“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.” (Ecclesiates 3:1)

“Hurriedness is not of the devil, it is the devil.” (Carl Jung)

How easy it is to get wrapped around the hecticness of our life.  Becoming consumed with all the flurry of activity surrounding us.

It is that distraction, that busy-ness that keeps us pulled away from the things that are truly important.  God is not asking us to run through our life at full throttle 24/7.  Yes, believe it or not, we are human and we need that time to slow down and get our tanks refilled. 

Even God rested on the last day of the week after the creation.

We are living our life for him and patterned after him.  Even Jesus took time out to rest.  Time alone spent in prayer and being refreshed, body and spirit.

“Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.” (Luke 6:2)

Be sure to leave those windows of time in prayer with God in your day.  What better way to become refreshed than to consider the amazing things God has done for you.

Enjoy the weekend.  Be sure to spend some of your time relaxing and spending time becoming truly refreshed — in prayer.

“I will exalt you, my God and my King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
Every day I will praise you
And extol your name for ever and ever.”
(Psalm 145:1-2)

Our Lord is infinitely and eternally faithful to us. There is not a day, hour, or minute that passes that he is not intimately entwined with our life – our joys, our hopes, our sorrows, and our pains.

There is nothing we can do to earn that faithfulness.  He is giving it to us freely without the asking. 

So what is our response to Him?  How do we respond to that infinite love and faithfulness?

Our response is the highest form of worship God has called us to.  – How we live our life.  Our life well lived, in thanksgiving and focused on God.  Every day, praise Him and the mighty work he is doing in your life.

“Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.” (Isaiah 55:6)

As I can attest from my own personal experience, it is so easy and convenient to blame God for not being around and helping us in the midst our most challenging situations.

Ah, but how wrong that understanding was.  The Lord is always with us and at our side.  He is there guiding us, directing us, comforting us, supporting us, strengthening us, and breathing the very life into us each day.  He touches our lives in so many countless ways that we cannot even fathom.

I simply pray that I might be able to be aware of the things I can, in my lowly human condition.

Call on him any time and anywhere.  He is always near.  Always there.

Father God, may I always be aware of your presence in my life.  May I never forget that the reason I exist today is because you have willed it and breathed your life into me.  Thank you, Lord, for your presence with me each and every day.  Amen.

“Are you betraying the son of man with a kiss?” (Luke 22:48)

“May I never be seduced by the ‘smooth talk’ of the world.  May it have no effect on me whatsoever” – CH Spurgeon

“If we live the life of a hypocritical Christian, in the world’s eyes we are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.” – Jim Reimann

Father God,
May my life not be that of a hypocritical Christian.  May my life not subject you to public disgrace.  May I be ever vigilant and conscious of all the ways the world tries to present a loving face to pull me in, keeping me away from you.  May my eyes be ever focused on you Lord.
Ever on you.

“I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:18-19)

Thank you Lord for the breadth, length, height, and depth of your love for me.  Thank you for taking on the form of a slave, being in the form of a human likeness.  Thank you for humbling yourself to the point of death – even death on a cross.  (Philipians 2:7-8)  Lord, you have paid for my sins, and my short comings. 

Thank you for extending the full spectrum of your love to me.  A thought I can scarcly comprehend, but it is a gift already given; for me to better experience your fullness in my life.

“God who comforts the downcast, comforted us.”
(2 Corinthians 7:6)

Thank you God.  Thank you for the comfort you have extended to me throughout my life.  Thank you for making yourself known to me.  Thank you filling my heart with your love.  For filling my heart, I thank you.

Lord, may I use the gifts you have given me to be a form of worship to you for your glory.  May my life reflect your will in my being.  Father God, thank you for comforting me.  Thank you for comforting me.  Thank you.

Amen.

“Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”
2 Timothy 2:1

The grace we have received in Christ is beyond measure.  How can any of us ever begin to measure an infinitely priceless gift when we don’t even deserve it?

I would venture to guess that many of us are not even aware of all the ways God has touched our lives; all that he has done for us.  God is pouring his grace and love into our life every minute of each and every day.

Father God, thank you for the gift of grace you have extended to me.  Make me more aware of all the ways you touch my life.  Thank you Lord for pouring your love into me.

“From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.”
John 1:16

In contemporary society,
Our adversary majors in three things
Noise, hurry, and crowds
If he can keep us engaged in much-ness and many-ness
He will rest satisfied.
— Richard Foster

Now there is provoking thought from a book I am reading now.  That kind of makes you stop and think about how you are living your life.  That is actually one of Satan’s best traps for us.  Keeping us busy and consumed with other things.

What better way to not get sucked into much-ness and many-ness, than to focus on God and his Word.  It is amazing how God can re-focus our sight and clarify our minds when we stay centered on his word.

Father God,
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path”
(Psalm 118:105)
May my day and my life remain focused on you and your word.  Thank you Lord for revealing your Word to my heart for you glory.

“…He has said…”
(Hebrews 13:5b)

Father God, may your Word support and sustain me.  May it be at the core of my being.  May I know your Word intimately.  May I draw from your Word as a source of strengh as well as the edification of others. 

Mighty is your Word.  Yes, mighty is your Word.  All creation exists because of your Word.  “In the beginning was the Word, and Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” (John 1:1-2)  Father, thank you for your incarnate Word.

Father, thank you for the gift of your Word and the ability to know you by understanding your Word.  Thank you for making yourself known to me.  Thank you. 

“I will never leave you or forsake you.”
(Hebrews 13:5c)

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you”
(Hebrews 13:5)

Just think about this verse from Hebrews for a few minutes.  Try to grasp the truth of what it is really saying to us.

There is nothing we can say or do that will diminish God’s involvement and intimate love for each one of us.  He is with us for the long haul.  The very long all.  The assurance of Jesus Christ cannot be more clearly presented to us than it is here.  He is with us.  He will not turn his back on us.

Thank you Lord Jesus for your undying love for me each and every moment of each and every day.