Daily Prayer

  A Morning Prayer for God's Presence Lord, may nothing separate me from You today. Teach me how to choose only Your way today so each step will lead me closer to You. Help me walk by the Word and not my feelings. Help me to keep my heart pure and undivided.  Protect me from my own careless thoughts, words, and actions. And keep me from being distracted by MY wants, MY desires, MY thoughts on how things should be. Help me to embrace what comes my way as an opportunity... rather than a personal inconvenience. And finally, help me to rest in the truth of Psalm 86:13, 'Great is your love toward me.' You already see the ways I will fall short and mess up. But right now, I consciously tuck Your whisper of absolute love for me into the deepest part of my heart. I recognize Your love for me is not based on my performance. You love me, warts and all. That's amazing. But what's most amazing is that the Savior of the world would desire a few minutes with me this morning. Lord...

  When you hear the name Jesus, what picture pops into your head? Maybe you envision a famous painting of a Caucasian-looking Jesus that you saw hanging in your church entryway growing up. Maybe you picture him as a Middle Eastern man or as a cartoony image from pop culture. Whatever you envision, Jesus likely appears in your head as an adult. How often do you picture Jesus as a baby? I’d wager to guess that outside of December, most people don’t. It seems that Christianity saves focusing on Jesus as an infant for Christmas. His incredible transformation of God to baby gets less airtime during the other 11 months of the year. Recently, I was blessed to give birth to a baby boy and have been reminded anew how crass and humiliating it is to be a baby. Babies can’t do anything for themselves! I usually like to think about Jesus in all his full-grown might and glory because it is a comfort to me, as I am all too aware of my sinfulness and find so much peace in the conquering work that ...