Not sure who wrote this, or where its from, but it may be a prayer for you…

KNOTS PRAYER

Dear God,

Please untie the knots
that are in my mind,
my heart and my life.
Remove the have nots,
the can nots and the do nots
that I have in my mind.

Erase the will nots,
may nots, and
might nots that find
a home in my heart.

Release me from the could nots,
would nots and should nots
that obstruct my life.

And most of all, dear God,
I ask that you remove from my mind
my heart and my life all of the am nots
that I have allowed to hold me back,
especially the thought
that I am not good enough.

Amen.

If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law [Galatians 5:18]
Paul said that walking according to the Spirit is not license: an excessive or undisciplined freedom constituting an abuse of privilege. As a Christian you may see the phrase “You are not under the Law” in Galatians 5:18 and exclaim, “Wow, I’m free! Walking in the Spirit means I can do anything I want!” Not at all. In the previous verse Paul wrote, “You may not do the things that you please.” Being led by the Spirit doesn’t mean you are free to do anything you want to do. It means you are finally free to live a responsible, moral life–something you were incapable of doing when you were the prisoner of your flesh. [Neil Anderson]

“We do not start our Christian lives by working out our faith for ourselves; it is mediated to us by Christian tradition, in the form of sermons, books and established patterns of church life and fellowship. We read our Bibles in the light of what we have learned from these sources; we approach Scripture with minds already formed by the mass of accepted opinions and viewpoints with which we have come into contact, in both the Church and the world.…

It is easy to be unaware that it has happened; it is hard even to begin to realize how profoundly tradition in this sense has moulded us. But we are forbidden to become enslaved to human tradition, either secular or Christian, whether it be “catholic” tradition, or “critical” tradition, or “ecumenical” tradition.

We may never assume the complete rightness of our own established ways of thought and practice and excuse ourselves the duty of testing and reforming them by Scriptures.”

(J. I. Packer, “Fundamentalism” and the Word of God [Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1958], pp. 69-70.)

The LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. [Psalm 147:11]
Not only does God love us, we were created to love God.
To love God with our whole being – with heart, soul, mind and strength.
To love God with joy, with pleasure, not just out of duty or obligation.
This is essential to our human nature, we were designed to love God this way.
We function best when we are loved by God, and love God.
We are dysfunctional when we miss out on God’s love, and do not love God.
I know what it is as a parent to love a child, and the wonder of being loved by my child.
How much more God, our Father, loves to be loved by those that He loves!
Can you hear the Lord asking you, like He asked Peter, ‘Do you love me?’

One of the most profound truths that we believe about God is that God loves us!
God – creator of all, source of life and consciousness, ultimate Being behind the universe.
This God is a personal God, a God that relates to us as persons, and loves us as children.
The bible describes our connection to God using the most intimate language possible – as a father, a friend, a lover, a husband.
It was love that led God to create us, and it this love that does not give up on us!
I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. [Jeremiah 31:3]
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. [John 3:16]
I just wanted to remind you of this amazing thought – that God loves you.
Do you live with this awareness, do you know and feel that God loves you?

Here is a drawing of Solomon’s temple. I find it helpful to see an artist rendering as I read the description of it’s construction [1 Kings 6].

click to enlarge

I am feeling sick. Its all in my head, really. A persistent headache since I woke up this morning. I’ve slept most of the day. So much for my new year’s resolution to enjoy each day to the fullest. How does one enjoy a headache? How does a Jesus-follower experience a headache differently?

• Is it a cross to bear, humbly, quietly, without grumbling or complaining?
• Is it a test from the devil, to try to get me to look away from the Lord?
• Is it an opportunity for me to stretch my faith muscles, to pray in faith and receive miraculous healing?
• Is it an opportunity for me to call the elders, have them pray over me with anointing oil, and so be healed?
• Is it the wages of sin – no, not a hangover – for not sleeping well over the last few nights, and staying up too late last night?
• Is it an opportunity to identify with those who suffer, those who also deal with headaches or tumors or sleeplessness?
• Is it an opportunity to do some deep theological reflection on how a Jesus-follower experiences a headache differently?
• Or is it just a stupid headache…

Whatever it is, its now become an opportunity for people to think that there really is something wrong in my head.
I’m going back to bed…

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.
–Reinhold Niebuhr

A great quote by G.K.Chesterton:

It’s one thing to celebrate God’s hand in our lives, but its another thing, an essential thing, to join our hands with His, as His partners. The reason that God is not just snapping His fingers to fix the world is because from the beginning His plan was to rule this world in partnership with us, for better or worse, as hard as that is. Jesus has come as Adam restored, and we are restored with Him; we now have the opportunity to rule in the creation as we were created to, as we ought to. And the kind of ruling that this involves is humility, servanthood, kindness, compassion, honesty, etc.