Tag: glory

How to Find the Joy We Seek

Posted on by Dorci

One of the greatest joys of being a parent is watching your children come through childhood, with all its arguments and competitiveness and jealousies, grow up, forgive each other, and become good friends. 

To see your children making plans to get together, to sit and have a conversation, laughing and enjoying each other’s company, there’s just nothing like it. Seeing the love between them fills a parent with a delightful contentment. 

I imagine this is a tiny fraction of the joy the Lord has when He sees His children maturing and growing in His love and then loving one another, forgiving and accepting one another in the spirit of godly brother and sisterhood. 

The apostle Paul, along with Timothy, wrote to brothers and sisters in Philippi, sounding almost as a father writing to his children:

“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
Philippians 2:1-4

There is nothing so easy to fall back into when surrounded by the world than a worldly, fleshly, prideful, egotistical, argumentative attitude. Kind of like children, right? And the very antithesis of love.

But we don’t need to live that way. 

We are filled with the Holy Spirit, the One who makes known to us God’s love.

And daily we have a choice: we can walk in the Spirit, or suffer in the flesh. 

When we walk in the flesh, not only do we rob God the joy of an unbroken abiding relationship with us, made complete by seeing His children love one another, we rob ourselves of the joy and the peace we all so desperately want and need. 

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…”
Galatians 5:22a

Love is the first fruit of walking in the Spirit, and all others depend on it. Love brings joy, and joy brings peace. 

“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
Galatians 5:16

As we walk in the Spirit, we won’t be held hostage by our fleshly attitudes. Yield ourselves to the life God’s given us, day by day, moment by moment, and the Father’s love will flow through the Spirit to us, and through us to others. 

What an amazing privilege.

To know God’s love, a love far deeper than any the world can ever know, and to allow ourselves to be a conduit of that love for our brothers and sisters, and even for our enemies who so greatly need Him, glorifying and magnifying the Name of Jesus.  

“It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to His commands. As you have heard from the beginning, His command is that you walk in love.”
2 John 1:4-6

In His Love,

 

 

 

Sunday Praise and a Prayer for Peace

Posted on by Dorci

Oh Precious Heavenly Father, we praise and magnify your name. You are mighty and holy and worthy of all praise. 

Father, we ask for forgiveness for our sins, and we thank you for giving your Son to take the punishment that should have been ours. 

Thank you for blessing us far more than we could ever deserve. A right relationship with you is all we need, but through it you’ve done so much more than we could have ever imagined. 

Father, I want to lift up our country again to you this week. We need you so much, and we know there is nothing we can do in our own strength to change anything. We desperately look to you and pray for your grace and mercy and the pouring out of your Holy Spirit as we walk into the events of the week. 

We pray you would go before us and bind the hand of the enemy, that you would let your peace and rest be in control of our land, especially in our nation’s capital. We pray your power would be felt and your light would shine in the darkness. 

This week and beyond, may your Church, with repentant and thankful hearts, constantly lift up our voices together to you, in faith, knowing you hear us and will answer us, as we pray for salvation among the lost and revival within your church, and that you would give us the wisdom, strength, courage, and hope we’ll need in the coming days and years. 

May we abide in you so we can be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, producing the fruit of magnifying and glorifying the name of Jesus wherever we go. May we do in our world today what the early church did in theirs, and be your witnesses in our homes, our neighborhoods, and to the ends of the earth.

In Jesus’ holy and precious name we pray, amen. 

 

Sunday Praise and a Prayer for the Sick

Posted on by Dorci

Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you. You are the omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent God. You are faithful to hear our prayers, and we thank you for hearing our prayer today. 

Father, we lift up to you those who are facing life-altering and life-threatening illnesses.

For those who know you, we ask that you would renew their strength and hope. We pray you would comfort them and fill them with your peace that passes all understanding. We pray you would surround them with people who support them with love and friendship. We ask that you would also give strength and hope for their loved ones and caregivers. 

For those who don’t yet know you, we pray you would reveal yourself to them in a very personal way. Maybe they’ve blamed you for what they’re going through. Maybe they’re angry, or lost and just don’t know where to turn. We pray you would not allow the enemy to fill their minds with lies.

Father, we know what a personal and compassionate God you are, and we ask that you would show them that you know them and you love them.

We pray you would open their eyes and turn their hearts toward you, that they would receive you as their Lord, their Savior, their Hope to walk with them through this time, giving them all they need and more. 

We pray you would remove all fear and help them keep their focus on You, the God Who is bigger than anything they’ll face here on earth. We pray you would give them strength and courage to walk in confidence with you each day. 

Father, you are also the Great Physician. You created our bodies and you can heal them. If it be your will, Lord, we ask that you would do miracles and grant healing and restoration. We pray you would open doors and move mountains to do those things that need to be done.

We pray you would give the doctors and nurses your wisdom, your skill, and your compassion. 

We pray, Lord, that you would also open doors to provide financially, and that all debt is paid. 

Father, we pray you would be glorified in all these circumstances. What the enemy has meant for evil, we pray you would use for your good. We lay it all at your feet, trusting you, and we thank you ahead of time for what you’re going to do. 

In Jesus’ precious and holy name we pray, amen. 

 

Sunday Praise and a Prayer of Rejoicing

Posted on by Dorci

Dear Heavenly Father, we praise your holy and precious name. We give you glory for all you’ve done to bring us salvation – nothing short of giving your own Son to be born, to grow up and reveal to us who you are, to be the exact representation of your being, and then to give Him as the perfect sacrifice in payment for our sins so we could be reconciled to you. 

Father, we are so grateful for loving us in such an extravagant way. 

As we get nearer to the day we celebrate the birth of our Savior, help us to not let the busyness of this season overshadow the miracle that took place in the stable all those years ago.  

We truly rejoice in the grace and mercy you gave us, wrapped in swaddling clothes. 

We rejoice that you spoke through your prophets about where He would be born and who He would be so we wouldn’t be left to wonder if He really was the Savior. 

We rejoice that He was born with a body like ours, was tempted as we are and identified with us in every way, yet remained sinless, both God and man.

We rejoice in all the miracles surrounding His birth – that Mary and Joseph were obedient to you with such an overwhelming calling, that the angel of the Lord spoke to the shepherds telling them the joyful news of the Savior’s birth, and that a star led wise men from so far away to worship. You brought people near and far to rejoice in you and spread the good news that a Savior had been given to the world. 

Lord Jesus, we rejoice in You and give you glory, proclaiming that you are the long-awaited Messiah, the Savior, the Christ, that you are the good news, the best news the world has ever or will ever know. You’ve given the world hope, and we pray the weary world will turn to you and rejoice with us. 

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us a reason to rejoice. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

 

The Fruit of our Lips

Posted on by Dorci