Seriously, Father.

Good morning, Father.

Oh, that you have watched us through the night. Watched over us, not sleeping or dozing or nodding off--no, you do not sleep. I cannot fathom this. Even the best and most wonderful of mothers nod off during the watch of a child. But you, Father, you never do. And I thank you.

Father, thank you for your good faithfulness and your faithful goodness. Thank you that nothing we can do or not do can negate or change either. You remain constant. It is our perception and vantage point that changes. Father, I pray we would trust this faithful goodness. I pray we would invest time and prayer and energy in learning and embracing and experiencing this faithful goodness.

Father, your word says you loved us first. First. Before we were bathed. Before our ratty hair was combed. Before our dirty finger nails were cleaned and clipped. You loved us when we were still covered in the grime of sin, when we still carried the odor of death and decay. You loved us first.

You loved us before. If we really believe this to be true, then we will understand that you love us still. If you loved us before we even acknowledged you, then how can we live as if you have pulled back on that love? You do not hold it in reserve as we often do. We hold love back and mete and dole it out as it benefits us. If we believe we are going to receive a good return we are generous. If we believe the love we give will be absorbed and nothing will return on the wake for us, then we tend to be reserved and stingy with love.

Father, according to your beloved John, then this is not love at all. Love that demands its own way, selfishly obtaining for only its own benefit and desiring to be seen--this is not love.

Father, through John, you have told us that we who believe and belong to you have been anointed by Christ. And that anointing tells us everything we should know. It teaches us. Father, I am praying that today we love as you do. I am asking that today you would speak to your people, to your beloved children and through the power of the Spirit that we would love--not in word, but in deed. When we see someone hurting today I ask that you would give us words and actions to help salve that wound. When we see someone depressed today I ask that you would give us the courage to help face the darkness with them and let them know there is light. When we see someone depleted today, may you show us how to be a source of replenishment for them.

Father, show us how to really love. Seriously, Father. We want to really love. You loved us first. And this truth should compel us to want to share, to want to be a distributor of this truth--because it changes people. Knowing that we were honestly loved BEFORE transforms us. It gives us the courage to love others well. Deeply.

So, Father, help us today to not just talk about love. But to live it. To flesh it out. To embody it.

In the name of Jesus.   Amen

Churning Sea

Oh, Father.

Oh, intervene into this day! How I pray you would take the chaos of unanswerable things, that you would take the burdens and the worries and hold them in the palm of you hand. Father, there is so much. So much that suddenly appears. But it is as if there has been a storm out at sea, and the choppy waves are stirring up the bottom. Stirring up the silt and the debris embedded in the floor of my ocean. Of others' oceans.

We drop it all in this vast waste of water hoping it will sink into oblivion. Praying it will disappear. Wishing it might remain buried forever.

Father, we ask today that you would plumb the depths of us. Fathom the cubits of water of us. Show us what is on the bottom. Reveal to us what is shifting in the sands.

Father, we need you. It's the bottom line. We are a needy people. I am needy.

Father, I see evidence of the enemy's thievery and destruction everywhere I turn. Ships run aground. Boats flipped. Father, please come and still this ocean of us. Speak your words of healing back out across the waters. I pray your words would move far deeper than the surface, oh to the depths. To the bottom where the pressure of the vast amounts of water threaten to crush us.

Father, this morning I ask for you to come. I am asking for your sweetness and grace to be evident--to cast aside the horrible feelings that come in the wake of the enemy's thieving.

Father, we need you. Your little children need you. We are floating on a blow-up duck inflatable on this vast sea. Please come and save us.

Amen and amen.

Sticks and River Beds

Oh Father!

I come to you this morning…You are good. You are good. And there is none like you. No not one.

You are good.

And we are not.

Father, show us how to be like your Son. To have his mindset in all things. To think of others more highly than ourselves. To consider others before we do ourselves.

Father, I ask you would guide every thought today. Every direction of thinking. I pray that you would remove things from the road that would cause us to stumble or change the direction we are traveling with you. Father, even the smallest stick can change the course of a river’s current. Remove sticks. Remove stones. Let the water of us flow in the river bed of your design.

Father, speak to us. What we believe to be your vision—hone, change and transform it until it truly is.

Thank you today. Thank you. Thank you.

Amen and amen.

Monday Morning

Father,

Sometimes we fail miserably. Sometimes we fail just enough for everything to seem off kilter just a hair, but that hair can seem as wide as a chasm. Only you can bridge the chasm.

Father, help us. We are a frail people who wake up on Monday mornings already missing the weekend and dreading the week…

But the only way Monday morning can be on kilter again is to begin with you. To begin in your Presence—knowing your Presence helps and changes everything and all things. Your Presence cleanses. Your Presence heals. Your Presence fortifies. Your Presence steadies. Your Presence transforms.

We praise you. We praise you this morning for your goodness. Your faithfulness. Your holiness. Your kindness. Thank you for your covenant love extended to us. Over and over and over.

Father, draw us into your Presence on this Monday morning. Help us to lay aside the blunders and the failures of the weekend. Help us to put into your hands the hours of the coming week.

Father, we need you.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen

The Chisel

Father, Our Master Craftsman, Our Master Sculptor—

Oh, how we praise you this morning. You are not confined to one title, one definition or one description. You are beyond them all. You are worthy! So worthy to be worshiped. To be followed. To be surrendered to…

This morning, Father, I thank you for friends who pray for us. Who bring us to the throne room and ask for hard, but beautiful things. Oh, I thank you for friends who ask for you to use your tools gently to shape us. To sculpt us. Thank you for friends who know that the moment of uncomfortableness or pain is worth it all to be who you created us to be. I thank you for interceders. Thank you for those who lead, guide and carry us to the throne room of your grace this morning.

Thank you for this friend’s prayer for me this morning:

Lord chisel away at us and bring out the women You know are there hidden in the stoniness of our humanness. Lord thank you that You keep removing even when we bring it back, even when we fall over the same stone again and again. Lord some faults in the marble of our heats run deep but we still desire for them to be removed.

http://itsmelaurab.wordpress.com/2013/06/14/bring-out-the-chisel/

Oh, my God! I agree. I agree with her prayer. We ask this morning for you to bring forth the woman you see etched in the depths of the marble. Only you can sculpt in stone and it always be right. You never remove more than needed. You work around the flaws—the faulted seams that run through us—and anyone else would deem the stone useless. But not you. You are not deterred by cracks or faults. They become the very things that add to the ultimate beauty you bring out in us. These weaknesses become showcases for your beauty.

Thank you, Father. Please help us to not be afraid of your chisel. Help us to not shy away from the cuts it will make. The cuts your chisel makes are washed continuously by the water of your grace and mercy.

Help us to trust the skill of you hand, the compassion of your heart, the sharpness of  your edge and the wisdom of your knowledge.

In Jesus’ name. Amen

 

Let It Rain

Oh Father,

It is raining here—a steady pouring of water. It beat on the roof this morning—a steady rhythm. And this self of mine became attuned to it.

Father, we need rain. It is inconvenient. It is annoying. It is uncomfortable. But we need rain. Rain to replenish what has been depleted by heat and pressure. Rain to rehydrate what is dry and barren. Rain to soften the hard and crusty places in us—the cracks and ruts and ravines.

Father, help us to allow your rain to saturate us. Let us sit like the earth and absorb. Let our soil be moistened to deep places—so that new vegetation might grow. New foliage might emerge and fruit would begin.

Let the fruit begin, Father. Fruit takes time to form and mature and ripen. We ask that you would grow fruit in us…that the result of this rain would be luscious, rich and full fruit. Father, we want the boughs of us to be laden heavy with this fruit of the Spirit. Fruit only you can grow. Only you can grow these in us.

Father, let it rain. Let it rain.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen

 

Tabernacles and Tents

Father,

Oh, that I would meet with you. That you would come to my tent and fellowship with me. This tent is frail and fragile...whether it can hold you I am not convinced.

But you are.

Father, I ask this morning you come and abide in our tents. That we would eat with you and drink with you...that our conversations would be full with light. Father, I ask that you would enlarge our tents. Increase the capacity that we might hold more of you...that you would pull out our tent pegs and set them further out so that square footage of us would be multiplied.

We are tents, Father. You have told us this...and you Son came and tabernacled and tented among and with us.

We are temporary places. We are the tent housing for your Spirit. Father, shake us out. Unfold us. Increase our capacity to hold more.

Father, thank you that you meet us. That by our invitation you will flip back the tent door and enter in and stay with us. Father, clean these tents out. Rid them of the excessive baggage that takes up too much room. We want room made for you.

Father, I praise you. I worship you this morning. Enable me to do so in spirit and in truth.

Stretch this tent. Stretch it, Lord.

Amen