A Learner

Lord, I want to learn from You….

Jesus, I want to become like You.

Help me to turn away from service to the world and the flesh. Thank You for not being like other teachers who would seek to weigh down their students with all kinds of excessive rules, burdens and regulations.

I desire to share in the grace which knowing You brings. I want to pay attention.

Help me to walk with You and keep pace with the rhythms You design or allow in my life.

Help me to work with You and not complain about the tasks You may call me to endure.

Help me to be obedient in my actions as You reveal Yourself and Your will to me.

Make me mindful of sharing with others that which You have already shared with me.

Teach me to follow the example of Your humility and seek assistance from You and others when I need it. 

Teach me too, how to best assist You and others as I carry out the assignments You call me toward in bearing Your name.

Lord, I want to be more holy not only in my heart, but in my everyday routine. The words integrity and wholeness mean something to me even if they are not well understood by my surrounding culture in this day and age.

I seek to grow in ways which will bring much joy to Your heart.

A prayer of joyful hope

Lord, I want to live in the certainty which You alone provide…

I praise You today for being my Shepherd! I thank You that in You, I lack no good thing!

I belong to You and serve as an object of Your everlasting affection and delight. You are my Leader and Director; You are my Protector and Defense.

In coming before You as my Maker, may I offer You reverent, acceptable, joyful praise.

Might I not take honor and glory for myself when they truly belong to You.

I praise You because I am guided by Your wisdom, tended by Your care, and fed by Your bounty (Spurgeon).

Thank You, Lord, for restoring my soul.

Thank You, Lord, for giving me the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Thank You for revealing Your grace and patience to me in so many ways for my physical and spiritual growth.

Thank You, Lord, for instructing me in holiness and obedience. In caring love, You cause to happen the salvation and saint-life I could never hope to procure or gain on my own merit.

Your goodness supplies my needs and Your mercy blots out my sins. What more have I need of than You can provide? (Spurgeon) 

Unfolding...

Lord, I praise You today because the unfolding of Your word brings light. Through Your words, You give insight to people who would otherwise be untrained and ordinary. Thank You for guiding us while we are still in the process of learning right from wrong. Thank You for helping us to distinguish better between wisdom and folly.


Thank You for enlightening us and giving us mysteries to uncover as we delve more and more into the adventure of knowing You. Your Word is not so difficult and challenging to understand that we need to be sophisticated in order to benefit from it. We can enter into it; we can begin to appreciate Your testimonies while we are yet young, gullible, and immature in our knowledge of life. The blessing of receiving You and Your promises is not reserved only for the quick-witted and efficient person.


How glad I am, dear Father, that Your Way and Your truth are not limited to the sharp, the skillful, and the savvy. You also find places within Your kingdom for the weak, the feeble, the inept, and the weary.


Thank You for taking time for those the world might otherwise ignore. Thank You for not leaving us alone in darkness and futility, but for caring enough to give us light and life. But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12).  To this we say amen!

Come...

Dear Father, 
May I not get so caught up in the what of my calling I neglect the who behind my calling. This speaks to me because it seems easy to get absorbed in the details of certain projects and lose sight of the people the projects are intended to serve.

Your call is still a call to relationship. Your desire is still for relational intimacy between you and me. You still want for believers to know You. You still call for me to come…

May I still heed You when You call me closer.  May I still approach the throne of grace with confidence so that I can receive mercy and find grace to help me in my time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

Thank You, dear Lord, for giving us a High Priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. Thank You that He has been tempted in every way just as we are. Thank You that He experienced what we experience, yet was without sin.

It is a true joy to know Christ came for us so that we can freely and without fear come back to You again and again.

To come…to know….to heal… to grow…

To plant…to harvest…to reap…to sow…

May I draw near and follow You; May I experience Your patient grace and then live for Your always glory.

Worthy

There are many ways for me to be reminded of God's faithful leading in my life. Once in a great while, I have the privilege of looking back in my files and finding something I wrote years ago.

Praise Him for His continued presence with me; love to you if you remember this from before...

From Amie’s Desk: May 21, 2006

Dear Friends, 

This morning as I was writing in my journal, it dawned on me again: Sometimes I get so focused on where I would like to be, I forget to thank God for where He has me right now. I've covered a lot of ground with Him in the last little while, and I'm sure you have too.

Anyway, here's the song I sang as I put down my pen, maybe it will bless you as it blessed me:

"You are awesome in this place, Mighty God.

You are awesome in this place, Abba Father.

You are worthy of our praise; to you our lives we raise.

You are awesome in this place, Mighty God."

Wherever your “this place” is in this day, may you praise him there. May you celebrate His goodness to you in the path He has given you to walk upon.  He is faithful...

In our journey,

Love, 

Amie 

He's still awesome...worthy...amazing...and I'm still choosing to celebrate...

Beyond

Am I ready to accept God's plans for me even when God's plans for me include the unexpected? 


What does it look like for me to be willing come what might?


Am I accessible, available, and approachable when God chooses to call my name or appoint me for specific service? 


What does it look like for me to be useful in kingdom service and  truly purposeful in serving others for God's glory?


I want to be open to God's call and will even if it does not appear when I think it should.
I want to be open to God's call and will even if it does not appear what I think it should.
I want to be open to God's call and will even when things don't turn out how I think they should


When it comes to dealing with the surprising, startling, unpredictable, and unforeseen, I admit I still have some work to do. I tend to get impatient if circumstances don't move steadily in the direction I anticipated they would. I need to be reminded the plans are not mine, but His. I need to know once again the timetable is not mine, but His.


The results are His. 
The kingdom is His.
The praise is His.
The honor is His


How much of me is really His? How much of my life is defined by knowing and revealing Him? How well do I know Him so that I can aptly make Him known? What fears and motives of mine are yet standing are yet keeping others from glimpsing Him in my life?


Woe is me if I spend my days looking to me as the goal of what gets done and accomplished and lived out. 


It's not good enough...With the help of the Spirit who reveals I want to go beyond... I want trust more fully and believe the impossible...

Still....Exalted

All week long, I have attempted to comprehend the ocean of God's wisdom using my Coke-can brain. From my limited perspective, my efforts have not been very successful. Perhaps the things which are truly successful in this life are the things which propel us more and more toward intimacy with Him. 


There are so many times I must admit I don't know.
There are are so many situations in which I just don't get it.
There are so many instances in life which really don't make sense.


I often feel like I'm grasping at straws, looking for little rays of hope in shadowy places, but God is sovereign.


He is still in control.


He's still got the whole world in His hands.


He's still watching over me in such a way that He numbers the hairs on my head.


He's still unfolding His purposes in my life...


He's still working things out for my friends and family members.


He's still demonstrating His grace and aiming at His glory


In the middle of my muddle and finite measuring system, His voice is still heard:


Amie....


Child...


Beloved...


"Stop trying to figure everything out!"


"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." (Psalm 46:10).


May He be exalted in my life today...


May He be exalted by those I love today...


Come what might, into my Coke-can brain and singular life, may He be exalted...


still.