Doing My Part

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.

--Micah 6:8 (NIV)

Immortal God,

I want to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with You today.

Thank You, for showing me Your character and Your will through Your Word, so that, out of my own personal experience with the goodness I see demonstrated in You, I am able to understand what is good.

Help me live out my life from an overflowing gratefulness for the gifts of Your unrelenting love, redemption and salvation.

Let that heart of gratefulness govern my actions and continually cause me to act fairly and justly in all I do.

Help me to live my life in service to You and to others, in demonstration of the love and mercy that has been poured out on me.

And cause me to walk with You—living for You and drawing my very essence from You—with a humble spirit that is void of pride.

I want to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with You today.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

The Gift Of Peace

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

--John 14:27 (NKJV)

Prince of Peace,

Thank You for the gift of peace which You bought for each one of us when You gave Your life on the cross for our sin.

Thank You that, within the heart of this gift of peace, true reconciliation with God is made possible and that within this reconciliation is freedom from all fears—past, present and future.

Thank You that it is not like the peace that the world offers, which is imperfect, untrustworthy, temporary, dependent on circumstances, and tainted by the sin of man.

Thank You that Your peace is perfect, everlasting, not dependent on the what the world does or does not do, or the circumstances that I may face—that it resides deep within my spirit and goes beyond my ability to even comprehend it.

Thank You that because of Your peace, I have the power to guard my heart against being troubled by things in my past or the trials that I face today. 

Thank you that in that peace, I can keep my heart from fearing those things that remain to be seen.

Thank You that in so guarding my heart, I can remain in Your peace always.

Thank You for the gift of peace which You bought for each one of us when You gave Your life on the cross for our sin.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Always Good, Always Loving

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
    His faithful love endures forever.

--Psalm 118:1 (NLT)

Faithfully Loving Lord,

I give my thanks to You today, Lord, because You are always good to me and Your love for me never changes!

Remind me to cherish and store up in my heart, those times when I see so clearly the goodness You have lavished on me out of Your immeasurable love for me.

Help me to realize, in the dark times, how limited my perspective is and that just because I don’t see Your unfailing goodness at the moment I may find myself in, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t there waiting for me to discover it.

Remind me to look back over my life to see how Your faithful love for me has always brought good out of my deepest trials, so that I might be encouraged as I face the trials I find in each new day.

Help me to discover that simply keeping a grateful heart towards You brings about good things in my life.

And when I feel so undeserving of Your goodness and Your faithful love, remind me that Your love for me is not determined by what I do—that there is nothing that I can do or say that would ever change it.

I give my thanks to You today, Lord, because You are always good to me and Your love for me never changes!

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Answering Softly

A soft answer turns away wrath,
But a harsh word stirs up anger.

--Proverbs 15:1 (NKJV)

 Lord of Love,

Help me to be ever mindful that my words have the power to build up or to tear down my relationships with others.

When someone comes against me with strong and vengeful anger, remind me that their passion is driven by their need to be listened to and understood.

Remind me that how I respond to that anger is critical in helping diffuse their anger and in preventing damage to our relationship.

Remind me that by listening first, I can begin to understand their complaint, and that if I purpose to continue to hear them out, they will begin to realize that I truly want to understand what has them upset.

Help me then with calm and quiet words restate my understanding of their complaint back to them, so that they are assured that their complaint has been heard and so that I will be able to constructively respond.

Only then give me soft words to say in love to explain those things that the other person might not have been aware of which led to their wrath against me.

Or, if their anger against me is justified, give me the grace to openly confess any wrong doing on my part, ask for forgiveness and seek to set things right, so that our relationship might be not only restored, but strengthened.

Help me to be ever mindful that my words have the power to build up or to tear down my relationships with others.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Consistently Loving and Faithful

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

--Hebrews 13:8 (NIV)

Unchanging Lord,

I want to be more like You, Lord!

It is so wonderful that I don’t have to wonder what to expect from You—that just as Your Word declares, You are always the same.

Your unchanging love and faithfulness to me in every yesterday of my life leads me to trust You with every moment of today and with every hope for all of my tomorrows.

Help me to become more like You, so that others don’t have to guess what to expect from me with each new time they encounter me.

Help me to be a consistent reflection of Your unchanging love for everyone around me, so that those who don’t yet know Your love might see Your love in me.

I want to be more like You, Lord!

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Hidden Safely In My Heart

With my whole heart I have sought You;
Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!

Your word I have hidden in my heart,
That I might not sin against You.

--Psalm 119:10-11 (NKJV)

God of Grace and Mercy,

Make my heart a storehouse for Your Word, so that I can draw from the truth that I find there when I am tempted to sin against You.

I know that no matter how committed I am to seek after Your heart, I need Your help to keep from ignorantly or willfully wandering from Your commandments, so I ask You to help me hold fast to my commitment to seek You with my whole heart.

Help me to hide Your Word in the one place where it cannot be stolen from me—in my heart. 

Remind me that if I only hide it away in my house, it can be stolen from me.

Remind me that if I trust it to my mind, my memory may prove to be untrustworthy.

Show me that when I store it up in my heart, it changes me forever from within so that it cannot be taken from me and that only then can it save me from my sinful ways.

Make my heart a storehouse for Your Word so that I can draw from the truth that I find there when I am tempted to sin against You.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Created To Do Good

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

--Ephesians 2: 8-10 (NIV)

Heavenly Father,

Help me to remember that while I can’t earn my way into Heaven, my purpose for being here on earth is to do the good works that You have planned for me to do.

Thank you for the free gift of salvation that You have provided for me by Your grace and which I have received by faith.

Always keep me mindful that I didn’t earn my salvation nor do I deserve it because of anything that I did or might do—that I simply and freely received it when I reached out my heart to You.

When I speak of my salvation, help me give all the glory and praise to You, for Your merciful grace which made it possible.

When I do any good works, let me give all the glory and praise to You, for You are the One Who created me to do them.

Don’t let me lose sight of the fact that You already planned for me to do the good works that I do and that, by my re-creation in Christ, You have uniquely designed and equipped me to do them according to Your plan, so that my life might glorify You.

Help me to remember that while I can’t earn my way into Heaven, my purpose for being here on earth is do the good works that You have planned for me to do.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.