A Monday Prayer

“Let us not love in word or in tongue—but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:18)

Father God, keep me centered today. Let my ears be tuned into You alone. Let my eyes see through Yours. Keep me focused on Your love, grace and mercy.

Let me be a mother who loves tenderly, disciplines with grace and mercy, and quickly forgives. Help me to be a mother who is an example of light and goodness. Let my light shine brightly in our home and on my family. Let me be a woman of influence—directly affecting those around me.

Help me to think outside “inconvenience” and instead be motivated by the pureness of Your love.

Help me to think outside of myself—outside of my selfish motives and greedy desires that are meaningless to Your Kingdom glory.

Let Your light shine through me—all that I say and all that I do.

Let me be a peacemaker. Help me to forgive and let go of old and new resentments that are pressing me down and keeping me in bondage. Break these chains!

Teach me the meaning of grace—I admit I don’t know, I admit I’m clueless. Teach me grace by Your definition and what it looks like in my life. Teach me how to walk in it.

Teach me to love in deed and in truth. Don’t let my words be empty.

Father, I put all my hope in You—that You will gladly grant my request; that You will happily teach and guide me.

Amen.

Is There Anyone Else to Blame?

“It is your wickedness that will punish you and your desertion of My ways that will convict you. See the evil and taste the bitterness of forsaking the one True God, the Eternal. At the core of the evil is the sad truth that you have forgotten the wonder and terror of who I am” (Jeremiah 2:19 the Voice).

It is your wickedness that will punish you…

It is the consequences of our choices. It is the outcome that can last a lifetime and have devastating effects for future generations. And it is when we purposely divert ourselves away from God’s Word and His ways, that convict us. We do it to ourselves. And yet we continually ask, “Where is God in all this evil?” And God answers, “At the core of the evil is the sad truth that you have forgotten…Me.”

God gives us free will. Free reign to choose our ways: His or ours. But He also lets us know that following our own ways have lasting consequences. It’s not God’s punishment, but our own. It is the reason God made “His way” in the first place, because it was the good and perfect way; a way to set us apart; a way to declare that we belonged to the Creator of everything!

“Is there anyone to blame but yourself? Weren’t you the one who abandoned the Eternal? Your True God, even as He led you onto this journey?” God asks (Jeremiah 2:17).

Is it any wonder our world has turned upside down and we witness the demise of America: “I am the One who delivered you into this land of abundance to enjoy its fruits and many good things. But you have now taken the very land I gave you and defiled it. You have done a most disgusting thing with this gift I reserved only for you. The rulers also have moved against Me” (Jeremiah 2:7, 8b).

We have defiled this land. We have forgotten the one True God. We haven’t just rejected or simply abandoned Him, we have cursed Him, mocked Him, and called Him a liar. We have called Him evil and we call evil good. We have “exchanged our glory to pursue worthless idols in our vein attempt for greater prosperity” (Jeremiah 2:11b).

Is there anyone else to blame? What have we exchanged our glory for?

No, these are not encouraging words, nor are they hopeful. Not yet. But God never lets us stay in our own mess for too long. “We know our God is the God who delivers us” (Psalm 68:20a). Our only hope is to keep crying out to God for help and restoration. He can help and restore…and He will. That’s His Word. That’s His promise.

Like a cactus with a beautiful blooming flower, there is hope in the thick of thorns.