Amen!

7/20/18

Love me. Teach me. Guide me in all Your ways. Help me humble myself before You everyday, and if need be, humble me, so my thoughts may be pure and pleasing to You.

May my actions never cease to emulate You releasing a sweet smelling fragrance of salvation’s freedom.

More than anything, I seek to please You – the One I fell passionately in love with – the One who saved me from myself. After all, You know me better than I know myself.

Tell me what I’m thinking. Show me what I’m feeling. Reveal to me my hidden sins and be quick to uncover my self-righteous pride. I cry out to you: “Have Your way with me!”

Mold me. Conform me. Transform me into Your glorious image – every second of every day, until that splendid day comes when our spirits will dance, cheek to Cheek. I want to follow Your lead with my eyes tightly shut, so that I rely not on vain sight, but on every movement of Your heavenly body.

O Lord, give me but a glimpse of this future truth, so that every day, now till then, may be fully lived in anticipation of Your enchanted kingdom.

Help me be a beacon – a shining example to others. Help me be conscientious about my actions, so that those around me will only see You. Help me not stumble my brothers and sisters, but encourage them. Help me by Your Holy Spirit to live a compassionate and righteous life. Help me to keep the “ole-man” down by dying daily to my carnal ways.

My body is growing old and slowly fading, but my spirit is alive and thirsty; thirsty for something more than the temporary, pseudo-pleasures of this world. I long to hear and taste Your wisdom the moment it pours forth from Your divine lips. I am torn between being in Your arms for eternity, free from sin’s decadent ways, and persevering through this perverted planet in order to exhort those I love dearly.

I confess: I am not the man I should be. I am no where in the vicinity. But I thank You that I can see Your attributes in Your saints. Thank You for my family, friends, and spiritual fathers, as well as those whom I disagree with and even those who hate me. Without them, I would never know what true love is. O Lord, help me to love the unlovable and put my plans aside.

Remind me that life is not about me. Remind me that You desire obedience over sacrifice. Remind me that Your most urgent request is simply to spend time with my Creator, not the burdensome task of sacrificial works that must be fulfilled in order to seek Your approval. Remind me that You cannot love me more than You already do. Remind me that because You love me, You will allow suffering to refine me until Your reflection is all anyone can see. Remind me that pain is only temporary and without it I would cease to grow and genuinely know the freedom of joy’s forgiveness.

May I always be compassionate and patient with others. May I never forget that pain propels us to change requiring Your immediate attention. May I come to believe that joy is simply believing that in the midst of this temporary suffering, our spiritual formation is Your ultimate concern.

Show me Your loving ways. Show me how You never gave up on the Israelites ultimately leading them into the promised land. Show me how You provided for their daily needs. Show me that You have wonderful things planned for me, better, and more fulfilling than I can ever imagine.

Father, forgive me for harboring sin in my life and not exposing it before You on a regular basis. Forgive me for hating others and harboring bitter feelings towards them. Forgive me for failing to love, You most of all and those You’ve placed by my side.

Thank You for my mentors and role models. Thank You for the consequences of my actions; without them character, honor and integrity I would never know. Thank You for the apostle Paul and his example. Thank You for allowing his “thorn” to stay. Thank You that Your grace was manifested and made perfect in his weakness just as Your grace is being manifested and made perfect in my weakness.

I know now that I would not have it any other way. Because of my stubbornness, I would have died in my misery, a long time ago. But You had pity on me and rescued me from the bottom of Satan’s heel ransoming this sinner’s incalculable debt by a patronizing payment of divine blood.

Without suffering I would cease to learn, and thus be left a spiritual orphan conforming, out of bondage, to the self-destructive patterns of this world.

You promised to never give me more than I can handle. You promised that I can do all things in You – JESUS! By the power of Your Holy Spirit, sew these promises deep inside the interlaced fabrics of my soul.

There’s no life other than You and there’s no greater purpose other than glorifying and enjoying You with others.

Bring the lost and lonely to Yourself by way of this bondservant. I will (do my best to) live by example in every conscious hour pointing Your creation back to You.

May You receive the worship and adoration You rightfully deserve. And may You be forever praised for the loving God Your Son has emulated You to be. Amen!

052903

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