Happy Father’s Day, Abba!  Thank You for being such a good and gracious Father. Thank You for life, for saving me, for bringing me out of darkness and into Your marvelous Light.  Thank You for  being so incredibly patient in Your relentless pursuit of my heart.  Thank You for loving me and accepting me—always.

There are no words to express the fullness of who You are and what You have done for me, so on this day I will use the inadequate human words I have used so many times before and simply say “thank You.”  I wish I could give You more.  But instead of wasting valuable time and energy trying to give You things You haven’t even asked for, help me to give You what you really want—which is all of me.  All of the affections of my heart.  All of my mind and all of my strength.  All of my trust.  All of my dreams.  All of my hopes and all of my plans.  All of them, all of the time. 

God, I don’t want to hold anything back.  I’ve said that so many times, but each time you peel back another layer and show me those things I am holding back just a little.  It’s never a lot.  It’s never intentional.  Never in rebellion or disobedience, just those places I’m stuck in the ways and thoughts of this world.  But they are there none-the-less and I hate them!   Deliver me, Lord!   It would absolutely break my heart to discover at the end of my days here on this planet that I could have given You more.  I can’t even handle the thought of that, so take it all now—please.  Continue to burn the chafe away here and now, so that what remains is pure and real.  May my love and worship rise as a sweet aroma before Your throne.

Father, You gave me Your best.  You gave me Your all.  I want to love You with that kind of love.  I want to give You my all.  It’s NOT  a sacrifice—it is my joy.  Anything less would cause me sorrow upon sorrow. Wake me up, Lord, in those places I prefer apathy to action–and especially in those places I prefer safety and ignorance to the risk and pain of truly knowing Your heart. I don’t want to be sleeping when Your heart is breaking, when Your desire has yet to be fulfilled.  But don’t let me mistake activity for productivity, either.  Don’t ever let me throw myself into busyness and miss the “one needful thing”—sitting at Your feet listening to Your Word and hearing Your heart.

Lord, Your grace is so real and so sweet that it is sometime easy to use grace as an excuse for my sloppiness rather than as that which equips me for holiness.  I don’t ever want to just do what You require—I want to do what you desire.  You will never force any of us to make that choice—ever—but I choose Your best and highest willingly because I want You to have all that You paid for in my life.  I want to be all You hoped and imagined my life to be.  I want You to have the greatest satisfaction possible from my life.  And then, since You are a God of the impossible, I want You to have even more than that.  

So take it all, Lord.  Bind me to the altar with Your strong cords of love, so I can never wiggle off when the fire is too hot.  Set me as a seal over Your heart and pour me out, God—every last drop—whatever that looks like and wherever it leads me.  I want You to spend me, completely and utterly, for Your glory and Your pleasure—now and forever.

It’s the only gift I can give You.  It’s the only one You want.

I love You.In the priceless name of Your Son,

Well, I have been so busy the last week that I really don’t have any energy left over to even try to be creative, so instead I’ll just ask for prayer:

-Prayer to not be moved and to keep pressing on toward the goal.

-Prayer to not make a busy season worse by getting even busier in my head than I am in reality.

-Prayer to not lose today on the way to where I am going.

-Prayer to wait for God’s perfect timing in ALL things.

-Prayer to be kind and patient with others even though I’m feeling cranky and pressed.

-Prayer to remember that there are good days and bad days in every season…to enjoy the good and remember that even the not-so-good are important — they are the ones that help me grow and give me the best opportunities to trust Jesus more.

-And, most importantly, prayer to remember to keep looking up — each time I do I realize (again!) that His grace is truly sufficient and He is the ONLY One I need to please.  Fortunately that is not nearly as difficult as I sometimes make it out to be.

Things are moving warp speed along and the official opening of the prayer room is fast approaching (July 7).  Add that to being in the midst of the two busiest weeks of the year at my other “job” (the one that pays me!) and it is probably no surprise that I am exhausted.  But God (aren’t those sweet words?) has been faithfully sustaining me and I know the current craziness really is only temporary.  I appreciate each and every one of your prayers!

With gratitude,

Cindy 

Okay, here’s the deal.  I started writing a Part 2 to last week’s post, “I Need Jesus” but it turned into a devotion and I felt compelled by the Holy Spirit to scratch what I had planned to post to the website as the devo for this week and use the one I ended up writing on the blog this morning instead.  But that left me with a dilemma…nothing to post here this week.  And, since I am really trying to be disciplined to write something on this blog at least once a week, I am left with nothing but uninspired babble rumbling through my brain.

Okay, something to say, something to say…wow, anyone who knows me knows that is not usually a problem for me!  So I guess I’ll just leave it at this … lately I am on a rollercoaster.  Excited one minute, overwhelmed and discouraged the next.  Faith-filled one minute, fear-filled the next.  Feeling strong and confident one minute (okay, admittedly for me, those moments are rare!), weak and insecure the next .  But really, that is just the stuff that life is made of (at least life on this planet).  The trick is not to let our rollercoaster emotions move us from the gaze of Jesus and from standing firm where He has planted us.

So that’s my prayer. ..for you and for me…to stay before the gaze of the Lord through every season, every day, and in every moment of life.  Even the uninspired ones.