Love is the key...

My prayer:

Wonderful Father. What a wonderful end to a rather blah week! Thank you God. I love soaking in your presence. I pray God that everyone of your kids gets to experience that amazing presence of getting alone with you. There is nothing better. I am all yours God.

What God Said Tonight:

I am the maker of all that you see. There is nothing that is on the earth that I did not make. You are here because I made you. You are a product of my intense love and desire to have someone to love. I created you for love and to be loved. I created you that you would love me and love the people around you. 

Love is the key, the center, the reason for it all. Love is worth any price. I paid for our love with my life. I redeemed our love with my resurrection  I treasure our love beyond measure.I am your Father who loves you.

God's deal...

My prayer:

Awesome God. I have typed and deleted the beginning of two prayers now God. Every thing that I think of to talk about tonight is coming out whiny and that is not worthy of you and is not who I want to be. Sounds like I need to change my focus. 

Let's talk about you. Let's talk about how amazing you are. Let's talk about how you provide for absolutely everything I need. You bring me peace when I am stressed, joy when I am sad, healing when I am sick, knowledge when I am ignorant, and favor...always. 

Why do you treat me so good? I definitely do not deserve it. Thank you for being a God that is big enough to handle anything and everything.

What God Said Tonight:

You and I have a deal. In the past we called it a covenant. I made you, I love you, I redeemed you, and I have claimed you as my own. You are my child You are the apple of my eye. You are wonderful in my eyes. 

You don't have to deserve my love. My love is. You don't have to earn my favor. I favor you because you are mine. 

Here is our deal. You proclaim me as your God, do your best to follow my path for your life and I will make sure that you are taken care of forever. That is it. Pretty simple but it covers everything. 

I love you so much. Rest and know that I am God and that is enough.

Uniquely peculiar...

My prayer:

Mighty God. I am feeling out of place tonight. Sometimes, like tonight, I realize that there is no one really like me, that I am different, weird, or as you might say, peculiar. Most of the time, I am happy being unique but, sometimes, like tonight, I just feel isolated. 

In some ways, we are all the same. We are all your kids. We all have struggles and we all have joys. But, in the particulars, in the choices we make, we are different. Those differences can separate us and can make me feel alone. 

Anyway, this too shall pass. Just wanted to tell you about it. Love you!

What God Said Tonight:

Different is good, not bad. Unique is important, not something to be ashamed of. I have made you each unique. I have a unique plan on each of my kids lives. I have a specific job for each of you to accomplish. 

Life would be so boring if everyone was the same. You would also not be able to accomplish much. There is only so much that any one person can door be good at. If you were all good at the same things, we could only ever do that one thing well. Having each person with their own strengths and weaknesses, we can, as a team, accomplish so much more. 

Appreciate the differences and understand that each difference has a purpose. You are exactly as I made you. When you put yourself down, you are insulting my daughter and I will not allow it. Go and rest, knowing that you are perfectly and wonderfully made, just as you are.

Complacency...

My prayer:

Amazing God. I literally have nothing to talk about tonight. Not something that happens very often. You can usually count on me for some stray thought at least but tonight is going to have to be all you. I love you SO MUCH!

What God Said Tonight:

What if I had nothing to say too? What would you do? You can sometimes get complacent with me and with hearing my voice. 

I love you and I love the closeness we have but don't take it for granted. Complacency is like cancer to a relationship, any relationship, even ours. 

I will always be here for you, loving you, taking care of you, but that doesn't mean you should stop being amazed by it. When you do, you open up the opportunity for our enemy to come in and steal you away with promises of excitement and pleasure. 

I promise, I will never take you for granted. I will always appreciate you and the time we spend together. I will always want to spend more time with you because I am so crazy about you. Spend at least a moment every day reminding yourself of how amazing our relationship is. 

Give...

My prayer:

Best Monday ever God!! Thank you for all of the great news today!! Thank you for your favor!! Thank you for the little and the big pleasures today God!! You are awesome God and I am grateful for your blessings on my life!!

What God Said Tonight:

Give and I will give it back to you, multiplied. You gave, I gave back, multiplied. That is how it works. You know it, you have read it, you have seen it, you have experienced it. Whenever you give, I will give to you, multiplied. That is the simple truth of commerce in my Kingdom. 

Love you daughter and I am celebrating with you tonight!

Totality of trust...

My prayer:

Awesome God. The message at church today was about how indescribably big you are. After church I helped K finish up some things as she gets ready to start her year long mission in Africa. 

As I think about those two things, it makes me think about how you ask us to do things that seem so big to us, more than we can do. But, to you, they are very small things. It must get frustrating to you when we hesitate or worse, when we refuse to do the "big" stuff because we are afraid or think we can't do it. 

I think the next time I feel like I can't do something you have asked me to do, I will try to remember to look up at the stars and remember that you are the creator of the universe and that anything you ask me to do is SO EASY compared to that!

What God Said Tonight:

It isn't really about the size of the thing I ask you to do, it is about the totality of your obedience to my will and my voice. When you are able to follow my will, my voice without question, no matter what I ask, then you will live in such great peace. 

I hear your mind questioning that. I hear you saying, that is like a cult. I am not asking you to follow me blindly. Quite the opposite. I am asking you to think carefully and make a rational choice. I am asking that you choose my will in all circumstances so you can live in the divine joy and peace that I have for you. I am asking that you trust me as much as I love you. 

I promise, I will never lead you into something that will hurt you and I promise that I will always show you out of the trouble you find. When you flow in the river of my will, there is no worry, there is no fear, there is no doubt. There is peace, purpose, and understanding of where you are meant to be and an ease in every thing you do. 

Don't think of the size of the task, think of the totality of your trust.

Cold and dark vs. warm and light...

My prayer:

Ah God, and unexpected day of rest. Thank you for today! The run with the fall colors was beautiful. I love how fall looks but I hate that it means winter is on the way. I am not ready for cold and snow. If I could pick up all of the wonderful people you have put in my life and take them with me, I would move somewhere tropical tomorrow. 

Wow, I sound like quite the whiner. If the worst problem I have is a little cold weather, I am doing pretty good. I love you God and I appreciate this amazing life that you have given me. What is on your mind tonight?

What God Said Tonight:

You have come to appreciate the light and that is good. There was a time in your life when you were most comfortable with rain and cold weather. You liked being inside and closed off from the world. Those days are over.  Now you like to be out in the light. 

It is a reflection of your spiritual life. You once were in darkness but now you are in the light. You once relished the dark closed away places but now you crave the light and the open space. You once were a loner and now you surround yourself with people. 

You are a new creature. You are new in me. Your life now is not what is was and that is how it is meant to be. 

Know that I will be your light in the darkness. I will be your warmth in the cold. I will bring you through whatever season we are in because we will be in it together. I can't always have you in the beautiful sunshine. Sometimes I need you to go into the dark and reflect my light. But I will always bring you back to the light, the warmth. 

I love you daughter. Rest tonight in my light and my warmth.