Tag: needs

Change my countenance Lord, let Your light shine instead

“I hear the Savior say,
Thy strength indeed is small,
child of weakness
Watch and Pray-
find in Me – thine all in all.”
“I hear the Savior say,…”

My prayer to God is “Change me, Lord. My countenance is hard and pained.

Help me remember the foundations:

“I will never leave you or forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5.

“I am the Lord… (You are ) precious in my sight… and I have loved you.” Is. 43:3,4.

Help me remember the exhortations:

“Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Ephesians 5:14.

I must turn around and pray.

“May my hard countenance be changed. Christ shine on me. In Jesus’ name.”

Child of weakness, watch and pray.

 Find in Me,

thine all in all.

Battles rage inside my mind, and voices speak: “You don’t have what it takes.”
“Give up now. Things will never change.”

But like a dream flowing in circles, the Holy Spirit shows me the way, again, and again:

” . . . Thy strength indeed is small, child of weakness watch and pray. Find in Me, thine all in all.

“Hear Me, listen, receive My Spirit. Be filled, and be changed.”

I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.

I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel.

Again you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful . . .
Come, let us go up to Zion to the LORD our God.” Jeremiah 31:3,4.

“Jesus paid it all!
All to Him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain – He washed it white as snow!”

A song of peace, rest, and truth from the Lord brings to remembrance God’s true Word:

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 
 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 
 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 
 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep John 10:11-13.
“You Lord, chose to be true to us, Your children. You didn’t run away. You committed to each of us, You faced the cross and taught us love.
Help us speak the hymns aloud and find a countenance that’s light:

“Lord, now indeed I find, Thy power and Thine alone, can change a lepers heart and melt a heart of stone.”
“Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe.

Sin had left a crimson stain
He Washed it White as Snow!”

Your sacrifice and offering are the vision and focus we need, to bring us joy.

Yes, we choose to abide and dwell in praise and thankfulness. Our countenance is changed to shine Your gentleness.

You remind us, we’re simply passing through. We will look up and sing, and have a washed heart and joy:

“And now before the Throne, I stand in Him completeJesus died my soul to save, my lips shall still repeat,

“Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain
He Washed it White as Snow.“

Praise will change my countenance moment by moment, today!

A Snapshot of God’s Abounding Love

The King of King has proposed to His Bride. He stopped the world from busy-ness for a short time.
He presented His ring and asked,

“Will you be Mine?”

I had to take a snapshot of this heavenly image so the picture would impress daily the Lord’s point of view.

So, as I wake this new morning, knowing He sees and knows all my flaws, . . .

I rise with my heart taking hold of His hand, and my feet hit the floor as I think, “Lord, I do.”

“Lord, I’m amazed by You. How can You love me just as I am?”

“I AM WHO I AM, Jehovah God is My name. I am love. I love everyone. For all eternity I am the same.

I AM The LORD, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 

There is no Love greater. I AM the LORD. Faithful and True is My name.

But to all who receive Me and believe on Me, I give right to welcome into My family.
Will you be Mine? Today, and for all eternity? It doesn’t matter how you feel. My love is above all Love, “I will betroth you to Me.”

Hosea 2:20, Exodus 3:14, 1 John 4:7-12, and John 1:12, This is My Word. I love you, still.

With each step you take, on this day forward, will you be . . .”
“Yes Lord, I will!

You wore a crown of thorns so I can someday wear a crown of gold. I worship You with a thankful heart. I am Yours.

Here is my hand, I receive Your Love. I am thankful forever that You promise to keep me and hold, . . .

To keep me and hold. You, my Love have promised to never, ever,
let go.”

(And this is my Thanksgiving prayer, that I show off my “ring” in every remaining song I sing. Who will say, “Amen, and pray to join me?!)
Happy, Happy, Thanksgiving.

Exodus 3:14, God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.”

1John 4:7-12, Beloved, let us love one another,

for love is from God,

and whoever loves has been born of God

and knows God.  

Anyone who does not love does not know God,

because God is love. 

In this the love of God was made manifest among us,

that God sent his only Son into the world,

so that we might live through him. 

 In this is love, 

not that we have loved God but that he loved us

and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

  Beloved, if God so loved us,

we also ought to love one another. 

 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another,

God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

John 1:12, But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

Revelation 19:11-21, Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True,

and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 

 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems,

and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.  He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood,

and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.

  And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, 

were following him on white horses. 

 From his mouth comes a sharp sword

 with which to strike down the nations,

and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

 He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

  On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

Romans 11:33, Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

And to the Word, powerful and rich, we speak in an audible voice, “Amen.”

a prayer for the morning

Today, Lord God, give me a teachable heart. Let my mind bend and not be fixed and stubborn.
Give me willingness, that I might listen.

Teach me honor. What it means to honor You, my Father in heaven. What is honor to mother and father and family, or those who most closely watch over me?

Your Book is not all honey, it brings light to my faults. May I make changes toward harmony. Search me and show me where to start.

Take the critical and bitterness out. Season the words from my mouth . . . with salt.
Teach me to put other’s interests and ideas above my own. Minute by minute, I can’t do this alone.

Make me to lie down, and discover Your pastures, they are sufficient for me. To Be still and know “true love.” Give me sight that I might “see”
that perhaps, I need to make things right.

To turn around in my ways and consider Your broken heart. Today. Today, let me walk in a new light.

Create in me a clean heart, O God.

Mold me into a vessel for Your glory and not mine. As well watered clay, transform me . . . by Your love.

Help me live this day, as if it were my last day in earthly time . . .

In Jesus name, Amen. Hear my morning prayer, again, and again.

Psalm 51: 1-15, to be read aloud, that we might hear with our ears, the sounds, and let God’s love abound:

Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
    blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
    and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
    and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
    sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
    you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins
    and blot out all my iniquity.

10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
    or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    so that sinners will turn back to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
    you who are God my Savior,
    and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 Open my lips, Lord,
    and my mouth will declare your praise.