To Truly Live….

 

Lord I surrender anew to You, all the secret areas of my heart.

I surrender my life, my passions, my all.

Forgive me for living for my own comfort and desires when there are souls who still need to hear that You love them so much that You died to save them from eternal punishment.

Forgive me for not realizing all of my blessings when there are those dying  for lack of food and water!

Forgive me for not seeing beyond myself and for not extending mercy and urgency to the needs of others.

Forgive me for living small when You are a big God, able to do big things.

Forgive me for not living passionately for You!  Because of this, the gospel, to others appears watered down and weak.

Help me to be willing to be all in.  To remember that our sole purpose on this earth is to bring glory to You and to do Your will.

Forgive me for forgetting that this earth is just a momentary stop in time, all for the greater cause of reaching others. That they might be rescued from dominion of darkness.

Help me to remember how lost and helpless I was, in sin, and how miraculous it is that You saved me.  Help me to stand in awe of this and Your great love.  Let Your passion radiate from my life and touch the lives of others.

Help  me to step out in faith when fear rears its ugly head. For my greatest fear is that I might have lived and impacted no one for Your kingdom.  That I might have caved in to what is easy rather than to surrender to Your will and way for my life. That I might never have realized the peace and joy and fulfillment that comes from casting all else aside for Your purpose and for Your cause.

Oh Lord don’t let me fail to see that the really important things in life are not things at all.  Help me to see that we are losing a generation who are seeking a cause worthy of offering their very life, if necessary.  Have I made it seem that our faith requires nothing other than an hour on Sunday, “IF” I can find the time? Have I made the cost of surrender to You seem cheap and therefore, a relationship with You, of little value?

Oh Lord forgive me! Forgive me! Forgive me!  Use me for Your purposes and Your glory! Pour me out for the cause of Christ!!  Open my eyes to see needs You desire for me to meet through You.  Don’t let me leave this earth without fulfilling the real purpose for which we all live.

Amen

 

To Love

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Balance!

On my perpetual calendar, “Spiritual Refreshment for Women,” for October 22nd was this statement:

Salvation is hard work!  Not only did it require Jesus’ crucifixion for our sins, but we have a part in the effort, too.  We have to live out the commands in God’s Word that make our faith have an impact on the world.

In our Christian walk, there needs to be balance.  Ephesians 2:8  tells us that,”… by grace  you have been  saved, through faith– and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God  not by works, so that no one can boast.”  Our part in salvation is pointed out  in John 15:5 where Jesus says, “…if a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.”  We are called to remain in Christ and bear fruit.  Fruit that comes by walking with Christ and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in our lives .  Christ calls us to grow up.  To look less and less like the world and more and more like his example.  This is the hard work we must do in cooperation with God’s grace.

As Christians we are all at different points in our spiritual journey.  But where ever our starting point, scripture is clear that no one who encountered Christ remained unchanged.    And so it should be in our lives. There should be change, not from rules, but from the inside with the renewal of our minds by the Holy Spirit, revealing himself in our daily lives.

Dear Mr. Manning….

Great read!!!! And so true!!!

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_25077270/dear-mr-manning

New Year, New Opportunities!

Quotes

Grief

No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. C. S. Lewis