Friday, April 29, 2016

Prayerful reflection on Jeremiah 5:1-31

Lord, raise up those who will do justice and seek the truth.  Save us from false faith and hypocrisy.

Lord, help us feel the anguish of our moral failings, allow us to be corrected in our attitudes and actions, and save us from being hard-hearted and stubborn.  

Grant our leaders to be leaders.  Those who you have made the responsible grant that they may act in a responsible manner.  May those who are the great, act in a way worthy of the greatness you have given them.  

Awaken us to the futility of rebellion.

Good, great, and merciful LORD, turn us from our transgressions and deliver us from our apostasies.  Help us return to you in spirit and truth.   Save us from the destruction we deserve.

Pardon us due to your great grace found in calvary and awaken us from the insanity of our sins.  Put a new heart in us and take from us the heart of stone.  Help us see the ugly nature of our sins. 

Without repentance, we are doomed.  True deep and transforming repentance is our only hope.  Who knows if the DAY OF THE LORD, can be avoided.   

Lord, save us hypocrisy and empty religion.  Help our faith be true and our lives consistent.  

Lord, save us from rightly being eaten up by the fruit of our rebellion.

Lord, we are foolish, save us from our insanity.
Lord, we are senseless, grant to us your wisdom
Lord, we have no eyes, give us sight
Lord, we have no ears, let us hear you
Lord, we are stubborn, teach us to submit
Lord, we are rebellious, make us loyal
Lord, we have turned aside and gone away, bring us back to your path

Lord, open our eyes to see you in the order of creation.  Help us receive with thanksgiving your many blessings every day.  

Lord help us not trust in our iniquities and sins to save us.  Help us see that it is our transgressions that have kept good from us.  

Lord, save us from the manipulators, the liars, and those who would tempt us into rebellion and pride.  Save us from those that judge without justice and have no regard for the oppressed.  

Give us a heart to defend the fatherless and help the needy.  

Lord, we deserve your judgement.  But for the sake of the Messiah Jesus and the sacrifice on the cross have mercy.   Be glorified in our redemption and in our being turned back from the path of destruction.  

Lord, awaken us, Lord help us, Lord transform us, Lord revive us.  

Amen

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Prayerful meditation on Jeremiah 4:5-31

Meditation on Jeremiah 4:5-31

Lord, awaken us to the danger.  We sleep and live in denial even as judgment comes.  Awaken us to see what is coming.  Provide for us souls of conviction, confession, repentance, and sadness.  Souls that are in sackcloth and ashes.  

Lord, help us be afraid of what our insanity has created.  Take from us the deception that all will be well even as we rebel against you.  Such folly is in our hearts.  Help us see that sin brings only ruin.  

Holy Spirit, wash my heart and the heart of all your people from their evil that we may be saved.  Cleanse us of our wicked thoughts and pride.  Because of our rebellion we have sown to the wind and will reap the whirlwind.   Forgive our ways and deeds of indifference and self-centeredness.  

Teach us to do good.  Help us to know you as you are.  Make us innocent in doing evil and wise in doing good.  Take from us our foolishness and provide for us your wisdom.  Our only hope is in you awakening us.  Come now and send a great awakening to us.  Amen

Recreate us out of the darkness.  Bring order to our chaos.  

Help us to see there is no salvation from the world system.  Let us not trust in the promises of our unbelieving culture.  Help us not be captured by their propaganda and hate.  Let us not turn to the left or to the right.  Show us your path.  Show us your peace.  Come to us before it is too late.

Lord, help us see our need of YOU.  Help me see my need of YOU.  Come now and revive, renew, and restore for your name's sake now act.  Amen

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Meditation on Jeremiah 3:19-4:4

Meditation on Jer 3:19-4:4

[6]  Jer 3:19-4:4
  A(3:19-21)   give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful among the nations! (3:19)
    B(3:22a)    
"Return, rebellious children (3:22)"   
(שׁובו)
      C(3:22b-25)       In the LORD, our God, alone is the salvation of Israel (3:23)
    B'(4:1-2)    
"you wish to return, O Israel (4:1)"   
(תשׁוב)
  A'(4:3-4)   Till your untilled ground, sow not among thorns (4:3)

    "A: The lands. B: To return. C: The LORD, our God." 

Lord, forgive me the times when I have been unfaithful and lacked commitment in my relationship with you.  Help me not deny the times my way has been twisted and perverted from your holiness.  Lord, how many times did I simply "forget" you in the midst of living life.  

Give to me a heart that has a hunger and thirsts to return to you.  Heal my faithlessness.  Help me draw near to you and let me see that every other hope is a delusion and lie.  In truth LORD Messiah Jesus you alone are my salvation. 

Lord, your people have lost their way.  We have done shameful things in your name.  That which you provided to save the nations we have squandered on our own desires.  We have not listened to your voice Good Shepherd and have gone wildly astray.  Help us be convicted of our folly and accept the shame and dishonor of our actions without justification.  Bring to us the spirit of confession and repentance.  

Lord, bring your people back to you and remove from our error of heart and head.  Awaken us that we might be a light to the nations and testify effectively of your love and grace once more.   First, awaken us and then revive the nations to worship you in spirit and truth.  Shake the world once again in your wild graceful love.   

Lord, make our hearts, make my heart, to be good soil that will receive your gospel WORD and bear much fruit  Let not the worries of this life crowd out the life of your WORD in me.   Cut out of me that which connects me to the unbelieving world and separate me to your kingdom truth.  

Lord, have mercy.  Keep us from deserved just wrath by your sacrificial grace.  Lord, let us seek you.  

Lord have mercy, Messiah Jesus have mercy, Lord have mercy.  Amen

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Psalm 88 reflected

I Cry Out Day and Night Before You
A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.
88:1 O Lord, God of my salvation;
I cry out day and night before you.
2 Let my prayer come before you;
incline your ear to my cry!
3 For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am a man who has no strength,
5 like one set loose among the dead,
like the slain that lies in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more,
for they are cut off from your hand.
6 You have put me in the depths of the pit,
in the regions dark and deep.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah
8 You have caused my companions to shun me;
you have made me a horror to them.
I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
9 my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Every day I call upon you, O Lord;
I spread out my hands to you.
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LORD, Messiah, my salvation.
I cry out to you day and night. Even in my dreams I cry out to you.
Hear my cry.
My soul is overcome with struggles and troubles.
Failures and losses are all around me. The weight of my falling short is so great.
I have no strength left in me. I see the darkness growing around me. The losses are increasing on every side. My regrets grow greater with each revelation. Each day adds to my failures.
I fear to hope least my expectations be crushed. I fear not to hope least the sorrow of despair swallows me.
Those I most love I have lost. They have shunned my teaching. They have chosen lies. I cannot save them. I am powerless.
Lord, of power, now come. Save those I cannot save. Lift up my head from my grief. Bring me comfort in the midst of my wailing.
I regret my not doing more when there was an opportunity. The loss of so much potential. Paying now for past mistakes. If only I could have seen the cost of falling short.
Lord, help me now and restore what has been lost. Raise from the dead the old potentials. Help me regain what I have failed to earn. Lord, now act in ways beyond my dreams or my faith.
Lord, have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy. Amen

Friday, April 15, 2016

Prayer based on Isaiah 50:10

Isaiah 50:10

10 Who among you fears the Lord
and obeys the voice of his servant?
Let him who walks in darkness
and has no light
trust in the name of the Lord
and rely on his God. (ESV)

Lord, grant to me a real respect, acknowledgement, and awe at your greatness, goodness, and grace. Provide me insight into my total dependence on you moment by moment. Let me hate immoral attitudes and actions as you hate them and recognize the just wrath such attitudes and actions deserve. Help me live in the reality of your presence and provide me an ability to hear your voice as my Good Shepherd during the worst of times. 

LORD, when the darkness settles in over me and the path before me cannot be seen help me know that you have not changed. When all evidence of purpose and plan have evaporated allow me to rely on your grace, greatness, and goodness to not have evaporated. Provide me a strong faith, reliance, and dependence upon YOU during the most overwhelming and difficult time. 

Be my firm foundation on my darkest days. 


Amen

Friday, April 8, 2016

Meditation and prayer based on Luke 2

Meditation on Luke 2

Lord, sometimes you are working in the middle of inconvenient and stressful times. Joseph and Mary had to move during her pregnancy because of tax laws. Not a good time and taxes are never fun. Yet, you used all that to move them to be in Bethlehem for YOUR birth. It is interesting that even when people have a revelation like they did with angels and all, you move them using normal providence most of the time. 

LORD, you called upon the shepherds, caring for the sheep destined to be sacrificed in the temple to come to be witnesses of your arrival into the word. The incarnation and coming of the GREAT SHEPHERD, would be witnessed by shepherds. LORD, let your great peace be upon us as we think about the wonder of your coming in the flesh for us. 

Lord, let the revelation of your coming lead us to witness, worship, and wonder. Open our hearts so that we will not be cold to the good news of your love for us. Let our familiarity of your revelation lead us to indifference towards this revelation. 

LORD, let us have the focus of our life to be seeing you more clearly before we die. Open our eyes to the wonder of your great love and truth found in YOUR leaving heaven and coming to earth to save us. Move us to see this wonder anew. 

Lord, reveal our thoughts to us and grant repentance where these thoughts are not your thoughts. Help us be prepared for some of the insights into our souls to be painful. Prepare us for the difficult times that a life of pain will bring to us. Lord help us now to be ready to follow you during hard times. 

Lord, give to me the focus of worship, fast pray more and more Give to me a seeking heart. Help me understand the need of really seeking you with passion and diligence. Lord have mercy. 

Lord Jesus, even as a child you were seeking always to be about the business of the kingdom. Your vision was clear. You're calling absolute. 

Help me to grow in grace day by day. 

LORD, renew my wonder and awe of your love. Help me see you more clearly today, love you more dearly today, and follow you more nearly today. Amen

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Prayer based on Luke 1

Meditation on Luke 1

Lord, give to me certainty about the reality and truth of the good news of your incarnation and redemptive mission to save us in your sacrificial death and resurrection.  Help the concrete reality of this historical invasion of salvation impact me and give me internal security and hope. 

It was in the reign of Herod the Great that John and Jesus were born. 

http://www.notablebiographies.com/He-Ho/Herod-the-Great.html

YOU LORD, act in real time and real space.  This is no make-believe world.  This is the real world.  YOU are real.  

Zechariah has been praying that he might have a son.  Even though his wife was old and beyond the normal circumstances of life.  It is interesting that even though Zechariah lacked faith that his prayer could be answered, yet he had prayed for it.  Lord, I thank you that you answer prayers even when they are weak in faith. 

The will of God for Zechariah's son is different than he would have wanted or thought.  For John was not be a priest following in his dad's footsteps but a prophet who ministered outside the establishment of the temple.  Lord, your plans for our children can be very different than our plans.  Help us Lord, help me Lord, to accept the destiny you have for my children. 

Lord, May had not prayed to become the mother of the Messiah.  YOU chose here by grace alone to be the means by which YOUR incarnation would take place.  She became the most honored of all women by grace alone.  

LORD Jesus, dear Joshua help me see you more clearly.   Help me see you as the fulfillment of Psalm 2 and as the ultimate Davidic King.  Allow me to bow my heart before you in submission and praise for you have come to deliver me.  There is no end to your KINGDOM.  

YOUR power in the HOLY SPIRIT created your human nature within the womb of the virgin.  YOU created the second Adam out of the dust of a woman's womb.  Nothing, not even incarnation, is impossible for YOU great all-powerful maker of heaven and earth.  Help me trust in the idea that there are no impossibilities for you.  

Forgive me my lack of faith in your power. 

LORD, let me surrender to your will as Mary surrendered to your will, that your kingdom would come and will be done on earth as in heaven.  

Fill me with the Holy Spirit this day.  Let my heart leap with joy as I think about your love for me in leaving heaven and coming to earth.  Let my soul respond to the greatness of your love.   

Lord, let my soul see you in the awe and greatness that YOU are in reality!  Pour out your mercy upon us.  Grant us a good and healthy fear of you in our hearts.  Keep us from pride.  Provide for us humility.  Fill us for we hunger and thirst for righteousness.  Open our eyes to your great salvation.   

Yahweh is gracious is the meaning of the name John.  Clearly you desired to send a message to us that YOU are saving us by your abundant grace and mercy alone.  

LORD, in the coming of John and Jesus you have brought to us your message and means of salvation.  The enemies of our souls, the flesh, the world, and the devil are overcome by your great redemptive acts of love.  You have remembered your promises and your oaths to the fathers of the faith.  YOU LORD, have been faithful.  LORD, give to me the knowledge of salvation and deep appreciation for the forgiveness of my sins.  Thank you, LORD, for your tender mercy and the truth of your great love which brings us to YOUR peace.  LORD open our eyes to all that you have revealed.  

Lord of mercy, give to us mercy today.  Amen

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Prayer based on Isaiah 40:29-31

Isaiah 40:29-31

29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might, he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=chariots+of+fire+church+service&&view=detail&mid=8B814A435E8FE71227108B814A435E8FE7122710&FORM=VRDGAR

Lord, I feel faint today.  Give me power.   I have no might today, give me strength.   At my best I could become weary and exhausted facing the struggles of this day.  Help me to be renewed in energy and give to me an attitude of trusting you in the darkest of times even when I don't see any answers.  

Lord, today lift me up and let me fly, let be run, and let me walk in your power.  Allow me to sit in the heavens with YOU, Lord Jesus and live life based on the wonder of your victory on the cross and resurrection.  Lord open my eyes to see and believe the gospel.  Come now to me.  Amen

Monday, April 4, 2016

Meditation on eternal glory and present pain

James 1:12-14

12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

Lord, help me remain steadfast, unmoveable, stable, in my faith, hope, and love for you when things have gotten insane, painful, frustrating, and scary.  Help me to face my losses and even my failures as part of the process of growing in grace.  Good LORD, you never tempt me to lose faith, hope, or love.  

My loss of these is due to my own desire to trust in sin more than I trust in YOU during the hard times.  It is the wrong unbelieving and self-centered desires within me that lead me into becoming unstable in my love for you.  

Holy Spirit, come now and sing the gospel of love and grace into my heart that I might be filled with love.  

Forgive me when I have not been stable.  Increase my faith and be glorified in my life.  Amen

-------------------------

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (ESV)

Lord, let me not lose heart.  Day by day things I love are wasting away.   It is not easy to see this happen.  Some of these seem to have eternal weight.  So the line between transient and eternal seems less clear to me.  

LORD, from your perspective the struggles we have are a light momentary affliction.  Help me to see them from that perspective.  They seem to me to perhaps a heavy momentary loss.  In some cases, I fear they will be a heavy forever loss.  Help me cope with this fear.  

Open my eyes to see the eternal weight of wonder, awe, and fulfillment to be found in seeing YOU, knowing YOU, and experiencing YOU incompleteness.  May I value that union and communion more than anything else in my life.  

Good Shepherd, come now and help me this day.  Remember that I am but dust and so very frail.  Lead me through this time of travail.  For your glory, my good and the good of all those my life touches.  Lord have mercy.  Help me today.  

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Good Shepherd lead me!

Jeremiah 10:23
23 I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself,
that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
LORD, master, you who have all power, help me see that my way and my walk is not in my control ultimately but in yours. Help me not trust in luck or chance since they are illusions. Creations of my mind to make sense of things insensible. Help me see that YOU LORD alone guides me through this day and this life. Amen
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Isaiah 43:1-3
43:1 But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
3 For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
Lord, I fear a lot. I fear what may happen and what has happened What has happened fuels my fear for what may happen.
Take my fear from me. Let me see you have redeemed me at the cost of your suffering hellfire for me on the cross. Help me more deeply understand what this means. You have created me and recreated me, formed me and reformed me. I am a part of your new creation.
Good Shepherd, you have called me by name to be part of your life, family, and kingdom. YOU have chosen me to be your friend.
When I feel I will drown in the pain, struggle, and defeat and be swept away into despair; YOU are with me and get me through all the things that seem that will overwhelm me. YOUR presence is my hope. Even when everything I value is burned to the ground, you are there to get me unconsumed through the flames. Nothing can separate me from your love.
LORD GOD of Israel, YOU are my SAVIOR.
-----------------------------------------------------
Psalm 23:4
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me. (ESV)
Good Shepherd, remember that I am just dust and so very frail, come now and lead me through this time of travail. Lord help us.
Help me not to fear the evil because YOU, Good Shepherd are with me.
LORD, have mercy. Amen

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Difficult prayers

James 1:2-4

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Lord, help me more deeply believe that the struggles, pain, and losses of my life and the lives of my loved ones is actually going to produce a deep profound change in character and godliness.    Only if I can see this end result, could I have joy in the painful process. Like pregnancy, these times of struggle can only make sense in light of a baby.   Let me see the "baby" of greater character, competence, and compassion that is to come from all of these struggles.  Give me more faith Lord, for this is many times hard to accept or believe. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

James 5:7-12

7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. 10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

12 But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

Lord, give me a waiting and patient heart as I look to see the good harvest that will come, either on your return or in revival.  Either way you will come.  Keep me from bitterness, judgement, self-righteousness, and complaining.  

Help me remember the prophets and Job.  No one had easy lives.  Unbelievably hard lives they had.  Yet, while having real and dynamic relationships with you, they all remained in a relationship with YOU since YOU alone have the answers to life. 

The hard times do not take away the reality that YOU, LORD, are compassionate and merciful.  We deserve hell fire.  So having hard lives or hard times is nothing compared to what we deserve.  YOU LORD, also know that some greater good will be lost, unless this suffering is permitted.  The cost of the greater good is high but necessary.   YOU, cry with us in our struggles. 

Keep me from foolish words and radical actions during painful, sad, and horrible moments in my life.  Let me now try to use vows, promises, and wild divine bargains to move you to take away the pain.  Let me see that I cannot bribe YOU.   Help me remain sane in my pain. 

Thank you, LORD, for your faithfulness during difficult times even when I am unfaithful, for you cannot deny yourself.   Help me walk before you in steadfast, steady, sane, and serious faith in your character, competence, and compassion.  

Lord, have mercy and increase such faith in me.  Amen

Friday, April 1, 2016

The marriage of grief and joy in prayer

1 Peter 1:6-7

6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Lord, here in the words of brother Peter I see my reality.  Or what I think should be my reality.  I am grieved by various painful losses and events.  My world, the one I knew and lived in has been lost.   How then can I rejoice since I grieve?  Because my faith is being made into a purer and better quality.  It is becoming purified gold.   This faith will at the second coming and resurrection bring to the Messiah Jesus praise, glory, and honor.  The LORD Jesus will be held high by the faith that the Spirit has created through these disasters of these days.  Joy and grief; grief and joy are married. 

Job 23:9-11

9 on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him;
he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him.
10 But he knows the way that I take;
when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.
11 My foot has held fast to his steps;
I have kept his way and have not turned aside. (ESV)

Lord, during the times of struggle, loss, and darkness,  like brother Job, it is hard for us to see YOU.  We look to the left and we look to the right and we do not understand or comprehend what you are doing.  To the left is a scorched earth where once there was a fruitful field and to the right a graveyard where once our home stood.   No sign of YOU or of your compassion, care, or concern that we can see.  

Help me to know that you know my way.  Help me see that you are purifying my inner trust.  Making pure my relationship with you of idols and selfishness.  Hold my lifestyle faithful to you.  Let me follow you more nearly.  Let me not turn aside from your ways.  

Teach me to trust you in the dark.  Lord have mercy now today.  Amen