Advent Week 2 - A Prayer of Joy

Read:  Isaiah 35:10, Luke 2:7-15, Nehemiah 8:10, 1 Peter 1:7-9

Dear Heavenly Father,

As we enter this second week of advent we consider joy in You. 

I thank You and praise you for the great and true joy that comes from knowing You!

As we sing songs of this wonderful season just as "Joy to The World", we remember that Jesus is our true source of joy. 

The Prayer of Jabez: Praying In Faith and Cutting Out Superstition

Read: 1 Chronicles 4:10, 1 John 5:14-15, Mark 11:24, Matthew 21:22, Hebrews 4:16 

The prayer of Jabez is a simple but very poignant prayer full of faith, however, to be very honest, it's not one that we should be superstition about thinking that just by speaking this amazing prayer or any prayer that God will do exactly what we ask. 

It should however expand our prayer life and faith in God's provision and goodness!

What I find is that we can often over-spiritualize or become superstitious about things like prayer thinking if we say or do certain things that that's the ticket to blessing or to release God's "bank account" upon us. 

Advent Week 1 - A Prayer of Hope

Read: Luke 1:26-38, Romans 15:12-13, Romans 5:1-5     

Dear Heavenly Father,

As we enter into this Christmas season, I praise you and thank you for sending Your one and  Only Son Jesus as He's our only hope. 

I praise You that Jesus is the hope of all mankind! 

I pray that we hold onto and never lose the true hope we have in You! May we carry it all year through and proclaim your goodness all year through. 

May You help us proclaim the truth that Christmas represents as captured in Your Word.

Help us not to put hope in anything or anyone that is temporal, rather, completely place our hope in You the never changing one! 

Help us to remember that You will never let us down!

Thinking about Thanksgiving...in the day-to-day

Read: Colossians 3:15-17, Colossians 4:2, Psalm 7:17, Psalm 28:7, Psalm 57:9, Psalm 69:30, Psalm 118:29, Romans 14:6, 1 Corinthians 15:57

Everyday, we have so much to be thankful for and we need to pause and reflect more on this fact.

First and foremost as believers we are thankful to God our Father in Heaven. We should be thankful for His great love in which He sent His Son to die on our behalf providing the way of salvation! 

With this, we are thankful for Jesus Christ and for His Spirit - the Holy Spirit actively working in our lives. We can be thankful for even the gift of life itself. 

Every breath that you and I take is truly a gift from God. There are so many seemingly mundane things we could thank Him for. So many things that we could make an infinite list in thanksgiving to God about, if we put ourselves to the task of making such a list. 

It really comes down to the attitude of our hearts and whether or not we choose to thank God and see His hand in every "little" and "big" aspect of our lives.