Monday, December 27, 2010

In the beginning...

Precious Heavenly Father,
It just seems appropriate that I start with you. It's all about you anyway. It is about your awesome ability as a creator, THE creator. It's about your enduring patience as a father. It is about your unbelievable sacrifice in giving your one and only son, Jesus, that I could know you. It is about your brilliant forethought and personal providential hand in placing me in where you have in my life. It is about your justice. It is about your redemptive power. It is about your compassion and how slow to anger you are... oh, how thankful I am for that. It's about your amazing grace... yes, your amazing grace... how sweet the sound. It's about the sweet way you wash as white as snow with the blood of the sacrificial lamb and your amazing grace.

As I walk each day, I pray not to be led to do what I can do but for what I cannot do apart from you. There are certain things to which I know I am called: to love you with all my heart and all my soul and all of my mind and all of my strength, to love others as myself, to go and make disciples and to pray in the spirit. Even if "all" I have to do for you is to incorporate those into my daily life, it is more than I can do alone. Remind me of that... every day. It is not mundane. It is a mountain that I cannot climb. Build within me the faith that will allow me to say to that mountain, move from here to there and know that it will, in fact, move. Remind me that I don't have to climb the mountain to get past it, just have faith the size of a mustard seed. And that faith... remind me that the faith is not at all about who I am but who you are. Remind you that it is not about incorporating you into my daily life but about living each breath for you, grateful for you, praising you and glorifying you.

Abba... Father... Precious Friend... Savior of my life... Redeemer of my soul, you have purchased me and I am yours. May each breath I breathe be for you. May I live a life faithful to your truth and have a knowledge of your word, memorizing it and trusting it to guide me that I may life a life worth of the gospel of Christ. May I, like David, celebrate before you, lifting you up for who you are... but Lord, hold me close to you so that my passion for you would not be greater in front of others, drawing attention to me and risking my temptation toward pride, than it is in private. May my celebration always be an overflow from the intimacy that I know with you.

You, Jehovah God, Precious Jesus, Counselor Holy Spirit, are great and most worthy of praise. No one can fathom your greatness. May my mouth speak in your praise all of my days. May my eyes and my heart forever hold you as the only treasure that I seek.

In the name of your only Son and my dearest friend,
Amen