Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” - John 14:1-4 Father, I lift my friend before You.  We look toward the new year.  It waits expectantly, like a bride, just outside the chapel doors of tomorrow morning.  Looking back over our shoulders we can see Your beautiful fingerprints shaping so much of this past year.  At the same time, there are photographs in our minds - images that bring sadness and grief.  Father, in obedience to Your Word, we thank You both in and for, the good and what we perceive as bad, trusting that what the enemy intended for evil, You will work it all f...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” - 2 Corinthians 10:5 Lord, I lift my friend before You.   The circumstances of their life and the condition of the world can feel so overwhelming.   The intensity of the battle feels to be heating up.   Lord, strengthen and comfort them to be able to stand firm and walk by faith.   Prevent their feet from stumbling and their heart from straying.   Tune their ears to hear Your voice above the din.   May the Word of God they have purposed to hide in their heart be a source of strength in this season, that they wouldn’t have to muster up more energy or courage, but that Your Word within them would arise and come to life, providing the necessary added strength and comfort they need to remain strong in their faith.   May every reading of Y...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “And give thanks FOR everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” - Ephesians 5:20 (emphasis mine). Lord, this is a hard verse.  I Thessalonians 5:18 is much easier to accept which says, “Be thankful IN all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus” (emphasis mine). We can conceive of thanking You while we are IN a season of suffering or pain, but the thought of thanking You FOR it is quite another.  How do we scrape up the wherewithal to praise and thank You for the very things we have dreaded and prayed would never happen?  How do we thank You for the lost job, the bad diagnosis, the drug addiction of a child, the betrayal, the debt or the death?  These are such hard things, Lord.   We often feel like a child that is fearful of needles.  We are sick and want desperately to get better, but we are terrified of shots.  What happens ins...

CONFESSION: Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father!   Lord, I had an eye opening moment at the grocery store yesterday.  The store was busy and my cart was full with a vast array of holiday and specialty foods that I rarely buy.  The Christmas music playing was particularly annoying and unusually loud.  I was feeling overwhelmed and my irritation was rising.  A tinge of resentment crossed my mind as I wondered why the responsibility always fell solely and squarely in my lap to organize and pull together family events.   Feeling the pressure and the weight of the obligatory labor and the earned exhaustion that I knew would be forthcoming, I glanced casually at the older gentleman who was walking toward me.  My cart was shockingly full, but his cart had maybe five sad, little items in it.  He may have had plans to spend Christmas at his daughter’s home, or these few things may have been last minute items he needed for a Chris...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father!   “They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!" - 2 Timothy 3:5 (NLT) Lord, it has been a chaotic season for most of us.  The to-do list, challenges and responsibilities pull at us from all directions.  Our tendency is to be drawn to the things that shout the loudest.  Father, in the din, help us to not miss Your still, small voice that calls us into intimacy with You.  In the busyness of preparation to celebrate Your birth, help us to not miss the whole point of the celebration.  How unfortunate it would be to accomplish the technical aspects of a visual celebration without truly celebrating in our heart - to have an appearance of worship - going through the motions - while our minds are on the to-do list and the merry-go-round of chores.  Going through the motions does not bring the peace we desperately need.  It...

CONFESSION: Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father!   “Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” - Isaiah 53:4-5   Lord, of late I find myself struggling with receiving what I have not earned.  With some recent medical tests, the costs are mounting and I feel uneasy, even guilty, that our hard-earned money is being spent solely on me.  There is no way, with the current busyness of my life, for me to take on a job to offset the costs.  Even if I had the time, I don’t have the wherewithal to do so.  I find myself wanting to pay for it all out of a bank account set up before we were married.  All of our finances are commingled now, so it is silly, but somehow it feels less selfish to pay for it all from...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “And Moses said unto God, ‘Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?’”-  Exodus 3:11-12.  Lord, the older I get the more I am convinced that we are all broken people.  Whether our brokenness is physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, we all have “stuff” that we deal with.  The invisibility of our neighbors’ frailties makes us feel alone, less than and unusable for anything of value.  Our insecurities cause us to believe that we are far better suited to serve doing something menial than something meaningful.. Moses struggled with this.  One of the greatest and most powerfully used men in biblical history felt inferiority.  When told he would go before Pharaoh as Your messenger on behalf of the children of Israel, Moses said, “Please, Lord, I'm not a good speaker. I've never been a good speaker, and I'm not now, even thoug...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.  But He answered and said, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” - Matthew 4:3-4. Father, in Your gentleness Your Spirit tugs on my heart this morning.  We read these words in I John 5:15, “And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”  So, we pray fervently and muster up a modicum of faith to believe.  Then, if our prayer is not answered according to our desires, we become disappointed with You and question Your goodness, power and faithfulness.  We question whether Your Word is true, because after all we prayed, but it didn’t “work.”   The enemy constantly needles our faith and what we believe.  He will pull out all the stops in order put a wedge between us and You....

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” - Isaiah 53:5 Many years ago I had a head injury.  Since then I have fought with daily headaches, sometimes difficulty concentrating as well as bouts of grumpiness and self pity when the headaches flare up.  I finally decided the evaluation I had had many years ago when the injury happened was not sufficient, and I sought help from a specialist who ordered a brain scan.  We wanted to see what had been injured to determine what might be options for mitigating symptoms. We all sustain injuries.  No one remains unscathed.  Some of our injuries come from our poor choices, others are at the hand of another, illness or an accident.  Many injuries can be seen with our eyes, but often the most severe of our injuries are internal and stem from pa...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." He said, "Write, for these words of God are faithful and true." - Revelations 21:5 Father, we see it in nature.  Year after year the trees blossom and the flowers bloom and lift their cheerful faces to the sun.  With time, they wither and fade away.  Ecclesiastes reminds us that, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:” - Ecclesiastes 3:1 Lord, I lift my friend before You.  There are things in their lives that have died in this season.  Some things passed abruptly, while others they watched languish away.  Both are distressing and bring with them a measure of grief and sadness.  These hard seasons have a way of glueing our feet to the ground.  We tend to get stuck where we are and struggle to move forward.  Father, would You please release them from the things that...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” - John 6:66   Father, this verse makes an impact on my heart this morning.  Scores of people saw Jesus in the flesh.  They walked with Him, talked with Him, ate with Him and witnessed miracles at His hand.  Even after all they had heard, seen and tasted, there came a day when some walked away.  When they received difficult teaching, a word that was too hard to hear - when they were instructed to do something that asked more of them than they could understand or was too unpleasant to consider, they turned their back and walked away. Lord, my dear friend is going through a very hard season.  The winds of adversity are blowing and sometimes it all feels like more than they can bear.  Sometimes they feel that they might be losing their grip on You.  Their muscles have grown tired from holding on so tightly fo...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father!   “Do all things without grumbling or disputing.” - Philippians 2:14 Lord, I lift my friend before You.  They are tired, hurting and struggle with disappointment and discouragement.  Have mercy on them, dear Father.  Help them to say “no” to grumbling, and to purpose today to go through the garden of their heart to tear out every weed of discontentment or grumbling by the very roots.  Allowing these weeds to persist serves to cause them to suffer more, and as they grow, it strangles the life out of their joy and becomes a springboard for sin.  The truth is that often it’s our attitude about our circumstances that makes us suffer far more than the circumstances themselves.   Help them to not be complacent or to feel entitled to be disgruntled.  Instead, strengthen them to tend carefully to the seeds of gratefulness and thanksgiving, that in the days and weeks ahead they might find t...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” - Isaiah 60:1 (ESV) Lord, one of my favorite things to do every year at Christmastime is to hop in the car and drive through neighborhoods and enjoy the beautiful Christmas lights.  Like moths to a flame, we are all drawn toward the light, whether it is a brilliant sunset, a blanket of stars on a chilly, winter night, a burst of fireworks, twinkling Christmas lights or warm candlelight.  You created us to be drawn to light and not the darkness.  We are drawn to these lesser lights, because they are a subtle hint and reflection of the breathtaking wonder of seeing You face to face.   “This is the message we heard from Christ and are reporting to you: God is light, and there isn't any darkness in him.” - 1 John 1:5  If we are drawn to little Christmas lights, no wonder the hearts of thousands gathered to be near J...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs." - 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 Lord, we are into the full swing of the Christmas season.  We hustle and bustle and make our plans for the perfect day, the perfect gifts and the perfect meal.  We pick wrapping paper and bows that will color coordinate with the ornaments we will hang on the tree, and make sure that the table is perfect, with our best on display for all to see.  We have bought into the expectations we see on a Norman Rockwell Christmas card.  While it is beautiful and heartwarming, to be sure, the images aren’t really attainable for most of us.  It all has more to do with Frosty the Snowman than with the birth of Jesus.  For some of us there is an underlying dread about the after Christmas cred...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father!   Lord, I lift my friend before You.  We bless Your name and thank You for Your Word.  This morning, I pray the wisdom and blessing of Proverbs 3:1-12 over them. “Father, please help my friend to not forget all You have taught them, and to give Your commands a home in their heart.  In so doing, may Your commands help them to live a long, long time and a life lived full and well. Strengthen their grip so they don’t lose their hold on Love and Loyalty, but instead to tie them around their neck and carve them on their heart. Teach them to earn a reputation for living well in Your eyes and the eyes of others. Help them to trust You from the bottom of their heart, so they don't feel driven to try to figure out everything all on their own. Give them attentive ears tuned to the sound of Your voice, so that everywhere they go they will be right on track and right on time.  Remind them to not rely solely on t...

Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book?” - Psalm 56:8 Lord, it is the wee hours of the morning and You rouse me from my slumber.  My heart is heavy for a long-time friend who unexpectedly lost his mother just a day or two ago.  He has asked me to pray for him.  He knows I understand the depths of grief that accompany the loss of someone we dearly love.  No doubt, now that she is gone, there are things he would have liked to have said, and questions he would have liked to have asked her.  After my husband, Jim, passed, I’m sure there were at least a hundred times when a question arose to which I didn’t have the answer, and the thought automatically came to mind, “Just call and ask Jim.”  But Jim was gone.  It would take a very long time for me to stop defaulting to that ingrained response.  As I pray for him, You whisper to my heart, “ He has ...