psalm 63:3
because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You
because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You
You are my hiding place!
thankful for this image: refuge and safety.
even when nothing is going on, it is so good to find peace and rest.
all day— the walk to work, 8 hours at work, later in my room
in everything, i accompany myself with music. sure, the majority of it is praise music, so it gives me a good perspective on work and my life and keeps me at peace. but still..
it’s like i forgot how to be silent.
LORD, teach me again!
am i ready? i don’t think so, but You know best.
i trust You, Father.
i say this as a general observation, not because there’s anything in my life that’s going on: people are messy. i say this as a reflection of things that i see unfolding before my eyes… and i don’t like the trajectory.
people are so messy; therefore, a church can be so messy. even something we take lightly like favoritism can have drastic consequences.
“if you keep the royal law in Scripture ‘love your neighbor as yourself,’ then you are doing right. but if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as a lawbreaker. for anyone who keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.”
the greatest blessing is to know that our failures still only point others towards Jesus’ perfection and cause others to rely on Him most of all. it would be paralyzing to think of all our consequence; praise God that He brings restoration to everything. what a hope for the church!
you will not believe - but i do.
i woke up from a dream about evangelism to friends of friends, singing the Disciples’ song (lyrics start all my devotion / misguided loyalty), and was reading/praying over psalm 51 later and texted it to a friend.
there are no coincidences in the all-consuming will of God. my mind does not comprehend why all of those things would come in a single sermon; my mind also does not forget lightly that all the songs from Passion:Awakening album are songs i prayed over three years ago and asked that God would make my church go to an awakening like it was for me. hardeharhar, He brought it here instead.
so i guess yesterday inside my HS was asking for me to:
day 3 - listen
it’s not that i’m special. but i am. but i’m not… how do i put this in words? probably time to update this one again.
day 4 - eternal fruit, please
answered prayers abound. may the fruit of this be lasting, eternal, good.
day 3 - open our eyes to the places and ways You are working, which is everywhere and everything
ohhhhhh myyyyyyy. LORD, I am so tired i don’t know how i’m going to get through today omggggg and we have Passion which i want to be fully alert for and i’m not going home in between work and Passion and ahhhhhh i can’t believe i gave up coffee i could use it ahhhhhhh how am i going to pray for people help me stay awake oh my oh my oh my oh my….
{fall to my knees}
Fatherrrrr, help meeeeeeeeee, i should have slept more but i didn’t, and i am so tired and so weak and i know that i can’t get through today without Your presence and strength and…
and it occurs that this is quite a physical answer to my prayers for keen dependence and humility. remembering that God uses all things - ALL things - for His glory too.
oh….. funny. but if that’s what this is, then OK, we’re okay now.
day 1 — let this church shake off the chains of slumber too!
My heart beats faster at the thought of what You will do there.
me too, me. too.
You’ve been telling me it’s going to rain this year.
will it rain tomorrow? & the day after? & the next day?
please rain every day please. i can’t wait.
Our Lord never explained what was meant by pray in His name. The meaning was plain enough to every Israelite. God was in His name. He had made them an elect people, that they might be the interpreters, custodians and witnesses of His name. When they dishonored it in their own land and degraded it among the Gentiles, he redeemed and restored them for the sanctification of the Name. “I do not this for your sakes, … but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. And I will sanctify my great name.”
Our Lord speaks in terms of Deity. To pray in Christ’s name means something more than adding “for Christ’s sake” to our petitions The name expresses personality, character, and being. The person is in the name. Prayer in Christ’s name is prayer according to the character of His mind, and according to the purpose of His will. To pray in the name of Christ is to pray as one who is at one with Christ, whose desires is the mind of Christ, whose desires are the desires of Christ, and whose purpose is one with that of Christ.
Such correspondence and identification with Christ secure the balance and interpretation of the promises given to prayer. The absolute and unconditional promises find their relativity and conditions in Him. In the Old Testament prayer was conditioned upon urgency, intensity, and sincerity. God was found of men when they cried unto Him out of a great need, when they sought Him with all their heart and when there was sincerity of purpose and motive. Men found that God required truth in the innermost soul, and that they were not heard if they regarded iniquity in their hearts, or came to Him with insincere pretenses upon their lips. Our Lord demanded importunity and a forgiving spirit of all who prayed. In the prayer in the Name all conditions are unified and simplified in Him. Sincerity is tested in the Name. Motive is judged in the Name. Prayer is proved in the Name. Prayer is sanctified in the Name. Prayer is indorsed by the Name, when it is in harmony with the character, mind, desire and purpose of the Name. That is why in John 15: 7 the words of Christ are interchangeable with His name. “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” It is something like the word of the psalmist: “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart;” or that of Saint John: “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight” (I John 3:21,22) Prayers offered in the name of Christ are scrutinized and sanctified by His nature, His purpose, and His will They are indorsed by Him
— Samuel Chadwick, The Path of Prayer
