Thursday’s prayer

THANKSGIVING

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ETERNAL BLESSINGS

Screen Shot 2016-03-23 at 4.10.20 PMYou have called me according to Your purpose, and predestined me to be conformed to the image of CHRIST JESUS (Rom 8:28-29). Your words do not return to You void (Isa 55:11). No matter how You infuse Your goodness into me, it cannot be snatched away.

When misunderstandings come in relationships and I am deeply hurt by trusted friends who have been a great conduit for Your mercy to me, Your mercy remains even if the relationship is destroyed. Ultimately the relationships You work through to conform me into the image of CHRIST is of no lasting consequence —only the conforming matters. My earthly relationships will always be tainted with sin, misunderstandings will abound, but Your Word that comes to me through those relationships will remain forever (1 Pet 1:25).

FATHER, my life here is fluid—forever changing. I ebb and flow as Your great seas. But You are my foundation—never changing, never. Anything that is spiritually attested is eternal. As You subject me to fluctuating circumstances of this earth, I thank You for protecting the Christlikeness You have already poured into me and the Christlikeness You will continue to pour into me.

THANKSGIVING

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PRAISE NEVER CEASES

Screen Shot 2016-03-18 at 3.50.30 PMThe only thing I can possess that lasts eternally is praise to the Triune GOD. I feebly praise here on earth and it encourages my soul magnificently but in this world I am side-tracked and burdened with so many things…

But when You, FATHER come to take me out of this world, I will lose these burdens and be glorified to a state where I think only of praising You. Even now I realize that a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere (Ps 84:10). What joy it will be to be continually serving You as the sons of Levi served in Your earthly house (1 Chron 23:32).

King David assigned 6,000 Levites to have charge of the work in the house—to be officers and judges. He also assigned 4,000 gatekeepers and 4,000 to offer praises (1 Chron 23:4-5). I would love to minister night and day to You…

You are able to fill me with joy on this earth by satisfying me with the ability to embrace short spurts of praise to You—for this I am exceedingly thankful. But, what greater joy will I experience when I am able to think of nothing else but serving You!

ADORATION

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GRATEFUL WORSHIP

Screen Shot 2016-02-25 at 10.44.07 AM…FATHER, it must have seemed like a dream, too good to be true, to the exiles given permission to return to Zion (Ps 126:1). Or when the angel woke Peter in prison and his chains fell off. He thought he was seeing a vision it was so unreal to him (Acts 12:7,9).

With the work You’ve done in my life, FATHER, I should have the same reaction.   As I remember Your holy activity toward me, I should feel like I need to pinch myself.

Do not thoughts of You set my hearts vibrating? Is there not a sound of song in the distance? If I ponder long enough, doesn’t the music grow louder?

Nehemiah dedicated the wall around Jerusalem with gladness, with thanksgivings, with singing, with cymbals, harps, and lyres (Neh 12:27). The people gathered offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for GOD had made them rejoice with great joy (Neh 12:43). Doesn’t GOD make me rejoice because of all He’s done?

FATHER, stir me to rejoice; rivet my attention to the rising music in my soul which is the response to Your blessings to me. Lift my eyes to You—You, Who did all for me. Oh soul, rejoice in the LORD, again I say, rejoice (Phil 4:4). Shout for joy (Ps 66:1). In grateful worship, break forth into joy oh my soul!

“Break forth into joy o my soul. Break forth into joy o my soul,

In the presence of the LORD there is joy forevermore,

Break forth, break forth, into joy, o my soul” Composer Unknown.

And LORD, continue to do great works in me. I need Your rain in my drought-stricken life (Ps 126:4). I am like Isaiah looking at You high and lifted up (Isa 6:1). Realizing I am Yours, yet unclean (Isa 6:5). I weep because of my sin, I cry under Your discipline. I plant my crops in sin’s entanglement and despair but in the end I’ll shout hurrahs at the harvest (Ps 126:5).

With pleas for mercy I shall come, and You will lead me back to You (Jer 31:9). So my heavy soul will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing. (Ps 126:6). For all this, LORD, I shout again for joy in grateful worship to You,

THANKSGIVING

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PSALM 86

Screen Shot 2016-03-18 at 3.00.54 PMI will praise You, O LORD my GOD,

with my whole heart (Ps 86:12).

For You incline Your ear and answer me

in my distress (Ps 86:1).

 

I ask You to preserve my life

since I am dedicated to You,

since I trust in You, my GOD,

save Your servant (Ps 86:2).

 

You are merciful and gracious to me,

O LORD;

make Your servant to rejoice

for I lift myself up to You (Ps 86:3-4);

 

Teach me that I may walk

and live in Your truth;

direct my heart to reverently fear

and honor Your name (Ps 86:11).

 

You, O LORD, are good

and ready to forgive my trespasses;

I call and You send my sins away—

gone completely and forever (Ps 86:5).

 

Great is Your mercy

and loving-kindness toward me;

You deliver me

from the depths of affliction (Ps 86:13).

 

You are great and work wonders!

You alone are GOD (Ps 86:10).

You are abundant in mercy and loving-kindness,

and I will glorify Your name forevermore (Ps 86:5,12).

THANKSGIVING

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THE SPIRIT REVEALS THE FATHER AND THE SON

Screen Shot 2016-03-15 at 4.02.04 PM“By working beyond all our weaknesses, the Holy Spirit attests how great is the heavenly Father’s love for us. The privileges of prayer demonstrate that God treats us as his children, with love as great as he lavishes on his own Son (1 John 3:1)” Bryan Chapell (ref#66, p82).

FATHER, JESUS exercises His autonomy through the HOLY SPIRIT by daily bringing me to a willing bondage under His easy yoke where I find His commands not difficult to follow (ref#79, p73).

JESUS is gladly one with You, FATHER, and He desires I would enter in to the fellowship (John 17:21). I thank You for the SPIRIT, who endears me to You. He takes every opportunity to glorify JESUS so that I am able to “blaze and glow with devotion to Jesus Christ” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, July 2nd). The SPIRIT is the only Lover of the Lord JESUS and He transfers that love to me (ref#7, July 2nd).

“The one and only characteristic of the Holy Ghost in a man is a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ, and freedom from everything that is unlike Him” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, Feb 8th).

Praise You, FATHER, for commanding love from me. Praise You, SPIRIT, for enabling me to give that love to You, FATHER.

THANKSGIVING

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PRESERVATION OF THE SAINTS

Screen Shot 2016-03-15 at 12.06.03 PM…FATHER, when You bless me You bless me forever. It is You, LORD, who makes me continue forever before You (1 Chron 17:27).

“The preservation of the saints means that all who have been elected by the Father, atoned for by Christ, and regenerated by the Holy Spirit will be saved…, and that not one of them will fall away totally or finally” R. C. Sproul (ref#71, p46).

King David conspired to murder an innocent man, yet You caused him to continue desiring You to the end of his life. You even called him “a man after Your own heart” (Acts 13:22). It is not my control of my sin or my submitting to Your commands that will keep me to the end, but Your hand alone.

What You start, You will finish. You began a good work in me and will continue to complete it until the day of CHRIST JESUS (Phil 1:6). I may sin severely and fall into a great length and depth of backsliding but You will keep me from falling completely away. My disobedience will keep me from joy, but it will not keep me from continuing on eternally with You.

FATHER, You alone preserve me. I cannot rely on myself to keep myself. I am “too weak; too changeable; too ready to be led astray; too much disposed to yield to temptation” Barnes’ Notes (ref#16, [Phil 1:6]).

But, lest I willingly slip into apathy because of Your goodness, prick me about You holding me responsible for every careless word from my mouth (Matt 12:36). I must be responsible before You for You are not mocked (Gal 6:7).

THANKSGIVING

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YOUR STEADFAST LOVE KEEPS ME FOREVER

Screen Shot 2016-03-14 at 3.46.48 PM…FATHER, You have found me and anointed me with holy oil; Your arm establishes and strengthens me so that my enemies cannot outwit me. You crush my foes; Your faithfulness and steadfast love are with me (Ps 89:20-24). You keep me forever and Your covenant stands firm for me (Ps 89:28).

And when I forsake Your laws and don’t walk according to Your rules violating Your statutes and not keeping Your commandments You faithfully punish my transgressions with the rod and my iniquities with stripes (Ps 89:30-32). But, You will not remove Your steadfast love from me or be false to Your faithfulness; You will not violate Your covenant or alter the word that went froth from Your lips (Ps 89:33-34).

FATHER, everlasting thanks to You for keeping me when I do not keep You. My life is like Your chosen Israelites so aptly depicted in the book of Judges—“And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord….Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel…” (Judges 3:7-8 ESV). “But when the people of Israel cried out…the Lord raised up a deliverer…who saved them…” (Judges 3:9 ESV).

You are forever disciplining me with Your rod, then saving me with Your staff (Ps 23:4). And assuring me that by Your holiness I will endure forever; like the moon, I am established (Ps 89:35,37). Sin will not win over me. Hallelujah.

THANKSGIVING

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COVENANT OF REDEMPTION

Screen Shot 2016-02-26 at 2.49.19 PM“Theologians speak of…a covenant that is not between God and man, but is among the members of the Trinity. This covenant they call the ‘covenant of redemption.’ It is an agreement among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…On the part of the Father, this ‘covenant of redemption’ included an agreement to give to the Son a people whom he would redeem for his own possession…” Wayne Grudem (ref#63, p518).

The Son agreed to “pay blood for blood, suffering for suffering, agony for agony, and death for death on behalf of His people” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, February 27th PM). “When Christ died, he secured for his people not only new hearts but new security. He will not let them turn from him. He will keep them….The blood of the covenant guarantees it” John Piper (ref#92, p47) (John 6:37).

“…the Holy Spirit in the covenant of redemption…agreed to do the will of the Father and fill and empower Christ to carry out his ministry on earth…and to apply the benefits of Christ’s redemptive work to his people after Christ returned to heaven….” Wayne Grudem (ref#63, p519).

TRIUNE GOD, I am blessed to possess the understanding of Your “covenant of redemption.” There are not enough words to express my gratitude. Day by day in my personal life I observe Your efforts in fulfilling Your goal decided upon before You set the foundations of the earth.

THANKSGIVING

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THE HOLY SPIRIT BEARS WITNESS TO MY SPIRIT

Screen Shot 2016-02-25 at 12.07.25 PM…FATHER, may these words be like the pile of stones the people of Israel assembled on the other side of the Jordon River to forever remind them that Your hand is mighty (Josh 4:20,24).

The enemy is constantly waiting for opportunities to insinuate that I am not Your heir. Therefore, I offer up this thanksgiving because of the witness Your SPIRIT provides that I really am Yours and will be eternally.

FATHER, I thank You that Your SPIRIT puts in me the divine nature. According to Your mercy Your SPIRIT washes me clean by regeneration (Titus 3:5) and makes His home in me. He, Himself then is the foretaste of the complete possession of my inheritance (Eph 1:14). I am fully and comfortably assured of Your divine adoption because Your SPIRIT bears witness to my spirit that I am Your child (Rom 8:16).

And, LORD, I praise You that Your SPIRIT then makes my inheritance more sure by culturing and planting spiritual seeds in me so I produce the fruit of righteousness (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control) (Gal 5:22-23). How marvelous it is FATHER, that when I look at myself, I do discover some of these good effects of the SPIRIT’s activity. I look forward to producing more of His fruit.

I thank You, too, LORD that the SPIRIT speaks to me regarding my salvation by drawing me toward the desire to be holy. “The panting after divine conformity is the Spirit’s inspiration” Octavius Winslow (ref#61, Sept 14th), isn’t it? O FATHER, it’s true, I no longer have as my goal to serve myself.

“By…begetting in us the divine nature, by producing in us spiritual fruits, and by breathing in our souls a desire for holiness, the Spirit conducts us to the rational conclusion that we are born of God” Octavius Winslow (ref#61, Sept 14th).

 

THANKSGIVING

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IMPORTANCE OF CORPORATE PRAYER

Screen Shot 2016-02-03 at 2.58.00 PM…FATHER, how profusely I thank You for the institution of corporate prayer (Matt 18:20). Praying with one another not only heightens my concentration, making me learn to be more articulate, but it causes me to be more disciplined, that I might linger longer in Your presence. I can think better and be still longer when I am with others.

But, the most joyous advantage of corporate prayer is to be ushered into the spiritual world by hearing others testify, FATHER, of Your interaction with them. Their witness strengthens my faith and gives me courage.

If I didn’t submit myself to the time of corporate prayer, I would have very little experience with what really goes on in Your spiritual world. My experience plus hearing the experience of others pushes me out of the physical world. The more I think about the spiritual world, the more real it becomes.

I also thank You for corporate prayer for the obvious reason—gathering a long list of prayer requests. This gives me the opportunity to add to my list the names of people others pray for.

Corporate prayer unites me with my brothers and sisters in CHRIST. And Your presence becomes more sure and real as I participate on a regular basis. This kind of prayer does not trumpet its worth until it is experienced. Thank You, FATHER, for the grace of corporate prayer.