Morning Call

I consider most of the autumn leaves have fallen by this point; the silent swimming pool providing a bleak testimony by the amount of leaves choking the filter inlets at the bottom of its frigid depths. The winds have shifted bitterly to the north during apparently thankless days, and send their chill against my door on mornings much darker than they were only a few weeks ago. Tinkerbelle forgoes her dawn-inspired patrol around our yard, contented instead to remain under her dog-warm blanket. I’m with you Tink, I’m so with you.

Dear Lord, this is the beginning of a new day in my life. It’s a day provided for me by Your design to use via my own free will. I can waste this day in a remembrance of things undone, of copious amounts of what ifs and if onlys –or I can silently forge ahead by looking forward to a future I know in my heart you have prepared for me.

Yet it is life that I desire; not a life of mundane, listless fulfillment of counted days, but one chock-full of the abundant life You so richly promise through Your Word. And in that life I want to be a blessing to others, a provider for those who need me, and a constant support for those who don’t. I ask you to make me a blessing to others, Lord, and not a curse.

Help me, Father, to stand above all else. I admit I am prone to wander into the folds of sin and wrongdoing. I break Your commandments more that I keep them; so it seems. Forgive me for my intemperate thoughts and actions when I fall away from Your will. Guard me from the perceptions of pareidolia that emanate from the world and all it seemingly has to offer. Guide me, please, down the correct paths as I walk with You today. I’ll do my utmost to allow tomorrow to take care of itself –it’s today that I covet Your watchful eye and firm grip on my life.

I ask Your blessings for my wife and children, my parents, in-laws, and friends. I ask for grace to make it through difficult times for all of them, and for me. I ask for understanding, not only from You, but from me and my dark, wayward heart and repellent soul. Help us to draw closer as a family and keep You foremost in our perspective. Help us to wait for Your will to be made manifest in all that we do. Lord, we wait at Your door posts, comforted in our hearts by knowing that You care for us.

I pray for my church. I pray for my church family. I ask for Your wisdom in all of our hearts as we seek what is best in our search for a pastor. My prayer is to see each decision made in that regard to be in line with Your precious Will, so that all we say or do will give You complete honor, praise and glory.

I comprehend that whatever I do with this day, the one you have blessed me with, is important. Because I’m exchanging a day of my life for whatever response I attach to it. When the sun comes up tomorrow morning, this day will be gone forever. The only memory left of it will be whatever I traded for it. In that regard and by that token I pray for today to be gain and not loss; good and not evil; success and not failure. My desire is for it to reside in my memory as worth the price I paid for it through Your Will. My hope is for You to be proud of me, and not merely ashamed of me and my many failures.

With only the best of my imperfect love, I ask all of these things in the name of Your Son, who gave His precious blood for me on Calvary. I thank You for that perfect sacrifice and for providing a way for me to be made right with You through your ageless, eternal plan of redemption.

“Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.”

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