Jesus, forgive me for all of the time that I spend overindulging my flesh rather than consecrating myself more fully to You. By the Spirit help me to put the deeds of the body to death that I may live for You. Help me to stop drifting on the current of the world and to walk in the paths of Your Word. Break me out of blending into the environments where I find myself. Stir my heart to live for You only, to speak up, and share Your grace and truth with those around me regardless of where I am and who they are.
Give me a fresh encounter with You that causes me to be in hot pursuit of You from this day until the day I see You face to face. Bring me to the place like the Apostle Paul where my greatest desire is to know You. Make me a desperate man who will not settle for any substitutes. Continue to give me greater revelation of who You are and greater intimacy with You each and every day. Lead me out to the deep waters to let down the nets for a catch. When it is You calling me to do something, it will not make sense to my natural mind. It will seem utterly ridiculous based on what I know and understand.
May Your forgiveness of my sin, Your redemption of my past, and Your restoration in my life be the platform that You use to reveal Yourself to others. Help me not to glorify the evil, sin, and wickedness of my past but You. For Your grace is greater than my sin. You have forgiven and delivered me from sexual immorality, being complicit in abortion, and desecrating marriage which ended in divorce. May these things not be the focus of my life and ministry, but areas touched and transformed by the grace of God that highlight the reality of Your life being daily lived through me.
Forgive me for the times that I have gotten distracted, veered off of the path of righteousness, and been bogged down in the weeds of an issue that took the focus off of You. Help me to walk the gospel tightrope over these treacherous waters. Let me be a voice crying out in the wilderness, in this generation, who is ok with looking and sounding different than those around me. You have not called me to fit in but to preach Your gospel and me as Your servant. I do not need the approval or stamp of validation by man on the ministry that You have entrusted to me. I have Yours and that is enough!
God, You are doing a work in my mind, heart, and soul that I am not even fully aware of. Continue to form Christ in my heart as You conform me more and more to His image each and every day. Break me from the fear of man. Thank You for granting me an undivided heart and teaching me to fear Your holy name.
Jesus, You are the cornerstone and the apostles are the foundation that has already been laid. Yet we are trying to build movements on temporary and unsteady things like politics and cultural issues. You told Peter that on this rock (Peter's revelation and declaration of You as the Christ, the Son of the living God, that would be proclaimed by the other apostles and the Church throughout her history) that You would build Your Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. We are Your spiritual stones that are being built up into a spiritual house to carry Your presence to the ends of the earth as we preach the gospel of the Kingdom to all nations of the world. Help us not to lose focus nor veer off course. Amen!
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