Thank God I'm Forgiven Friday! Yes PTL for your salvation, forgiveness and new life in Christ activated by the Holy Spirit. Thank Him for His love, grace and mercy. Begin this day with thanksgiving and praise and continue through this day in a constant state of prayer and praise as you watch for God to be at work all around you.
Did you see the northern lights last night? I was in bed, but Karen did and I got to see some pictures from people all over facebook. May many be attracted to the Light of the World, Jesus, and seek after Him like they did the beauty of His nature.
Good Morning Lighthouses! May we shine bright for Christ and live Christ all day every day as we allow God to use us to lead people out of the darkness to His Light. Amen! Come! Use us as Your Lighthouses today! Shine Jesus shine! Attract many like moths are attracted to light at night. Go before us with favor for our Light in the Night Trunk or Treat. May we light up the darkness and point many to You. Provide for our needs and protect us. Thanks! May all of our ministries reflect You and Your love and care. Raise up harvest workers as you send in the harvest. Thanks! Lord raise up our building as a house of prayer for the nations and unify us as brothers and sisters in Christ to light the way to unity and brotherly love. Thanks! Come Jesus Come! Send me/us and use us for Your glory. Amen!
God took me sort of on two tracks this sleepy morning. I've had a week to rest and sleep and recover from my cold. All I wanted to do was sleep last night but I was roused by a barking crazily dog and unable to sleep much after that. I have so much to do today and this weekend and I just want to go back to bed. I feel like I was a slacker this week. BUT GOD! He says we should work from rest and He knows what lies ahead with crazy busyness from now until the new year. Could He have set Karen and I down to rest and reload for that? Sure! He does things like that when we ask Him to be our Lord and Shepherd. My concern is that as I'm aging I'm loosing my mojo and get up and go. I'm concerned I'll become a couch potato and not keep after the things God has for me. We know that His assignments and purposes for us are age and ability appropriate but I don't want to come to a dead halt and miss His plans. I discovered this week that I will go stir crazy if I retire, even though I still have many house projects to keep me busy. I need to keep busy being about my Father's business and living Christ to really be healthy in the Lord. Chuck Swindoll and Joyce Meyer devos below stirred me to remembering the importance of staying yoked to Jesus and following Him at my age-appropriate ability and with His supernatural empowerment to complete my race well. Keeping active is physically healthy too. Help me Lord to stay connected and doing what You are leading to each day. Help me to rest in You and work from rest. Help me to shed the peripheral things and focus on what You have for today. Thanks Lord! May I live today in anticipation, prayer and action as You lead. Thanks! Help me to stop running ahead and/or lagging behind. Please move me to Your plans for today and to complete Your mission for me well. Grant me holy mojo. Thanks! You promise that You have great plans for me and to be with me always. May Your Kingdom come and will be done today in, through and around me. Keep me active in Christ for Your glory and according to my age and circumstance appropriate call. Thanks! Amen!
So all of that flowed into the rest of our devotionals about praying, praising and doing what we can with what we've been given as we shepherd the generations behind us. For many of us, our age and situation appropriate mission is to pray. Please don't take that lightly. Prayer is the key for God to move. He and we are counting on your powerful and effective prayer, righteous one of the Lord! Check out Our Daily Bread, Charles Stanley, The Upper Room and The Word for You Today as they teach and speak into our call to pray and to do what we can for the next generations. God hears and responds, empowers, directs, activates, draws, saves and so much more through our prayers! I am finding that as my physical abilities are decreasing my prayer time is increasing and God is using that in mighty ways! Thanks Lord! Inform our prayers and raise up prayer warriors and a House of Prayer for the Nations. help us to develop more corporate prayer times too. help us live each day in a state of prayer and praise as we see you at work and feel the call to pray. Come! Fill us Holy Spirit and may we overflow with powerful prayers and much thanksgiving for all You are doing! Thanks! Amen! Yes Come Jesus Come! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu4VV54ZcFo
Keep Turning your thoughts to God in praise too as you count your many blessings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZjWYgq9QfM
God knows you and your abilities and circumstances. He's calling you by name to come to His loving embrace and to be empowered to do what He has for you today, one step of faith at a time. Until He calls us home, He has a custom made daily plan for you. Seek Him first and allow Him to empower and use you well. Yes Come Lord! Have Your way with me today. Be my Lord and Shepherd, inform my prayers and use me for Your plan and purposes well. Thanks! I love You Lord and trust You always. Come and help me to see the blessings in each day with you as I follow well! Amen!
Chuck Swindoll
Joyce Meyer
ODB:
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I got an 84 on the test!
I felt my teen’s excitement as I read her message on my phone. She’d just started attending classes at a high school and was using her phone during lunch. My mama heart leaped, not just because my daughter had done well on a challenging test, but because she was choosing to communicate it to me. She wanted to share her good news with me!
Realizing that her text had made my day, I later thought about how God must feel when I reach out to Him. Is He as pleased when I talk to Him? Prayer is how we communicate with God and something we’re told to do “continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Talking with Him reminds us that He’s with us through the good and the bad. Sharing our news with God, even though He already knows all about us, is helpful as it shifts our focus and helps us think about Him. Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast [fixed on you], because they trust in you.” We have peace awaiting us when we turn our attention to God.
Regardless of what we face, may we continually speak with God and keep in touch with our Creator and Savior. Whisper a prayer and remember to rejoice and “give thanks.” After all, Paul says, this is “God’s will” for us (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
By Katara Patton
REFLECT & PRAY
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What do you need to share with God? How can you remember to keep in touch with Him throughout your day?
Gracious God, please remind me to stay in touch with You throughout my day. I want to rejoice and give You thanks in all I face.
For further study, read God’s Invitation into Wholeness.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
How is it possible to “pray continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)? Theologian J. B. Lightfoot wrote, “It is not in the moving of the lips, but in the elevation of the heart to God that the essence of prayer consists.” That is, prayer isn’t just times set apart to speak to God; it’s continually lifting up all that’s in our hearts to Him as we go about our daily lives. Sometimes that will take the form of words, but often it will be a wordless reaching out to Him. It’s possible to “pray continually” because Christ’s Spirit unites our hearts to God’s, continually assuring us of His love for us as His children (Romans 8:16).
Find out how you can overcome obstacles to praying continuously with James Banks.
Monica La Rose |
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CS:
UR: Peace Lily
Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” - John 14:27 (NIV)
As I sat at my desk, my heart ached from the hurt and disappointment I had been carrying. Resting my chin on my hands, I let out a long sigh. Just then, my attention was drawn to the peace lily blooming beside me, and the words from John 14 quoted above came to mind. I knew that my heart was indeed feeling troubled about many things. I was feeling afraid and overwhelmed, but here in this verse Jesus was reminding me of the peace he offers.
In this passage of scripture, Jesus shared these words to bring comfort to his disciples at the Last Supper. They were about to enter a very troubling time, and knowing what was to come, Jesus promised to leave them peace.
As I gazed again at the blooming plant beside me, its single white spathe rising above a dark green base of leaves, I decided in that moment to surrender my troubles to the Lord, to let go of fear, and to embrace the peace that Jesus offers.
Today's Prayer
Dear God, help us to surrender our worries to you. Amen.TWFYT
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