You, Oh Lord, know what we need; we know what we want. Much of what we want, we don’t need and, often, much of what we need is precisely what we don’t want. Please align our wants to our true needs. We trust you, God; you will indeed provide everything we need.
Fill me, O Lord; fill me with your Holy Spirit so that I can change and become the person you made me to be!
There is no growth without change; there is no change without fear or loss; and there is no loss without pain. Every change involves a loss of some kind: You must let go of old ways in order to experience the new. We fear these losses, even if our old ways were self-defeating, because, like a worn out pair of shoes, they were at least comfortable and familiar. [Rick Warren, from “The Purpose Driven Life”]
I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. [John 6:35 (NIV)]Giver of Life, may we be less concerned this day with satisfying our physical needs and more concerned with our spiritual emptiness. Ease the hunger in our souls, O Lord. Fill us with the true bread of life: your Holy Spirit.
Praise and thanksgiving can’t alter our circumstances, but they certainly can alter our viewpoint! They will bring us back into the presence of God where there is comfort and joy!
Let all that I am praise The Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me. [Psalm 103:1-2 (NLT)]Let praise and thanksgiving change your perspective. In a dark time of my life, I started a gratitude journal, each day writing about something for which I could give thanks. Believe me, sometimes it was not easy and my thoughts were rarely deep thoughts. It may have been the song of the bird that wakened me, my fuzzy fleece blanket, or simply that I was in less physical pain than the previous day that got mention in the journal. Each day, however, I managed to find something for which to give thanks; my spirits brightened and my eyes opened to the many joys in my life.
Today, look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself what it is you like about yourself. Too often we look into the mirror only to see what we dislike about ourselves. But we are God’s precious gift…and he doesn’t make junk. We are, indeed, amazingly and miraculously made!
