Dearest Heavenly Father

Dearest Heavenly Father,

I come to You today and give You my heart.  I do not own it, it belongs to You.  I trust You, Father God, to hold it safe in Your tender embrace.  I give You permission to remove the hard shell that has formed around it, preventing me from being aware of the cries of those I love the most, my spouse and family. 

I allow Your warm hands to massage it, and work out the kinks, the stony areas that have made me blind to the plight of the downtrodden and deaf to the cries of the weary.  I wait as You break up the fallow ground and remove the hard places, allowing seed to once again grow.

I will rejoice in knowing  that once again holy life will flow freely through my heart.  I give You permission to scrub off the grit and grime of hate, intolerance and impatience, the filth of pride, arrogance, and self-serving, and to polish it back to where once again it is new, and whole, and pure.

I will honor You with the fruits of my labor.  I will dedicated my life to You, O Lord, for You have made me new again today, and my once cold and dying heart, which You have made new and perfect, rejoices in love and adoration to You.

Thank You, Father, for working in me, and healing my broken heart.  You are the Great Physician!  My Jehovah Raffa.  I adore You.  I accept this beautiful new heart and promise to care for it and fill it with love from Your word daily.  I will not let it suffocate to the point of near death ever again.  Thank You for restoring it back to health and beauty.  It shines like Your reflection!

I love You, my Father, with all I have.  In Jesus' sweet name I pray, Amen.

Reaching the Unreachable

Have you ever been unreachable?  You know, someone who doesn't want to be reached?  Someone who cries out for help but as soon as it is offered you close up and run away and hide under a rock to fix it all by yourself only to find out that you can't? 

I have been there.  It seems that I can too easily find myself in a place where I want so much for someone to love me, to listen to me, to hold me and let me know that I am the most important person in their life, that I am valuable and worth their time.  I have felt insignificant around those that I needed the most to reassure me that I was worthwhile.  And then when they reached out to me, I felt like a burden, and said, "no, I'm okay, really!"

Except that I wasn't okay.  I wasn't anywhere near okay!  But something would stop me just before I grabbed the lifeline someone threw me.  I felt guilty for asking for help in the first place.  I felt stupid that I couldn't fix the problem myself.  I felt needy.  I felt that if they really cared they would have noticed without me telling them.  Why couldn't they just see?  Why do I have to tell them?

Occasionally in our lives circumstances happen through no fault of our own and cause us to grieve.  It could be some devastating news of a crime, a world event, or something much closer to home.  There are things that tear our lives apart--sickness, divorce, financial ruin, death, loneliness, or just the end of a dream.  How do we deal with things that make our hearts ache?

Why do we beg for someone to love us and make it all better and then when God sends them we don't recognize it as an answer to prayer?  Why is it so easy to run, to listen to the wrong voice and lock ourselves into a place we don't spiritually need to be?  We hide. We cry.  We think dark thoughts.  Why?  Why is it so easy to listen to the enemy's lies than to the promises of God?

Have you been there, dear Reader?  Are you there now? Is your heart so torn apart from the loss of a dream of happily ever after that you think nothing will ever make it better?  Have you made a mistake and tried to take care of it yourself, only to find out that now it was the wrong decision and you are too embarrassed or ashamed to ask for help?  Even from God?  Do you hide from Him because you know you messed up and don't feel worthy to ask for His forgiveness?  Do you just feel exhausted?

Do you ever ask for His forgiveness and then even though you know you should worship Him, you feel He wouldn't hear you because you made such a terrible mistake?  An unforgivable mistake?  Is it too hard to forgive yourself?

Don't continue to let the devil put lies in your head.  The fact of the matter is, God DOES love you!  And if you are sorry and confess your sin to Him and ask forgiveness, and then repent, He will always forgive you.  That is what He does, He loves and forgives those that ask and repent!  If you just have 'the blues' and don't even know why, you must look up, look to the Big Man in the sky and seek His face, His light, His love!

Accept that you are beautiful in His eyes, and that He died for you.  How could He not love you if He was willing to do that?  Don't run away anymore.  Just turn around and reach for Him.  He is right behind you, waiting to enfold you in His embrace, stroke your hair, and whisper words of encouragement in your ear.  He loves you, no matter what you have done.  He is ready to hear your plea and forgive you because He is all loving and kind. 

"Hear my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray."  Psalm 5:2

"And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.”  Deut 31:8

"In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.' Psalm 18:6

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."  John 3:16 

Today's Simple Prayer

You prosper me, Oh Lord!  You fill my being with happiness and joy that can be compared to nothing I have ever know before.  With each new day my spirit grows, I sing from my heart and soul! 

I am so blessed I can’t describe the enormity of it!  Father, prepare me for the enemy’s attacks as I move forward in my growth.  Keep Your mighty hand on my back lest the enemy tries to push me off my feet!  Hold me close, dear God, that I may feel Your breath on my face! That I may see Your eyes on my life!

Bless me, Lord, in the way in which You want me to go.  Guide me these days, step-by-step.  Give me the tools I need to do Your bidding.  Speak through me to those oppressed.

I love You so much, Lord of Lords!