Tuesday, November 1, 2005
May the reign of Jesus in your heart be as refreshing … as invigorating … as cleansing … and much more so … than the cool later rains of autumn after a long, hot summer.
May His words be your words … may His love be your love … may His life be your life.
May you imitate Him in holiness and humility.
May He smile upon you and call you friend.
~s
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
May you fall in love with our Father … just the way He is. No stipulations … no buts … no conditions. May you see beyond all of your preconceived ideas … your wishes … your desires … of what you might imagine Him to be.
May the very Truth that He is emerge in your vision … unavoidable … crystal clear. May you understand as you have never understood before.
May everything that is you give way to everything that is Him. May you find yourself immersed in His steadfast love … His just discipline … His amazing grace … His obsession with all things holy … His fixation on all things righteous.
May His will be your one desire … may He be your One Thing.
May you see Him everywhere you go, and may the trivia you have gathered of Him become utterly lost in warm … intimate … holy … friendship … Teacher and disciple … sinner and Savior … Father and child. And may you be assured over and over again that of everything you know of Him … He is immeasurably more.
May your discovery of the mystery that is our God be an incredible journey from here to eternity. May you be accepted and fully forgiven through the risen, living Jesus.
~s
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
This past weekend I planted spring-flowering bulbs. Over a hundred tulips, along with some alliums and lilies, are now nestled snuggly beneath six inches of rich, moist earth. I planted them in an older flower bed just north of my house … an ideal place for tulips.
There are no tree roots to congest the soil or compete for nutrients … the northern exposure encourages the soil to remain cool deep into our fickle unpredictable springtimes, providing the necessary chill needed by the tulips to produce long, slender stems … and the soil … well … the soil in that bed is the best I have. Generous additions of organic matter over many years have softened and mellowed its texture. Roots and stems travel through it just as effortlessly as the blade of a shovel. It’s rich … full of life … ready to feed those who settle and spread their roots there with just the right mixture of moisture, oxygen and minerals. And if the weather is kind, this spring the earth will laugh with flowers.
I’ve always associated things … not because I’m intelligent or clever … but simply because that’s how things make sense to me. I’m a visual learner … a hands-on learner. I like the feel of the plump, heavy flower bulb in my hand … the slight resistance and exchange that occur as the prepared soil eagerly accepts the small package of life from my hand.
For a brief moment, I connect with the very substance from which I am made in an effort to bring life and beauty to my little corner of the world. My fingerprints are left in the soil. Its fingerprints stain my white T-shirt, my blue jeans and my hands. As has become my custom, I ask for our Father’s blessings on each variety that I plant, and I entrust them to Him.
Planting can be hard work … messy work … the kind that requires a good, hot shower with lots of soap and scrubbing afterward … and maybe even a good long nap … to restore and refresh the gardener. But it’s good work … actually pretty easy work compared to the incredible things that our Father does in a garden.
Any good gardener will tell you that we may plant and water … cultivate and feed … prune and harvest … but no gardener has ever been able to make a plant grow … and never will. That is a process reserved for the Source of Life … the original Gardener (John 15:1 & I Corinthians 3:5-7). Because of the growth that He provides, this spring a healthy bed of vibrant tulips will sing His praises with an eloquence unknown to the human tongue.
One day later …
As I look out my west window, a mallard duck executes a perfect landing on the water’s surface and begins to preen. The bulbs I planted yesterday are already busy sending out firm, white roots … anchoring themselves in anticipation of proudly displaying their living goblets and globes of creamy apricot and rosy peach petals … and butter yellow backgrounds streaked with glowing red flames.
My sinful heart is starting over … given a new morning and a new opportunity for my soul to grow and thrive in a place I do not deserve to be … in the greatest garden of all … the Gardener’s garden. He is amazingly good to us! May you and I never forget that.
~s
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
May the words of the Holy Spirit of Christ flow through you like mighty waters. May He be your Source … your Unending Supply. May the fullness of His wise counsel come to you clearly and unobstructed.
May He fill your hours and your minutes with rich experiences and easily-communicated illustrations … word pictures and parables … a healthy variety of spiritual foods to refresh and sustain the broken hearts and wounded souls of many weary pilgrims.
May your daily exchanges … all of your verbal expressions … every sentence … each carefully chosen word … be founded on truth and wrapped in a mantle of love. May you listen intently at the Master’s feet, and may you share your rich knowledge with great compassion … courage … and joy.
May you know when to dismiss the crowds and steal away to a quiet place … to be still and know that He is God … that He is your God … that He loves you deeply … and that He delights in each moment spent alone with you. In those times, may He refresh you so that the words of the Holy Spirit of Christ may flow through you like mighty waters.
~s
Tuesday, October 4, 2005
May you find our Father a compassionate God … the Mender of things broken in your life … the Giver of Life to things that you thought were dead … the Great Flooding Fountain of Grace when you deserve it the least … the Soft-Hearted Lover when you are your most unlovable … the Great Giver when you have nothing left to give … the Faithful Friend when every earthly friend has let you down.
May you thrive in His grace.
~s
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
May our Father bless you as you share the greatest story of all. May your role in that story and your passionate delivery of its details be rich … warm … sincere.
May your intimate relationship with Jesus catch someone by surprise … kindle a rich, golden glow in their dimly lit heart … open their eyes to spiritual possibilities that have seemed at best distant and unattainable.
May you bring warmth to a cold and weary world. May you light someone’s darkness.
May those who listen find themselves relaxed … relieved … filled with hope. May their souls be fully engaged … their ears hungry to hear more … their hearts eager to be introduced to the Son of Man … the Son of God … the forgiving Jesus … full of grace.
May they find themselves repeating every word and imitating every move of the One Who speaks through you. May you bring them into the healing presence of Jesus, and may He write His story on the pages of their hearts.
~s
Tuesday, September 6, 2005
Father of divine transformations –
I’m waving the white flag, and I’m laying down my arms. I’m disabling my defense systems, and I’m letting down the drawbridge of my defeated heart. I surrender, Father.
I’m weary of holding up the facades … hiding behind the masks … and pretending that I am strong in hopes of deflecting the attention of others away from my wounded, insecure heart.
I’m collapsing at Your feet, Lord … not as one bearing expensive gifts and multiplied talents … but as a defeated soldier … a fallen star … a hunter caught in his own net.
I am naked … bare … and devastated. My kingdoms are destroyed … my high places are leveled. I come simply bringing a broken heart with a gaping hole … my perennial weakness. I am bankrupt of confidence … and ravaged by the lusts that vainly promise to fill the cavity and hide its ugliness … only to further the damage and intensify the pain.
Save me from the destruction of my soul and from the debilitating sin that controls me when I resist Your call and Your companionship. Forgive me, Father, and heal me. I need Your mercy. I need Your grace. I need Your Son to fill the Christ-shaped canyon in my heart. Complete me, Father, in Jesus.
Teach me to embrace my crumbled confidence so that in my weakness Your power may be perfected. Give me grace to resist the enticement of false confidence, and fill me with true confidence that flows only from You. As You convert me … as You make me new … create in me the attitude … the actions … and the words that will give courage to the wounded hearts I encounter each day. Through my weakness, please bless them with strength.
Father, please make my deepest weakness the source of my greatest ministry. I trust You with my complete transformation. I lift this prayer to You through Jesus. Please let these things be so. Amen.
~s
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
May Jesus be your only focus … the vision of every good thing that you desire to be. May you see your world … your family … yourself … through His caring, compassionate eyes.
May each of your days be expertly composed … perfectly exposed … beautifully framed … in the Creator’s gentle hands. May He smile as He observes them hanging in the gallery of the mansion that He has reserved just for you. May they fill Him with eager anticipation for the day that He will meet you face to face … His child … His masterpiece … the one and only … the original … the unique … the beautiful soul that is you.
Until then, may He call your heart to come and be more than you can even dream, and may there be no boundaries to your dreams.
~s
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Almighty God –
I love Your holy covenant. Your promises are rich and true. Your promises never fail. Thank You for keeping Your promise to Abraham. Your faithfulness helps me believe.
Increase my faith, Lord. Fortify my patience, Father. Every promise You have made to me, I know You will keep in Your time. I will wait on You. I know that You are not slow. You are perfect.
Teach me Your will … Your way … Your Word. Use me, Lord, as a vessel. I give You my heart. Mold me into who You want me to be. I am here to serve. I am here to worship. I am here to praise.
You are the promise-keeping God. Lead me, Father. I will follow You. I want to be trustworthy just like You. Through Christ, I can be. I love You. I am Your servant, and I am praying through Your Son, Jesus. Amen.
~s
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
May you give yourself a second chance today … an opportunity to be exactly who you are supposed to be … according to our Father … nothing less … and nothing more.
May your restless heart be tenderly reminded of the joy in the journey. May the child in your soul confidently claim today simply as the step … the single, faith-filled step … it is intended to be in your lifelong quest to become like Christ.
May you give yourself some elbow room … some space to breathe … some time to ponder the progress and the success that have befriended you along the way. May you put to good use the talents and gifts you’ve been given … and may you refuse to fret yourself with those responsibilities for which you have not yet been equipped.
May you willfully release the fast forward button on your life, and may you let Him who began a good work in you bring it to completion … in His time … on His schedule … at the great day of Jesus’ return.
May you be finished … when … and only when … He says you are finished. Until then, may you answer His call … may you hold His hand as He gently leads you … and may you walk in His steps … one day at a time.
Now … may you give someone else a second chance today … an opportunity to be exactly who they are supposed to be … according to our Father … nothing less … and nothing more.
~s
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