How to love...

 

My prayer:

Awesome Father. I come to you in the name of Jesus, the Christ Messiah and I need some help with love. It is the commandment of the new covenant, to love you and to love others as I do myself. More specifically, you have told me that is my ministry, to love those you have put in my life. Something that is so easy to say but at times, so difficult to do. 

You are love. To love perfectly comes so naturally to you. I have a harder time. Love in this world has been pretty beat up and mishandled. Is it more loving to tell someone they are wonderful when the truth is that they have some things that really have to change if they are going to be successful. Or is it more loving to help them understand, in a loving way, what they can do differently. Am I loving my fellow man when I help them with something that is difficult for them or am I actually hurting them by taking away the opportunity for them to learn and grow. Or, does motivation really determine it all. If my true motivation is love and I make decisions out of that love, is that the best love I can give?

I ask for your help to love better.

What God Said Tonight:

Love, human love, is not perfect. the only perfect love is from me. Human love, the love you are capable of on your own, is flawed and has to be given out with equal measures of love and grace. 

Motivation does matter. If your heart is right and your intentions are right, that often leads to the right actions of love. If those intentions are wrong or are not out of love, then there is very little possibility that the outcome will be good, that the outcome will be love. I may even say it is impossible. 

When I ask you to love those around you, I am asking more than anything, to reflect the love that I have shown you. The closer you can get to that reflection, the closer you get to perfect love. 

When faced with a decision, first check your heart. Are your intentions right? Is your intention to love that person? If so, consider situations in your life where you have been faced with the same issue. How did I handle that situation with you? Reflect that love and grace that I showed you. 

It isn't always easy but it gets easier every time you do it. I love you my child, now and forever.

Trust...

 

My prayer:

It is hard for me to know what to pray about tonight God. This week has such potential to be really challenging, but it might all turn out just fine. And then, as we saw last week, there could be major life changing things that happen with no warning at all.

It really comes down to, I need you, every minute of every day. I pray that your perfect will is done, in everything. If those two things happen, I have literally nothing to worry about.

I love you Lord.

What God Said Tonight:

Knowing what is coming next can bring some level of comfort . However, how much more comfort to know that whatever comes next, I will help out through it. That is the true point of this life. If you can get to a point that you know with every part of you that I will help you with everything. That I will never let you down and I will never make you go it alone. If you can fully believe that, nothing cannot scare you and nothing can worry you. 

Live this life of peace I am offering you. 

Trust that I love you. Trust that I will never leave you. Trust that I will always help you. 

Waiting, again...

 

My prayer:

I feel like I am in a bit of a waiting zone God. With your amazing direction and guidance, I finally have a path to a solution, which is amazing! But, I have to wait. I am dependent on others to take the next steps and move forward through the solutions. Funny, they don't seem in quite the same hurry as I am for the solution (sorry for the sarcasm God, you know me and my defense mechanisms). 

It is really rotten to know something is wrong but not know what it is and what to do about it. Almost as difficult is to know what is wrong and what needs to be done about it but not be able to do it...yet. Patience has never been a great strength of mine.

So, as always God, I pray for your help. I pray for the patience I need to see this through. I pray for favor with you and with people to get it all done. I pray, above all of it, that your will is accomplished.

Thank you Lord!

What God Said Tonight:

I am going to ask you to take a minute tonight and think about all of the times that I have shown up in your life to take care of things. I also want you to think of how often there was a waiting period. Now, one more, remember how hard the waiting was during the waiting and remember how quickly that waiting anxiety flew away as soon as the resolution came. 

I promise you, you will not wait longer than is needed. I promise you that you will not wait longer than I have in my plan for my will in your life. I also promise you that once it is resolved, and you see the perfect timing, all of these anxious hours will disappear. Just as they always do. 

I love you my child, now and forever. This time is nearly done.

Impossible things...

 

My prayer:

Awesome Lord. Thank you for this time of rest and rejuvenation. I needed it. It was so good to get so many loose ends wrapped up last week. Walking into this week feels like a fresh start. 

That being said, I need you more than ever. Each day of my life I recognize a little bit more, just how much I need you. It is funny, we think of growing up and becoming an adult as a process of growing more independent. However, for me, I started out pretty independent and my life has been one long lesson in learning how to depend on you. 

I love you Lord. I depend on you for the very breath that I breathe each day. I am yours, now and forever.

What God Said Tonight:

Tomorrow brings both blessings and challenges that you cannot imagine today. That is why you will always need me. 

I have created you with so many talents and gifts and I fully expect you to use every one of them. But, I also created you to need that relationship, need that help from others, even from me, so that your achievements could be greater than what you could ever accomplish on your own.

One person can do great things. More than one person, working together, can do impossible things. I love you my child

Tomorrow's praise reports...

 

My prayer:

Awesome Lord. My mind is all over the place tonight. 

I am grateful for the rest and the peace you gave me this weekend. I truly feel recharged. 

I am excited about this potential new opportunity, but it also scares me a bit. I continue to pray that you guide me in this decision and that if this opportunity is not your will for me that you slam the doors shut. Please make it really clear to me if I should walk into the opportunity or if I should walk away. 

I continue with these weird health issues but I know that it is by your stripes that I am healed and I am trusting in you to bring me through it all. If I am missing something, if you have already told me what to do, please, tell me again. I missed it and I am floundering a bit. 

And, for the last zag of this zig-zag prayer, thank you a million times over for this life you have given me. Despite any challenges, I wake up each day in paradise with people around me who I love and who love me, food on the table, a roof over my head, a dog that is a better reflection of your love than I could ever be, and so much more. 

You are SO GOOD to me Lord, and I remain so grateful.

What God Said Tonight:

Let the worries melt away. Remember who I am and what I do for you my child. 

The challenges of today are nothing more than the praise reports of tomorrow. I am in you and in our life and my will is always before you. If you are prayerful, if you ask me, I will always let you know which path, which decision, is my will for you. 

I will say that sometimes it truly does not matter. There are decisions in your life that you could choose one of many choices, all of which can work with in my will. Life will look different with each choice but in each, I can see my will established. 

This next opportunity is not a black or white decision. I have shades of gray at times. You make the choice, I will bring it to my will. My will, my purpose in your life, can be fulfilled in either path. 

I love you sweet child, now and forever.

Leaning into peace...

 

My prayer:

Amazing God. I remain in awe of  you. Thank you for your miracle protection this week. I don't know what this next week has in store but I know you will take care of it. 

Each day holds so many unknowns right now but somehow, your peace is still the main thing that I experience. Between the health challenges, the work challenges, the grieving, and the other million challenges of every day, I look at it and think, wow, I should be freaking out a little. However, because of who you are and all that you have promised and shown me, I instead look at it all and feel your peace. I hold on firmly to the absolute knowledge that you are in charge and that you have my best interest always. 

Every once in a while, I hear a whisper that says, "Yeah, but what if God isn't there any more. What if He walks away." And in that moment, I am fully terrified, until I remember what you always tell me, you will never leave me and never forsake me. 

My God doesn't lie and My God says he won't leave me. Ahhhh, there's the peace again! I love you LORD!!!

What God Said Tonight:

I am here. I am always here for you my child. You have said it, I will NEVER leave you, and when I say "never" it truly means never. 

You are the apple of my eye and I have invested too much in you, in my children to ever turn my back on you. We are in this together and that is how it will be for eternity. 

You made that choice when you chose to walk the path of my will. When you accepted my Lordship in your life and received the salvation I provided. In that choice, so many things happened but one of those things is that we were bonded together forever. 

I love you my children and keep leaning into my peace. It is there for just that purpose. 

 

My prayer:

Feeling grateful and at peace tonight Lord. Not because of anything that is or is not going on in life, but really, just sitting in that place of peace that you have created for me. 

I love this spot. I love this spot of assurance that you are in charge and that I am your child. I can make what ever decisions I want but I choose you, every time God, I want to choose you and your will. 

There are a ridiculous amount of choices in tie world but I have learned that the only choice that does not come back to haunt me are the ones where I start with, "God, your will be done..." That is the only choice that really matters.

What God Said Tonight:

There is little difference between following my will and following me, but there is a difference. If you are a follower  of me, your heart is changed. We share a spirit. 

When you abide in me, when we are aligned then where your heart leads you is most often also where I am I am going. What we do when we get there is where you should listen the most carefully.

I love you more than you will ever know,