Living as I Should

 

As I learn your righteous regulations,

    I will thank you by living as I should!

I will obey your decrees.

    Please don’t give up on me!

 

—Psalm 119:7-8 (NLT)

 

Merciful and Gracious LORD,

 

Please don’t give up on me!  Don’t leave me to my own limited understanding and imperfect wisdom—but continue in Your unrelenting, passionate, pursuit of my heart, as You patiently guide me into all Truth.

 

Let the commandments of Your Word permeate my heart, as I listen for Your Spirit to reveal how every commandment plays a part in protecting, providing for, and preserving my life—according to Your perfect plans and purposes.

 

By that same Spirit within me, strengthen me to live as I should—to fully understand and apply Your righteous regulations to my life—that I might live the abundant life that is available to those who choose to follow after Truth.

 

And help me to be grateful—not only in my thoughts and words, but even more so in the way I live my life—so that my entire life might become a continuous offering of thanksgiving and praise to You!

 

Please don’t give up on me!  Don’t leave me to my own limited understanding and imperfect wisdom—but continue in Your unrelenting, passionate, pursuit of my heart, as You patiently guide me into all Truth.

 

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

You Offer Forgiveness

 

LORD, if you kept a record of our sins,

    who, O Lord, could ever survive?

But you offer forgiveness,

    that we might learn to fear you.

 

—Psalm 130:3-4 (NLT)

 

 

Gracious and Merciful God,

 

Thank You, that for my sin You offer me Your forgiveness—You completely remove my sin from me and choose to remember it no more—so that there is nothing left between us to keep me from You.

 

If You kept a record of my sins, how could I ever survive?  For my sin would be an ever-enlarging, impenetrable wall of judgment that kept me separated from You—that kept me from the strength of Your presence and left me to face this world on my own.  How could I live without You?

 

But You, LORD, hold no grudge against me, when I sincerely repent of my sins—when I turn my back on my sinful behavior, ask for Your forgiveness, and pursue the ways of truth and life. 

 

You remove my sin—that wall of separation—and You look upon me as if I had never sinned, so that I can continue in fellowship with You, being strengthened by Your presence, so I can offer You the reverential respect and awe that is due You.

 

Help me to use Your model of complete forgiveness, when I forgive others—by not keeping a record of wrongs—so that the walls between myself and others may be torn down and I can live at peace with all men.

 

Thank You, that for my sin You offer me Your forgiveness—You completely remove my sin from me and choose to remember it no more—so that there is nothing left between us to keep me from You.

 

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Another Advocate

 

“If you love me, obey my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you.  He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.”

 

—John 14:15-17a (NLT)

 

Lord Jesus,

 

May I never fail to demonstrate my love for You, through my willing obedience to Your commandments, as I look to the Holy Spirit within me to guide me into all Truth.

 

Let my love for You be so much more than just words that I push carelessly across my lips without thinking. Rather let my words reflect my love for You—a love which permeates everything that I think, say and do.

 

Help me to look to the Advocate the Father has given—the Holy Spirit—to be my Comforter when I am hurting; my Encourager when I am discouraged; my Counselor when I need guidance; my Helper when the work gets hard; my Strengthener when I need to take a stand; my Friend when I need to know I am never alone; and my Teacher when I need to hear and know the Truth.

 

Keep me sensitive to the promptings of Your Spirit—who lives within me, and never leaves me—so that I might not miss any good thing that You have for me along my journey to know You more intimately.

 

May I never fail to demonstrate my love for You, through my willing obedience to Your commandments, as I look to the Holy Spirit within me to guide me into all Truth.

 

In Your most Precious and Holy Name, Lord Jesus. Amen.

My Refuge, My Shelter

 

If you make the LORD your refuge,

    if you make the Most High your shelter,

no evil will conquer you;

    no plague will come near your home.

For he will order his angels

    to protect you wherever you go.

 

—Psalm 91: 9-11 (NLT)

 

O LORD my Refuge, my Shelter,

 

Be my only refuge, my shelter from every evil thing. Help me not to wander from the sheltering safety of Your Presence, and order Your angels to protect me, wherever You direct me to go.

 

Help me fix my eyes on You. Don’t let me look to anyone or anything else to be my refuge, my place of protection, from the forces of darkness that seek to destroy me.

 

Be my shelter against all the storms of life—that quiet place of peace and rest, amidst the chaos and turmoil of this world.

 

Help me make Your heart my home, and let my heart beat after Yours alone—so that no plague can ever come near me.

 

Be my only refuge, my shelter from every evil thing. Help me not to wander from the sheltering safety of Your Presence, and order Your angels to protect me, wherever You direct me to go.

 

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Don't Let Anyone Capture You!

 

Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.

 

—Colossians 2:8 (NLT)

 

 

Heavenly Father,

 

Let me experience all the freedom that comes when I fully understand, and live my life in complete agreement with, The Truth—The Truth that is revealed in Your Word, The Truth I find in Jesus Christ!

 

In my search to know Truth, let me not be satisfied to accept those philosophies that are merely built on human thinking, or understanding—but always look to Your Word to reveal The Truth to me.

 

Don’t let me be misled by man’s deceitful words—which, despite the fact that they may sound right, are only counterfeits of The Truth, twisted by the enemy to entrap my heart in lies, in order to lead me to destruction.

 

Keep me from blindly assuming that the traditions of man are Truth—those practiced ideas that have been widely accepted as Truth, but are not confirmed by Your Word—since I know that the spiritual powers of this world are battling to keep me from the freedom that I find in Christ alone.

 

Let me experience all the freedom that comes when I fully understand, and live my life in complete agreement with, The Truth—The Truth that is revealed in Your Word, The Truth I find in Jesus Christ!

 

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Fully Committed to the LORD

 

The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

 

—2 Chronicles 16:9a (NLT)

 

 

O LORD my God,

 

Let it be that You would find in me a heart that is fully committed to You—so that You would strengthen me in every way, for the work to which You have called me.

 

Don’t allow me to settle for having a heart that is only mostly surrendered to You—a heart that is willing to stop at, “At least I’m better than I used to be!” or “Nobody’s perfect, everybody sins.”

 

Purify my heart!  Show me my heart and any darkness I have hidden there!  Help me to root out those things that I am withholding from You—according to the sanctifying power of Your Holy Spirit within me.

 

Grant me a heart that is willing and obedient—willing to seek out the truth of Your Word, and faithful to obediently apply that Truth to my life, so that I would be found faithful in Your eyes.

 

Give me a listening heart—a heart that listens to hear and respond to every prompting of Your Spirit, a heart that is eager to do all that You ask of me.

 

Give me a loving heart—a heart that loves You first, and best, and always, and loves others in the same way that You have so graciously and wondrously loved me—as a proof of my love for You.

 

Let it be that You would find in me a heart that is fully committed to You—so that You would strengthen me in every way, for the work to which You have called me.

 

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Love One Another!

 

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God.  Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

 

—1 John 4:7-8 (NLT)

 

Heavenly Father,

 

Since You are love, help me to know You more and more each day—so that, as Your very own child, I would love You first, love You best, and love You always. Then help me prove my love for You by loving others as You have first loved me.

 

Show me how apart from You I cannot truly love—that I first must come to know You, through Your Word and by Your Spirit, and in doing so, learn to know, accept, and personally experience Your great love for me.

 

Remind me that I am Your child, made in Your very own image! And that as such, I was created to be a vehicle of Your love—to share with others that same love which I have experienced in my own life, through my personal relationship with You.

 

Continue to fill me to overflowing with Your perfect love—that the same compassionate and merciful love, with which You have so graciously loved me, would pour out from me in love for others.

 

Since You are love, help me to know You more and more each day—so that, as Your very own child, I would love You first, love You best, and love You always.  Then help me prove my love for You by loving others as You have first loved me.

 

In the name of Jesus, Amen.