Glorious, wonderful and majestic Father – help us to pause and take a deep cleansing breath and allow your boundless love to fill and embrace us right where we are. Setting our very souls afire with your presence to the point where we cannot help but sing praises to your holy name.
Yet Father, our eyes keep turning from you as we are continually bombarded in our world with hurt and hatred, disease and disaster, loneliness and isolation, addiction and arrogance, jealousy and envy, dreams that turn into nightmares – so much so, that we lose sight of You right in the midst of it all. We take comfort as we read the story of Joseph – young, special yet arrogant Joseph, as you put him in places he never had dreamed of or wanted to be so that you could prepare him to save your people and the people of Egypt. His lovely dream became what seemed to be a nightmare while enslaved and in prison — but your Word tells us that You were with Him. May we feel your presence in the middle of our trials and tribulations and know that you will use them to ultimately accomplish Your will and you will always be with us even when we can’t feel your presence.
As we walk in our everyday world, let us heed the words of Jesus as he tells us to love one another as he has loved us. And by this love the world will know we are his. Father, give us eyes to see as you see, so that we can do what you want us to do – let us leverage the power and prestige, the talents and treasures, the trials and tribulations for those you place in our paths on a daily basis – help us to use every resource you have given to us, not simply for our own consumption alone, but to use them to be the salt and light in a sometimes tasteless and dark world. May your love shine through us and give hope to those around us.
Father, my prayer today is that we will always remember the words of that six-year old boy who stood up in front of the church to quote his favorite Bible verse – He said, “My favorite verse is Hebrews 12:2 – “Fix your eyes on Jesus and just leave them there.” May our eyes stay fixed on Jesus now and always. Now, we turn our eyes to Him as we recite the precious prayer He gave us to pray – “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen”