Good morning, my friend!   Good morning, Father! “As holy people whom God has chosen and loved, be sympathetic, kind, humble, gentle, and patient. Put up with each other, and forgive each other if anyone has a complaint. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” - Colossians 3:12-13   The leaves on the trees along the banks of our pond are changing colors.   Soon they will be released from the trees and will gracefully dance their way down onto the surface of the water to float like tiny boats.   It’s a beautiful thing to watch Autumn coming in like a slow wave of color that laps up over the rolling hills.   In preparation for winter, the healthy, deciduous trees know to release their leaves.   Deep within them You have placed an awareness of the change of season, and a knowing as to when it is time to let them go. Lord, You know how the trees were made.  In Your wisdom You designed them to release their leaves in Fall, because with the pressure o...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father!  Lord, we bring our weariness this morning, the sadness in the news, evidence of pervasive evil in our culture and communities.  Lord, we lift our nation.  We plead with you to bring revival to our land.  Bring repentance to the hearts of your people.  Take the scales off of our eyes that we might see the condition of our hearts and be grieved.  May that grief initiate change.  Begin with us, Lord.  Forgive us, Lord!  We lay down our self centered agendas, egotistical endeavors and hedonistic pursuits. We reject divisiveness, complacency and dabbling with darkness.  We embrace forgiveness and unity and together, back to back, we face the evil one and the powers of darkness with truth and the Word of God.  We cinch tight our armor, lift our sword and shield.  We ask for divine strength to remain focused, that we would continue to stand blameless and unscathed until our last b...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father!  Lord, today we offer to You our anxious hearts.  We ask for Your peace that passes understanding.  Even though the cares of this world shout, vying for our attention, we choose and purpose to fix our eyes firmly on You.  In Your presence is fullness of joy (Ps 16:11).  So, we come this morning seeking to lay down our anxiety and, in exchange, pick up Your joy.  May we carry it and spread it wherever we go and to whomever we encounter.  Things are not as the world says.  They are as You say.  We put our trust, not in friends, family, our work or bank account, not the government or the stock market.  We put our trust in You, the One true and living God.  In Jesus Name ❤️

CONFESSION: Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” - Hebrews 11:6 Lord, Hebrews 13:8 says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.  You are unchanging, but our level of faith, and what we truly believe, can be all over the map.  It’s the middle of the night and this thought refuses to leave me.  It’s the thought that our deepest convictions about what we believe about You are revealed in our choices and how we treat one another. When we are mistreated and we respond in kind, we are declaring our belief that You will not defend us, and we must avenge ourselves.  When we are stressed and reach for food, alcohol or some other drug, we are saying that we do not believe that You will comfort us, so we must comfort ourselves.  When finances are tight and we are ...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” - Ephesians 6:12 Father, our tendency is to label the person who lied about us, stepped on us on their way up the corporate ladder, has a divergent opinion, or has become our proverbial “thorn in the flesh,” as our “enemy”.  Your Word reminds us that those people are merely pawns for our true enemy who hides behind the pawns, hoping we won’t recognize him, and will attack them instead. When we do, he remains unscathed and can continue to kill, steal and destroy.  Our enemy isn’t the guy who humiliated us in a meeting or who makes snarky comments behind our back - it isn’t our uncaring spouse, the intrusive in-laws, annoying relative or lazy co-worker.  Our enemy is the devil and the powers of darkness.  The sooner we recogni...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “Because he has focused his love on me, I will deliver him. I will protect him because he knows my name. When he calls out to me, I will answer him. I will be with him in his distress. I will deliver him, and I will honor him.” - Psalm 91:14-15 Father, life gets so busy and hectic.  Circumstances shout, demanding our attention.  When our eyes shift from You to our struggles, that is when trouble ensues - the quality of our decisions can suffer and attitude and faith can become more difficult to keep in check. Father, I lift my friend before You.  We purpose early this morning to turn our eyes on You.  Yes, pressures and obligations still present themselves, and we can become tired and fight aging bodies.  But today Lord, we ask for new perspective of our circumstances.  Show us Your priorities in this day.  We set You before everything and everyone else.  We assign highest priorit...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father!  Lord, You alone know our aloneness and our lostness.  You alone can see the shadows in our hearts, our fears and desperations.  You are mighty to save.  You are eternal and all-powerful.  At the end of ourselves, when all that is left is the withered remnant of hopes and dreams, when there are no more tears to shed or solutions to try, and all around for as far as the eye can see is wilderness and a valley of dry bones, we come to the end of ourselves and come to the beginning of You.  Father meet my friend right there is their wasteland.  Rush into the vacuum of their heart.  Fill the void with the only thing that can put an end to the steady bleed of their soul that constantly demands to be refilled.  Fill them with Yourself, that the search for belonging, meaning, and filling for their insatiable hunger and thirst would finally find satisfaction.  May their search come to an end....

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,” II Peter 1:2   Lord, this verse reminds me that in order to have something multiplied back to me, it is important that I first give it away.  Whether it is tithing, grace or mercy, what I give away will be returned to me many times over.  It’s easy when things are going well, but when we are treated rudely or unfairly, it takes the fruit of the Spirit of self control to not react in kind. Father, I lift my friend before You.  We want their life to be blessed.  Today, by Your Holy Spirit, empower them to be a force for good.  Prompt them to be generous, patient and unselfish, full of love and a beautiful reflection of Your kindness.  When met with harshness, disappointment, rudeness or selfishness, strengthen them to respond with wisdom and maturity, and to die to their flesh.  Help them to remain...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “Because he has focused his love on me, I will deliver him. I will protect him because he knows my name. When he calls out to me, I will answer him. I will be with him in his distress. I will deliver him, and I will honor him.” - Psalm 91:14-15 Father, life gets so busy and hectic.  Circumstances shout, demanding our attention.  When our eyes shift from You to our struggles, that is when trouble ensues - the quality of our decisions can suffer and attitude and faith can become more difficult to keep in check. Father, I lift my friend before You.  We purpose early this morning to turn our eyes on You.  Yes, pressures and obligations still present themselves, and we can become tired and fight aging bodies.  But today Lord, we ask for new perspective of our circumstances.  Show us Your priorities in this day.  We set You before everything and everyone else.  We assign highest priority t...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father!   “And God can give you more blessings than you need. Then you will always have plenty of everything -- enough to give to every good work.” - 2 Corinthians 9:8. Father, You say You will give us blessings in order to be able to bless others, not to just hold onto them for ourselves.  By nature, human beings left to their our devices are selfish. It’s part of self preservation and the drive to survive within us.  It’s part of what makes us grow up and get jobs to provide for ourselves, instead of sitting and wasting away.  We are willing to work hard to “do” what we need to do in order to “get”.  But the vast majority of us don’t put in the same amount of effort in order to “give”.  We hang onto things tightly and only release after careful consideration if we will still have enough for ourselves.  Back behind it, driving so much is an insatiable hunger for more - more money, more food, more s...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father!  Lord, I pray that you strengthen us to do the right things, even when it is painful, unpopular, unpleasant and requires dying to our flesh.  Reward my friend for standing up for truth, righteousness and justice, even if they are the only one that does.  Help us to love others enough to graciously speak the truth in love, even when we know that to hear the truth inflicts pain and causes anger, because faithful wounds from a friend are better than many kisses from an enemy (Proverbs 27:6). Help our faithful words and actions to be a lifeline to those drowning in their pain.  Through our words, may a brief sting of revelation lead to a lifetime of freedom.  Strengthen us to be the type of friend to others that you are - faithful, true, forgiving and loving at all times - even when it is hard, painful and requires everything within us to do so.  In Jesus Name ❤️

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” - James 4:14.  Father, only You know the number of our days.  We casually look at our calendars and plan things days, weeks and months ahead, assuming those days have been allotted to us.  We feel comfortable pursuing many different things, because we feel there is time still on the books to do what we have been called to do.  But what if time is shorter than we think?  What if Your return is imminent, or our last breath, on the next horizon?  How would we feel to suddenly be standing before the King of the Universe and have to give an accounting for our time?  Father, I don’t want to be embarrassed by or regretful for the worthless or foolish things that gnaw away what time I have left.  “Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who ...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “Even to your old age and gray hairs, I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you." - Isaiah 46:4  Lord, being a parent my heart has always been to raise up our children to be responsible, hardworking, self sufficient and generous toward others, and to give more than they take.  And as they transitioned to adulthood, our role changed from their provider to their counselor and advisor.  We needed to teach them to provide for themselves, because our days in this planet are numbered.  We won’t always be here to take care of them. Most of us were raised that way.  But while we learn to be self sufficient, we also tend to take upon ourselves burdens and stresses that You want to carry for us.  Our skewed perspective makes us hesitant to “burden” You with our struggles.  We feel as responsible adults that we should take ...