Friday, September 14, 2007

1 Samuel 2:1-3

1 Passage: 1 Samuel 2:1-3

1 Verse: Verse 3. "Boast no more so very proudly, Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth; For the LORD is a God of knowledge, And with Him actions are weighed."

1 Prayer: Father, You are a God of knowledge. And we are people of very limited vision and understanding and comprehension. Thank You for revealing Yourself to us as much as You have, but please forgive us for arrogantly boasting about how well we know You and Your will. We ask and pray -- and rightly so -- that we would grow in knowledge, but even to that there is a limit. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Father, please help our growth in love match our gains in knowledge. And let our loving actions and kind deeds and merciful gestures outnumber our proud pronouncements of truth. You are the judge, not us. Yet we so often use our knowledge as a sledge to hammer over the heads of those who need love at least as much if not more than they need to know whatever truth we might be craving to tell them -- that they are lost, or sinful, or mistaken, or wrong . . .

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: 2 Samuel 22:1-4

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Psalm 95:1-6

1 Passage: Psalm 95:1-6

1 Verse: Verse 2. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for being present with me. Thank You for inviting me to fix my heart and my mind, my hopes and my desires fully upon You. Thank You for being utterly and absolutely worthy of thanks. My thoughts are all too often filled up with so many complaints and critiques that I forget to be thankful. I neglect the great good that was and is and is to come in our relationship together. Considering all that I think I have reason to feel sorrowful about, the fact that Your goodness is great enough to make joyful shouting and thankfulness perfectly appropriate nonetheless is something almost too difficult to imagine. There is no denial or diminishment of suffering or wrong or pain or loss or grief, but a recognition that even with the very real burdens of all these, You still are patiently working all things ultimately toward good. And for that I am thankful despite my fearful and grumbling and discontented heart. For that I shout joyfully to You with psalms.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: 1 Samuel 2:1-3

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Psalm 62:1-2, 5-8

1 Passage: Psalm 62:1-2, 5-8

1 Verse: Verse 8. Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.

1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for being the source of safety and security and stability for our shaken souls. My heart quivers and quakes under the burden of its own misguided thoughts, misdirected intentions, mistaken desires. Please help me to pour it all out before You. Help me not to fear the strange and scary mixture of evil and good, joy and sorrow, purity and filth, weakness and strength to be found within me. As close to me as my very own heart -- at the absolute center of me -- are both my secret and hidden and presumptuous sins, and also my even greater salvation. My salvation -- in and with and from and through You -- is nearer to me now than when I first believed. Thank You, Father. Let me not let the poison fester, but aid me in pouring it out, allow me to bleed off both the sins that harm us in the commission, and the good that harms us in the omission. Let my heart be open and bare before You and me and those with whom You have called me to live in open and honest relationship.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: Psalm 95:1-6

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Psalm 19:7-14

1 Passage: Psalm 19:7-14

1 Verse: Verse 12. Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults.

1 Prayer: Nothing is hidden from You, Father. But how often do I hide the uglier parts of myself from my own recognition? I think I can discern innumerable errors, but the ones I can't are likely even far worse than those I can. And that doesn't even begin to count all those presumptuous sins -- the ones I know about full well yet persist in nonetheless. Let them not rule over me. And if it is possible for me to rule over them instead, please kindly make it so. Help me to live in a manner that is acceptable in Your sight and not merely my own. For You see that in me which is hidden not only from the world but even from myself. Please be gracious and patient and merciful to me as I see myself better. Help me not be overwhelmed by what I see. Rather be my strength as I face down those unacceptable thoughts and words and actions and beliefs and wrestle each one to the cross.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: Psalm 62:1-2, 5-8

Monday, September 10, 2007

Psalm 18:1-3

1 Passage: Psalm 18:1-3

1 Verse: Verse 1. "I love You, O LORD, my strength."

1 Prayer: You are my strength, Lord. You are familiar with all my weaknesses. But I need to acquaint myself better with Your strength. How do I avail myself of Your abundant power, Your limitless might? There is no maximal limit to Your strength, but are there moral limits? We speak of military strenth, economic power, political strength, mental toughness, force of will, strength of character, influence, command, control, stability . . . All these different strengths, and which are Yours, Lord? Obviously, You can at any moment take charge of any one. But which is for me? What sort of strength ought I to be claiming when I claim that You are my strength? Weakness? For Your power is perfected in weakness. Meeknesss? Humility? Gentleness? Poverty? "Did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?" I love You, Lord, my strength. May I still ask to become rich in faith, if I resist becoming poor in this world? What sort of strength do I love more? I love You, O Lord, my strength.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: Psalm 19:7-14