Day of Prayer

I couldn’t agree more with the call to prayer made by our President.

This world-wide crisis is frightening.

Yet, Jesus is always the answer.

As I began writing a prayer for today my heart kept being drawn back to scripture and a man’s prayer:

Nehemiah 1:5-6 NKJV — And I said: “I pray, LORD God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned.

Nehemiah 1:7-8 NKJV “We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations;

Nehemiah 1:9 NKJV — ‘but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.’

Nehemiah 1:10 NKJV — “Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand.

Nehemiah 1:11 NKJV — “O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” For I was the king’s cupbearer.

Obviously, Nehemiah was grieved over the troubles of the Israelites and he knew he had to stand before the king and ask for help.

We are in a similar situation.

My heart is grieved over the huge loss of life and the mass fear. I’m taking today to stand before the King of Kings and ask for help.

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank You for all Your tireless effort to save us, not only from sin, but also from our own rebellious flesh. Lord, we know that Your Word tells us sickness and death are a consequence of sin. It was never a part of Your plans. Yet, because of Your great love You gave us Your Word to save us from the affects of sin, if we would only follow. Lord, You know our hearts are wayward and we often stubbornly choose to ignore You and Your Word, thus we choose sin and death. You know all of this and You still reach out in love. Lord, we need You so desperately. Please help our hearts to become soft, that we might choose You instead of pain and destruction. Lord Jesus, have mercy on us! We are suffering from sin and we chose it, but we didn’t understand. Please show Yourself in this crisis.

Lord, I confess, I am a sinner. Please forgive me. Please turn my heart to seeking You alone. Lord Jesus, I place all my thoughts, desires, actions, and attitudes before You, and ask that You cleanse me completely, that I might not walk in rebellion against You.

Lord, I stand before You on behalf of those who have yet to know You, those who have not heard the truth, and those who are innocent before You. Lord, let them all find You and eternal salvation in Your precious name. Please Lord, bring back the truth to those who have grown dull, bring back those who have walked in their own ways. Please deliver us from this evil and turn our feet to walking in Your ways. Let Your name be praised from every tribe, every tongue, every nation, because:

Isaiah 53:5 KJV — But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

In Your holy name, Jesus, I humbly ask these things. Amen.

High expectations

In prayer I was seeking the Lord for my husband.

My request was for his response to an unfair circumstance.

And the petition seemed so natural: Please help him walk through this with humility and grace, not defending himself or seeking restitution.

I even asked, “Lord, please help him to be able to see this circumstance not for the unfairness of it, but as You allowing something to teach him Your will.”

Did you?

It almost felt as if I’d been struck.

The memories of a similar circumstance rushed in and with them all my reactions to it.

Infact I remember my husband more than once trying to comfort me and my response was refusal.

I was being treated unfairly and I was angry at everyone, including God.

It took months for the Lord to break through my stiff-necked views and to guide me from bitterness to repentance and forgiveness.

Yet when my spouse is walking through a similar circumstance, my expectations of his responses are high.

Since the Lord pointed out these truths my heart has been repentant.

I’m embarrassed by my past behavior.

I’m humbled by the truth of what I expected from my husband and yet what I allowed my own to be.

Thankfully, I was able to communicate all this to my hubby yesterday and his compassion was so deep.

He’s not judging me upon my high expectations or my hypocrisy.

It’s such a blessing to have both his and the Lord’s mercy.

To look backwards at my own feelings, actions, and attitudes gives me a much clearer understanding of myself.

I’m not as gracious or loving as I often think I am.

It’s easier to see the faults of those around than the ones inside.

It’s easier to reason away poor behavior when the pain of each wrong is stinging your heart.

It’s easier to have high expectations of others when you’re not the one hurting.

And yet God calls us to something so much better.

His expectations are even higher.

Jesus is our example in everything and I am to pattern my own responses after His.

But it doesn’t end there.

He walks with me daily to guide, train, correct, and love me.

He doesn’t just say, “Do this…”

Instead the Bible says:

“…’I will never leave you nor forsake you.’
So we may boldly say:

‘The LORD is my helper;

I will not fear.

What can man do to me?'”

Hebrews 13:5b-6 NKJV

Dear Jesus,

Thank You for Your patience with me. Thank You for leading both my husband and I through difficult circumstances. Thank You for showing me my hypocrisy that I might turn and repent. Lord, please continue to shine Your truth upon my heart that I might walk with You in humility. Keep pride and selfishness far from me. Lord, please, walk with our family every day of our lives.

and He…

“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”
James 4:10 NKJV

It grinds against every part.

It can be the roughest sand paper to one’s soul.

It can seem as difficult as lifting a semi truck with one hand.

Yet humility holds a promise.

When I choose to humble myself, God will lift me up.

Pride begins so early, that it is able to be demonstrated at an young age.

Humility on the other hand takes conscious continued choice.

The rewards of humility are astonishing: to be lifted by God.

Pride will never pay that kind of dividend.

So I have to ask the Lord:

“Am I remaining humble before You?”

It’s important for me to check my heart.

It’s a valuable exercise to ask difficult questions.

Through this I can hear the Lord drawing me farther and farther from the sinful prideful person I am.

And the more I work at humbly setting myself before God, the easier it gets.

Why?

Because, the longer I walk with Jesus the more I realize how much higher, better, and holy He truly is.

The mirror

I love these tulips.

It doesn’t take long for people to realize I love flowers and pink is my favorite color.

I don’t wear it constantly, but I’m not quiet about my preference.

Some things about myself are so easy to see.

Other things are more complicated.

Infact the Lord used a tiny passing moment to teach me this week.

I’d been at work and when I walked in the house, one of my kids looked at me and asked something I hadn’t expected.

“What is on your face?”

Before I could respond or look in a mirror another child answered for me.

“It’s a pimple.”

“Oh”

Then both went back to their studies.

I went to find a mirror.

It was the next day when the moment returned to my mind and then I thought of a Veggie Tales show where Queen Blueberry is trying to manipulate her circumstances.

An evil mirror keeps encouraging her to wrong those around her all the while manipulating her for his own purposes.

One of the things which happens in the story reveals a wonderful truth.

As the queen wrongs others her outward appearance reflects the ugliness of her heart.

She’s covered in pimples, as well as other unbecoming facial things, yet the wicked mirror shows her getting more and more lovely.

It’s an excellent lesson.

When we choose to live for ourselves,

when we use those around us,

our hearts are being marred.

Yet, when walking in those things it is often with blindness.

To see ourselves outwardly we need a mirror.

To see ourselves inwardly we need Jesus and His Word.

Just like I was unaware of the blemish on my face, I have been unaware of blemishes on my character.

It has taken Christ to reveal my heart.

Often, He uses the difficult things in my life as a reflection of my heart.

Then He draws me to His Word that the blemish might be removed.

Jesus has shown me so many things about my heart in these months.

And He isn’t finished.

And I’m so thankful for the mirror.

I’d much rather Jesus show me my faults and failings than for me to walk in pride and haughtiness.

There’s even an example in scripture of a life of pride.

Jezebel.

She had manipulation down to a fine art.

Yet it cost her everything she was trying to hold on to.

If only she had paid attention to the inward beauty and learned to be humble, gentle, and loving.

I never want to be Jezebel.

Praise God for His mercy and patience.

Praise the Lord for His faithfulness!

Thank You, Jesus for the mirror.

Learning from example 3

Life doesn’t follow the paths we think it should or will.

God has His own design and He promises to be with us.

Yet more than once, I’ve found myself wondering what the path ahead of me holds.

Those moments when I look up and ask the Lord, “What now?”.

Infact I’m living one of those moments.

I love the way Ruth handles herself when she arrives in Bethlehem.

It isn’t recorded if she spoke to the women of the town.

Nor what her feelings were when they arrive.

What is recorded: her willingness to do the task at hand.

“And Ruth, the Moabitess said unto Naomi, ‘Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace.'” Ruth 2:2 KJV

Ruth lived in a time when an unmarried woman had very little ability to work.

Yet God had placed it in the law that the fields when harvested could be gleaned by the poor, as well as the corners.

It was back breaking work and more than likely dangerous since she was a foreigner.

Yet Ruth went out and worked in the fields.

She didn’t know how God was going to care for her and Naomi, but she was willing to do what she could.

She was humble.

She was hard working.

She was willing to do whatever needed to be done.

How can I learn from her example?

What would God want me to apply from Ruth’s life?

Where might the opportunity be for me?

I can remember and be encouraged by Ruth’s story of faith.

I can look for the tasks at hand and do them diligently with joy, knowing God is Who I’m working for.

Where each opportunity God has for me is in His hand.

These are the best things I can learn from Ruth’s example.