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Daily Prayer November 2013

29^th November 2013 – May I be clothed with your Spirit Lord, and may I also be your Spirit’s clothing.

28th November 2013 – Lord I want to live generously. Help me to rise above anything that is mean-spirited and contrary to your giving nature.

27th November 2013 – Thank you Lord for all the younger people you have entrusted to our care. Help us to invest in the next generation to the glory of your Name

26th November 2013 – Lord enable us to see all of life from your perspective.

25th November 2013 – Lord, your knowledge is perfect. You know me through and through. Thank you that knowing me as you do you still love me. It is amazing to me.

22nd November 2013 – Lord, I am so blessed. You have entrusted me with much. Therefore I realise that I carry a great responsibility. Help me to trust and obey you in the use of your goods.

21st November 2013 – Thank you Lord Jesus for drawing death’s sting for us by being ‘stung’ for us.

20th November 2013 – Jesus be the centre.

19th November 2013 – We pray this day for all in authority in our world. Cause them, Lord, to lead with faith, integrity, justice and righteousness, and with a proper sense of accountability to you. May those who do not know you come to find in Jesus all that He died to give them

18th November 2013 – Lord please give us the wisdom to know when and where to make a stand, and the courage to do so.

15th November 2013 – Thank you Lord for the security of my position in Christ. Help me to see clearly that nothing can touch me without your permission. Thank you for the awesome reality of your protection.

14th November 2013 – Help us Lord to be good examples to all who get close to us.

13th November 2013 – Impress it on my mind and heart Lord that sin comes with a huge price tag.

12th November 2013 – Lord help us to never lose sight of who our real enemy is and where he lurks. Keep us from petty fights and quarrels with brothers; those little skirmishes that damage people and sully your Name. Lord forgive and help us to make every effort to keep the unity we’ve been given. Have mercy on us for making such a mess of things.

11th November 2013 – Lord Jesus, you are the Author and the Finisher of my faith, so help me to fix my eyes on you. You are seated at the right Hand of the Father. Please enable me to set my heart and mind on things above where you are.

8th November 2013 – Lord Jesus, I know it is not yet fully clear what I shall be, but I do know that when Jesus appears I shall be like Him, for I will see Him as He is. Thank you for this glorious hope. Let it shape my every moment now.

7th November 2013 – Lord, I recognise today that the best of people will be full of imperfections. However, by your unfailing grace please enable me to grow in holiness and become more and more like my Lord Jesus

6th November 2013 – Lord I choose to praise you in my midnight hour, and I thank you that you cause chains to break and fall to the ground. I choose to praise you this day for you are worthy.

5th November 2013 – Help me Lord to always take the time to seek your face. When I have no plan, you know the plans you have for me; just the plans I need. When I am weak and overwhelmed, there is no shortage of strength in you. How I thank you for your immeasurable greatness.

4th November 2013 – Lord you know the things that rise above me like gigantic waves, threatening to drown me and sweep me away. But I too look to you and for your mighty help.

1st November 2013 – Lord I ask you to bless all leaders in your church. Help them to always so revere you that they serve you and their people well.

October 31, 2013 0

Daily Bible Thoughts November 2013

Daily Bible thoughts 499: Friday 29^th November 2013: 2 Chronicles 24:17-20

After Jehoiada’s death everything headed south (17) …things fell apart (The Message). Beware of flatterers, of those who pay you homage in order to serve their own agendas. There are plenty of people who will tell you what you want to hear; but thank God for those who serve up what you most need to hear (20). Be careful to whom you ‘give ear’. There was a vacuum in Joash’s life following the passing of his mentor. Sadly, the wrong sorts stepped up to fill it. Joash did many fine things, but he was a ‘’leaner.’’ As long as godly Jehoiada was on the scene, the king obeyed the Lord, and the temple prospered. But after the high priest died, the king began listening to other counsellors; soon he led the nation into sin… If you lean on others and fail to develop spiritual depth, your spiritual life will be gone when those people are gone. Warren W. Wiersbe: With the Word, pp. 245, 246.

People can ‘backslide’ badly. They can fall from a very great height (18). We should not be surprised at this, although we are saddened by it. The Bible prepares us for this shocking reality in story after story. Here is one of them. On reading the eighteenth verse I thought: ‘All that good work on the temple down the tubes!!’ What a waste. He restored it only to ruin it. It is a spiritual tragedy of the greatest magnitude.

If verse eighteen shows the exceeding sinfulness of sin (the depths to which men can sink), the nineteenth verse exhibits the mercy of God (the lengths to which He will go to rescue us from our messes.)

Verse twenty says that Zechariah the prophet stood above the people (ESV) as he spoke. No doubt he was elevated physically in order to be seen and heard. But in another sense he stood above it all; all that sin of his day, and he denounced it. The ESV also translates the opening of the verse in these words: Then the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah… What clothing! (see Lk.24:49). Here is a clothing to cover your whole being: head to toe. You will need such clothing in order to deliver a deeply unpopular message. By and large people don’t want to hear how sin incurs God’s wrath and will lead to punishment/judgment without repentance.

However, the Revised Version has a marginal version of this that goes: The Spirit of God clothed itself with Zechariah… F.B. Meyer has some fascinating observations around this idea: As we put on a cloak or dress, so does the Spirit of God, as it were, hide Himself in those who surrender themselves to Him, so that it is not they who speak and act, but He within them. Have you at any time been conscious of having become the clothing of the Holy Spirit? Remember that cloth or leather must yield itself easily to the movement of its wearer, and not less pliable and supple we must be to the Spirit of God. When the Spirit of God is thus within us, and speaks or acts for us, we may expect, as Zecharaiah found it, to come into collision with the entire drift and current of society around us, and to incur odium and hatred. Men do not like to be told that they cannot prosper because they have forsaken God; but we have no alternative than to witness against their sins. Does the Spirit of God clothe Himself with you my friend, as you anticipate the work of today? Are you using Him, or is He to use you?… In the agony of battle, when great deeds are to be done, no one stops to think of the uniform of the soldier, but only of the might beneath it. Great verses through the Bible, p.158.

28th November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 498

27th November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 497

26th November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 496

25th November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 495

22nd November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 494

21st November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 493

20th November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 492

19th November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 491

18th November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 490

15th November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 489

14th November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 488

13th November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 487

12th November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 486

11th November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 485

8th November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 484(1)

7th November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 483

6th November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 482

5th November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 481

4th November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 480

1st November 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 479

October 31, 2013 0

Daily Bible Thoughts October 2013

31st October 2013 – daily-bible-thoughts-478(1)

30th October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 477

29th October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 476

28th October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 475

25th October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 474

24th October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 473

23rd October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 472

22nd October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 471

21st October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 470

18th October 2013 – daily-bible-thoughts-469(1)

17th October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 468

16th October 2013 – daily-bible-thoughts-467(1)

15th October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 466

14th October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 465

11th October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 464

10th October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 463(1)

9th October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 462

8th October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 461

7th October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 460

4th October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 459

3rd October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 458

2nd October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 457

1st October 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 456

October 1, 2013 0

Daily Prayer October 2013

31st October 2013 – Lord God, I ask for the courage to fully engage with a world in need. I also ask for the wisdom to be able to have contact without contamination.

30th October 2013 – Thank you Lord that you don’t back off from my pain. You are not afraid of my emotional outpourings. Thank you that I can be ‘honest to God.’

29th October 2013 – Thank you Lord for the glorious light that shines out of your empty tomb. Help me to always walk in its brilliant rays.

28th October 2013 – Thank you Father God for the fact that Jesus is alive.

25th October 2013 – Lord let your gospel so thrill me and fill me that it spills out of every pore.

24th October 2013 – Lord forgive me for the times I fight against the truth I know deep in my heart. Have mercy.

23rd October 2013 – Help me Lord to be so devoted to you that I remove any ‘high places’ from my life. Give me eyes to see them, and a heart committed to dismantling them. Let no area of disobedience or any lack of submission remain within my borders.

22nd October 2013 – Almighty God, I can only thank you from the bottom of my heart for the great victories you have given me in the past, as I have placed my confidence in you. So I pray for the battles of this day, that you will again show yourself strong on behalf of your church. Help us to look to you.

21st October 2013 – Help me this day, Lord, in all my decisions to carefully choose the way of holiness. And help me not to be less of a Christian at home than I seek to be in other settings.

18th October 2013 – Thank you Lord for the beauty of your order for church life. Help me to eagerly desire your gifts, and especially prophecy.

17th October 2013 – Lord God, all that I have is from you. Help me to give what I have to serve others and build up your church.

16th October 2013 – Lord bless the leaders of your church with bending knees, unblocked ears, and willing hands and feet to carry out your will. Bless us all through their anointed ministry.

15th October 2013 – Lord, I choose to trust in you and turn from sin, than place my confidence in any human aid.

14th October 2013 – Help me, Lord, this day to not see myself in the light of the ‘giants’, but to see those giants in the light of God.

11th October 2013 – I do thank you, Lord Jesus, for all the things which remind me that apart from you I can do nothing.

10th October 2013 – ‘Restore, O Lord, the honour of your Name, and in our time revive the church that bears your Name.

9th October 2013 – Lord my life from beginning to end is in your Hands. I look to you to direct my steps today.

8th October 2013 – Lord we ask that we may regularly have church services such as those described in 1 Corinthians 14:24, 25. We pray that you will be powerfully and overwhelmingly encountered in all our gatherings for worship. May your Word be clearly spoken, conviction of sin fall, lives be changed, and your Name be glorified.

7th October 2013 – Lord we thank you for your instructions for church life. We see your wisdom. Help us to be ever mindful of them and obey them. In all our services ‘send forth your truth and let there be light’.

4th October 2013 – ‘We’ll let you have your way among us; We’ll not strive. We’ll let your peace rule within our hearts; we’ll not strive.’

3rd October 2013 – Thank you Lord that there are older and wiser people in my world. Help me to never be so full of my own convictions and ideas that I imagine I don’t need the insights of others. Please give me always the wisdom to sift what bits of advice to throw away and which pieces to cling to.

2nd October 2013 – Lord, I see from this amazing book that you call me to so much more than religion and ritual. You call me to a relationship of deep and profound love. Help me to stir myself up from lethargy and enable me to ‘kill’ everything that might spoil what is possible. I want to enter into all you have for me.

1st October 2013 – Lord, please fill me to overflowing with your inextinguishable love.

October 1, 2013 0

Daily Prayer September 2013

30th September 2013 – As I go out into the service of this day Lord, cause me to do so with a smile on my face and a song in my heart.

27th September 2013 – I pray for the services in the church to which I belong this coming week-end. I ask Lord that they will be times when we clearly hear from you and receive encouragement and comfort; occasions when we grow upwards in you. Thank you that we are all on your building site, and our salvation is ‘under construction.’ Bring it all to wonderful completion Lord God, for your glory and honour.

26th September 2013 – I ask you, Lord Jesus, to develop in me, your lover, an immeasurable urge towards you, an affection that is unbounded, a longing that is unrestrained, a fervor that throws discretion to the winds!…There is no one more blessed than he who dies because he loves so much. No creature can love God too much. Richard Rolle.

25th September 2013 – Let my desire for you Lord infect people around me with similar longings.

24th September 2013 – Reduce me to love, dear Lord.

23rd September 2013 – Lord, may my life always display how much I love you.

20th September 2013 – Lord Jesus: It is my simple but sincere prayer that all who come into our church services will meet you there. I also ask that the beauty of Jesus will be seen in me

19th September 2013 – Lord, strengthen me to leave behind everything that would come between you and me. I deeply desire this rich relationship of love that you have planned. May I not miss out for any reason.

18th September 2013 – Lord God, when I look in the mirror, I find it hard to see beauty; but when I look in the mirror of your Word, I see a picture of myself as you see me. It takes my breath away. Thank you Heavenly Father for this whole new perspective. Help me to always see me through your eyes.

17th September 2013 – Thank you Lord that I can stand shoulder to shoulder with people like Moses, Aaron and Samuel in calling on your Name. What a privilege!

16th September 2013 – Lord, I bring to you ____ May they ask serious questions about you. Cause them to look hard at you, and draw them to yourself. I long for their conversion.

13th September 2013 – Lord, by your Holy Spirit, intensify my longing for you. Forgive my idleness; please pardon any inclination towards spiritual laziness. Help me to stir myself up, and put effort, by your strength, into seeking after you. Thank you Lord that those who seek you find you, if the search is whole-hearted.

12th September 2013 – Thank you Lord for placing me in your body where we all need each other, and, above all, we are totally dependent on you.

2013 – Help me Lord Jesus to ‘catch’ all the ‘little’ things that would ‘ruin’ this blossoming love relationship with you.

10th September 2013 – Thank you Lord that you made me to be me. Help me to be content to be the best version of me that I can be.

9th September 2013 – Thank you Lord that there are no ‘good for nothings in your church’. You have made me, in Christ, with purpose. Please help me to discover your call on my life and be fully obedient to you.

6th September 2013 – Thank you Lord that you have given me new eyes, to be able to see myself as you see me. Help me to grow in loving you and enjoying your love for me. Take me beyond rules, routine and ritual into a relationship of deepest intimacy. Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me, more and more.

5th September 2013 – Thank you Lord that you do some of your very best work ‘in the dark’. In the midst of a world that can scorch me, help me to always keep my own vineyard

4th September 2013 – Lord Jesus, your Name is like ointment poured forth. Just to speak your Name brings peace and comfort to my troubled soul. Thank you for your love, wonderful Jesus. ‘Lord it is my chief complaint, that my love is weak and faint; yet I love thee, and adore. Oh for grace to love thee more.’

3rd September 2013 – Lord, please grant that every Christian marriage will be filled with a growing love that reflects your love for the church.

2nd September 2013 – However busy I may be today Lord God of my salvation, and no matter what challenges I face, let me not forget your wonders and lose my song. May every part of this day be set to music!

September 2, 2013 0

Daily Bible Thoughts September 2013

30th September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 455

27th September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 454

26th September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 453

25th September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 452

24th September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 451

23rd September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 450

20th September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 449

19th September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 448

18th September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 447

17th September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 446

16th September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 445

13th September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 444

12th September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 443

11th September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 442

10th September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 441

9th September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 440

6th September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 439

5th September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 438

4th September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 437

3rd September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 436

2nd September 2013 – Daily Bible thoughts 435

September 2, 2013 0

Daily Prayer – August 2013

30th August 2013 – May the wonder of the communion service and all it represents become more and more vivid to me. Help me always to participate in a way that honours Jesus and His great sacrifice, and celebrates and promotes loving unity in His body, the church.

29th August 2013 – Thank you for the communion service Lord. You know the frailty of our memories. Thank you for giving us this lovely way to keep fresh in our minds and hearts what you have done for us.

28th August 2013 – Lord Jesus, help me to so live in closeness to you that my whole life is a pouring out of what you are pouring in. Make me your channel Lord. Flow through me in all your fullness.

27th August 2013 – Lord Jesus, I ask that where there is the tiniest fracture; the smallest dislocation between people in your church, that you will bring healing, reconciliation and peace. Help me to play my full part in keeping things sweet with others. I let go of my grudges and bitterness and receive your cleansing and empowering.

26th August 2013 – Thank you Lord that when you made man you made us male and female. Thank you so much for the complementarity of the sexes. Thank you for the truth that we are ‘all one in Christ Jesus’, and for all that we get to do together as we live under your authority and within your revealed order.

23rd August 2013 – Lord, please have every page of my life, and make me your living message. Grant that those who ‘read’ me will be moved towards you.

22nd August 2013 – Thank you Lord that again and again you switch on the light when I am groping around in darkness. Thank you so much for the generosity with which you share your wisdom with those who earnestly and believingly seek you. You are good!

21st August 2013 – Thank you Lord Jesus that I can talk with you about all that is on my mind. This is such a comfort. I see it all differently when I bring it into the light of your Wisdom.

20th August 2013 – Lord I know I can be so demanding and live at such a high speed. Help me to slow down sufficiently to keep pace with grace.

16th August 2013 – Lord, I don’t want to become a casualty in this spiritual war. Keep me, I pray, always in step with you.

15th August 2013 – Lord, I again stand in awe of you and the practical wisdom of your Word. It is so relevant to my daily life. Help me to live it.

14th August 2013 – Lord Jesus, I am so aware of an innate selfishness. Help me to die to me every day. As you did not please yourself, but put others first, please help me to do the same.

13th August 2013 – Lord, I know there are things I should run from. Help me to always be aware of what they are, and keep me from loitering when I should be fleeing.

12th August 2013 – Thank you Almighty God for this reminder that prayer leads to happenings. So fill me with your Spirit in my praying that through these intercessions people will be changed and brought near to you.

9th August 2013 – Lord God, I want to pray about prayer. Please pour out the Spirit of prayer upon your church. Enable us to pray how you want us to.

8th August 2013 – Lord you are truly good. Thank you that when I call on you in Jesus’ Name you run to my aid. What a mighty God we serve!

7th August 2013 – Thank you for your wonderful grace and mercy in my life Lord. I don’t want to ever abuse it. Being forgiven much, let me love much, and show it in hating sin and speedily turning from it. Thank you that if I do sin, I have an advocate with the Father.

6th August 2013 – Thank you Lord for the gift of prayer. Please make me an effective pray-er in your mighty Hands

5th August 2013 – Lord, I again find myself wanting desperately to be a praying person. But I also catch a glimpse today that being a prayerful, believing person and walking in holiness go together. It’s not that I can earn your answers, but somehow the life I lead and the prayers I pray are connected. Thank you for this precious insight.

2nd August 2013 – Lord, help me to be content to know who I am in you, and do your will for my life whole-heartedly. There is so much I’d like to do, but enable me to be happy with doing what’s on your agenda for me.

1st August 2013 – Lord, as I understand your Word, you cause me to see that I am your Temple. I recognise that the church is your Temple also. Then my prayer is that you will fill your Temple with your glory and cause it to be seen. I ask this for your eternal glory.