God's will as a child of God, going where He wants me to go and doing what He wants me to do. So when people ask a simple question like, "Where are you moving? Why?" I have a perfect opportunity to share my relationship with Christ and His will and role and leadership and salvation in my life. And I haven't done that. Forgive me, Lord. Help me to make the most of every opportunity for the time is short and the mission is paramount: it's a question of eternal life or death, of eternal relationship with or eternal separation from (horrible, horrible fate!) my Creator, Saviour, God! Return to the top Make My Home A Lighthouse, Lord Date: August 18, 2003 Thank You for what the pastor reminded us of, from Your Word. Transformation in my home will come from You, but You will use me. When Your Holy Spirit is in me, Your presence (through the Spirit) covering me becomes the covering for the home. You start with individuals to then reach families, communities, and the world. Oh dear Lord, I want our little home to become a lighthouse - even here in the next two weeks, and then in our new home - to the uttermost parts of the world. Lord, as soon as I saw our new home I saw it as the center - the spoke - of a mission field. I want my home to be like John Mark's mother's home, a place where people will know the church meets there. I want people getting saved in my home. I want to be violent for the kingdom of God. I want the doors of my house, and my life, to be wide open. I want my home to be a center of hospitality for Christian travellers passing through. I want to go out into the highways and byways and compel people to come in to meet Jesus. I want to bring sinners to my Saviour. Thank You Lord, for sharing Your great vision with me through the faithful preaching and teaching of Your servants, and through Your Word and Your Spirit in my life. I want to get up and run out into the strets and bring people, all those poor lost sinners, to You, who created them and love them. I love to hear Your voice, Lord, to recognize Your voice speaking to me through Your Word, through Your preachers, through Your Spirit, to me. Wow! Praise God! I do hear God speak to me. How could I ever doubt or wonder if God is real? Get behind me, satan. You are the liar of all time! God alone - Father, Son, Spirit - is forever, eternal, all powerful, all knowing, all loving ad caring. Praise God's holy Name. I am chosen!!!! Return to the top Trusting God - Not Just Psyching Myself Up Date: August 23, 2003 It seems to me as I read through the Psalms yet again, that there are a lot of wonderful new psalms, though every one has familiar passages. How awesome Your Word is, Lord. You speak through it relevantly for every day and it never gets "old." Like Your mercies, Your Word is new - and fresh - every morning. Great is Your faithfulness! How great and mighty and wise and incredible You are. Amazing grace! Amazing Lord and God and Saviour and Guide! Thank You for Your Spirit. Fill me again this day. May this whole day be for Your glory. Yes, Lord, yes. You are with me, with us. You are my refuge, strength, stronghold and very present help. I give all my day, all my life, to You. I choose not to fear, but to relax, let go, stop striving - be still - in all things, for You are present and You are in control. Amen. Hallelujah. Satan is always trying to whisper to me that I'm just trying to psyche myself into trusting God. Well, I don't have to psyche myself because the evidence is firm: God is real and in control. I have seen it, all God's people have seen it. And satan, you have seen it, and because you have turned against God, you fear and hate His control. That's the only reason you try to plant these whining, cowardly, selfish, sneaky (snake-like!), lying suggestions in my mind. I have the Holy Spirit within me. I am washed in the blood of the Lamb, I am made righteous - yes, perfect - in the eyes of God. I am a child of the King. My Father loves and cares for me and protects me, and is helping me grow and mature into the image of Christ. So even the bad times are great. And I, with all my weaknesses and faults, get to be in a moment-by-moment, eternal, personal relationship with my God and Father, and have the honour of glorifying Him forever. With all that, who needs to be psyched up? Not me! Thank You, Lord. .......... Lord, You are providing for all our moving needs so wonderfully. So I know You know about and have a plan for our car. It is not working well. Oil smoke just pours out of the engine. It sure looks like it is on its last legs. Lord, You know I need transportation for work next week, and for registering the children at school, and for church, and for moving. Dear Lord, You have worked out all the other details so well. So now I give you this "problem" and ask that You will either fix the car or supply us with another vehicle. Thank You for Your love and care. Return to the top Class 6 Firestorm Date: August 23, 2003 Dear Heavenly Father, Good morning! My goodness, morning came fast and early. I did go quickly to sleep after speaking with You - praying - and reading Your Word, knowing You are in charge. Then my son woke me up a bit past 11 pm to say that the wild fire at Kelowna was racing into the city and 30,000 people had been evacuated. I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't, so I watched the news until midnight. Then I couldn't get to sleep for what seemed like a long time. But finally I really called out to You, and You graciously granted my request - as You promise to do, if it is in Your will, in Your best purpose for You, and for Your glory. I can finally handle and understand that at least somewhat.... And then suddenly the alarm rang and it is morning. I just tuned into the end of the 530 am news to hear that Okanagan Falls is now on evacuation alert. Oh my! It was so windy all night, and that fire has apparently grown really big now, too. Dear Lord, thank You for the calmer weather right now. Could You send some real rain? I know these fires are what are called an "act of God" and I know these things happen all over the world with devastating effects for people's lives. I guess I'm just not used to it coming so close to home. We're not a tornado/ volcano/ earthquake/ tsunami/ hurricane/ cyclone/ flood zone at all. But it turns out that we are a "class 6 firestorm zone." They said on the radio that there are walls of fire 400 feet high. The houses were just totally consumed, with nothing left but concrete foundations. And yet they also showed, on TV, a house still standing, virtually untouched, right in the middle of the burned out area. I know You are in control of all things, Lord. But how do You make these decisions, I wonder? Or is it we who make them, in our tiny human "wisdom" with our so-called forest management policies, and our choices of where to live, and our cast-off cigarette butts, or burning vehicles on the side of the road, or campfires... or nature's lightning strikes and droughts...? I wonder what will happen to all those people? Did they have insurance on their fancy homes? They say the homes are worth $250,000 to $1,000,000. What do the people do until they rebuild? Do they even want to rebuild in the middle of a burned-out landscape? I heard on TV that people are already starting to rebuild at Barriere, just 2 or 3 weeks after they were burned out What about lost businesses and jobs? Children ready to go back to school? Do people get angry and blame You, Lord? Or does it pull them toward You? Or does it all depend on the person? Or maybe they don't think of You at all. Do Christians actively use this kind of thing as an opportunity to show Your love? I hear Trinity Baptist in Kelowna has set up as an evacuation site for up to 2000 to 3000 people. Would I want to take people into my home and feed and care for them? Or give money to the cause? So many questions. My mind races, Lord. Please help me put on the mind of Christ, and be restful, peaceful, calm in the midst of the storm. Thank You. ....... "Lo, I am With You Always" I did wonder off and on during the night about our car situation, and I found myself falling into my old habit of creating scenarios of how to solve the problem, and then started to worry about it. But oh, dear God, You did help me to remember to leave it with You, over and over. How easy it is to "take it back." I am beginning to see how truly vigilant we have to be against our old fleshly nature and the mind games of the enemy and his foes. Oh dear God, thank You for helping me so far, and please continue to help me, now and in the future, by the power of Your Holy Spirit and the spiritual armour You provide for us, and because of Your great salvation and love and kindness, care, mercy, compassion, to resist the devil - and he will flee! This is Your will, Your Word, Your promise! Help me to put on the whole armour of God so that I may stand firm against the schemes of the devil (Eph 6:10 f). Help me to remember that any strength I have is Your strength and might, never mine. Help me resist and stand firm, with my loins girded with truth, the breastplate of righteousness, my feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, with all prayers and petitions, praying at all times in the Spirit, on alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. Oh, Lord, what would I do without Your Word and Your Spirit? This is something I am a bit worried (concerned?) about in regard to working early hours. How will I be able to spend enough time with You? Well, I can make use of the spare moments like coffee and lunch breaks, TV time, and so on. Thank You for Your love and care to us, for preserving us from the fires just over the mountain next to us, for Your clear guidance in this move, and so on and on. Thank You for the work You are doing in my children's lives. I see Your Spirit moving so strongly. Praise Your holy name! Lord, I just heard You speak to my mind and heart: "Lo, I am with you always." Thank You, Lord. Good times or bad times, You are with me and Your presence is all I really need. The temporal blessings are nice but not necessary in the eternal picture, and they are meaningless without You. All I really need (and Lord, all I am learning to want) is to be with You and Thank You, Jesus, for Your great salvation, for reconciling me to God. Amen! Thank You. Hallelujah. What a wonderful, loving, mighty, merciful God we serve. Amen and amen! "Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth? ... Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to the Lord." (Lam 3:38,40) I keep thinking about this, Lord. We are such an affluent society. Yet generally we are so secular, so unaware of You, or maybe we're just aware of us only. I know Your goodness extends to the evil people as well as the good. And that bad things happen to good people as well (sometimes it seems it happens to good people even more than to evil people). Still I keep wondering if maybe all these "acts of God" aren't meant as some kind of punishment for evil, and as a wake-up call to us to return to You? Lord, that is what I want to do every day: "... examine and probe our (my) ways, And let us return to the Lord." Return to the top
Main Page \| My Articles for The Life Connection \| Prayers and Meditations \| Poetry Haida Gwaii Reflections \| Education & Home-School \| Family