My Prayer for Marriage

o The Lord will have His rightful place, the first (the only) place. He is my first love.

o To live by faith

o To pursue others with faithfulness

o To honor my sisters

o To be pure, to be a man of honor

o That you will prepare my heart to be a home

o Lord, I want to be a one woman man, save my heart for my wife, and if or until I am married, Lord have my heart, in this.

o To trust that You will keep what I have committed to You

o To trust that You will meet my deepest needs and desires in this area

o You are the good Shepherd

o To lay it down at Your feet, to live fully as a single man - to commit myself to You (Being single is not to seek marriage, but to be free to seek the Lord undistracted, devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. We will pursue Him alone, seeking no other.)

Scripture

Joshua 1:8 "Do not let this book of the Law depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful."

Psalm 1:2,3 "His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night. H is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whos leaf does not wither."

Deuteronomy 8:3 "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."

Jeremiah 15:16 "When your words came, I ate them. They were my joy and my heart's delight."

John 17:17 "Sanctify them by the truth; Your Word is truth!"

I am concerned about their suffering

". . .I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land..." (Exodus 3:7-8)

. . . "I am concerned about their suffering." . . .

"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

"-but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

"For there is not distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high." (Leviticus 26:13)

Light penetrates darkness.

but for a moment

"Some wish to live within the sound of church or chapel bell, I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell."
- C.T. Studd


Abba, help me to become less, take away my selfishness, and help me to run after Your love.

Held

focus on me

I want to lay my life down for others. But I have noticed that I get in the way. When I strive to lay my life down, I get all jumbled and somehow the focus gets on me. No matter how much I hate it, I seem to be good at that. Only when, I admit I cannot do it and run into the grace of Christ, do I really serve.

breadth of ministry

If you concentrate on the depth of your ministry, God will take care of the breadth.

--John McArthur

Lord, come and find me

My pastor was told a story about lady who for years prayed "Lord, help me find You." She was frustrated because she never felt any closer to the Lord. One day she was talking to the pastor about the struggle and he told that she was praying the wrong pray. He said pray this, "Lord, come and find me." She did, and the Lord did find her.

Grace to love

My pastor read an ancient description of Paul, “a man small of stature, with a bald head and crooked legs, in a good state of body, with eyebrows meeting and nose somewhat hooked, full of friendliness for now he appeared like a man, and now he had the face of an angel.” I was struck by the description “full of friendliness”. I want people to feel loved and cherished and safe around me. I am humbled knowing that that’s not something I can be, nor am I there. There is definitely no place for me to boast. I don’t have the appearance or the social skills; all I have is Christ.

I am so thankful for His grace, that can take someone like me, who is so much of a wreck, and fill my heart with His love for others. He fills us with Himself, so that we can be " full of friendliness". It is His grace.

Listening

A while back my pastor was talking about ministering and presenting truth. He asked the question, "Are you more focused on teaching, then listening?" I look back on some of my experiences since my pastor spoke these words. Without realizing it the Lord has been working this in me. And listening has given me the opportunity to present the gospel in some powerful ways. When you present the Gospel, you are not just presenting the truth, but you are you are presenting Christ.