Recognition of Jesus In Every Moment

[S] Mark 3:11 --
Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they would fall down before Him and shout, "You are the Son of God!"

[O] Here we are trying to learn the ways of the "clean" (Holy) Spirit and yet we unrecognize Jesus in our midst and yet the unclean spirits never missed a beat of recognizing Jesus and submitted under His authority.  As a follower of Jesus shouldn't we be falling down before Him and praise Him whenever we encounter Him?

[A] Every moment, take my eyes off what I am so involved with and recognize Jesus at work and then submit under His authority with praising.  I am not doing this enough throughout the day.

[P] Dear Jesus, I want to recognize You and worship You every moment of the hour in each day.  Please let me be in Your presence at all time as I ask in Your name.  Amen.

Fear Before Wisdom

[S] Psalm 111:10 --
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
A good understanding have all those who do His commandments;
His praise endures forever.

[O] I've been seeking wisdom in a couple of areas in my life but it really meant that I was searching for solutions to the issues I'm facing so I may move on with my life.  The psalmist reminded me through this passage, however, that I first have to place God at the throne where He belongs and only with such a heart God will grant wisdom in my life.  Because I've been trained all my life to seek solutions when faced with issues, this principle always catches me off guard as He doesn't want me to go looking for solutions but to seek Him first as my God and King, and once I follow His principles, then He will put praise in me forever which ultimately is where I want to be.

[A] Have I pushed out Jesus from the lordship of my life and have I taken over to find "my ways?"  I need to be careful whenever I am faced with challenges in my life not to shift into working things out on my own.  I need to fear God and commit myself to follow His principles.

[P] Dear Father, please sustain in me the praises toward You as I commit to follow Your ways and to seek Your wisdom before I take things into my own hands.  Please restore in my heart the rejoicing for who You are and what You have done and will do for me.

My Last Prayer

[S] 1 Chronicles 29:11-13 --
11 Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.  12 Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. 13 Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.

[O] This prayer comes from David near his death, after announcing his Solomon as the next king.  He has prepared a ton of materials enough for Solomon to build the temple and yet he gives all the glory to God here and that's really amazing.  I wonder how I would be after living my life to the full -- would I be so satisfied with my own achievements or would I be like David here to recognize the hand of God in and through my life and then to pass that on to my children's generation?

[A] Everything comes from God -- wealth and honor and he rules over all things.  This is a refreshing and powerful truth quenching my dried up soul especially as I struggle with a tough work situation.  I need not question but to acknowledge Him as my soul provider of all my needs.  I claim that my wealth (not that I need to be rich) and honor (from my workplace) come from You!

[P] Dear God, I honor You and You alone who owns everything in this world and in heaven.  You deserve my praise despite all my (unfavorable) circumstances.  Please take joy with my praising You in Your Son's name.  Amen.

Set Free from My Prison

[S] Psalm 142:7 --
7 Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name.
Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me.

[O] The desire of praising God by this writer is clearly seen in this passage.  His request to be set free from "his" prison is so he may praise God's name which will bring the fruit of righteous people gathering together.  So many times we try hard to gather others through programs and plans of our own but God's way of gathering people is to set people free from their prison so they can praise God's name.  The focus is on Him.  And that is what is going to attract each other to gather.

[A] God's ministry needs a basic structure and programs to sustain it but once they become the end goal then we have deviated from becoming His followers and worshipers.  Deep down at the core, it should be about being set free from prison of my own in order to praise God's name up high.  This will gather the like-minded followers of Christ and out of that life-giving ministry will spring forth.

[P] Dear God, please free me from my prison.  I want to praise Your name every moment, through thick and thin.  Please gather others with the same passion to lift up Your goodness and to let the world know about such goodness.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Praise God Along

[S] Luke 18:34 --
43 Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him, glorifying God; and when all the people saw it, they gave praise to God.

[O] Bartimaeus regained his sight by asking Jesus to heal him.  Jesus healed many people (and He is still healing many people today by saving them into His Kingdom) and yet this blind man's response is astonishing because he glorified God and because of the way he did this, people recognized the works of God and gave praise go God also.  I don't know what type of a praise he gave, but the results were clearly impacting others to praise God along.  That must have been amazing to witness.

[A] If God is working in my own life (the answer is yes), then I should praise Him and my praise should be so evident that others watching me praise God should want to join me in praise.  I want to praise like Bartimaeus.

[P] Dear Father, thank You for Bartimaeus' story here to energize my praising power.  Let my praising not only honor You but rub off of others to praise You as well.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

What Comes Before Now

[S] Isaiah 37:20 --
20  "Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, Lord, are God."

[O] The word "Now" transitions Hezekiah's prayer from acknowledging who God is and what He is made of in verse 16 -- O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.  We tend to think of prayer as a way to make requests (thus we call it prayer requests) to God but before requests must come the recognition of who He is and why we need to make requests to Him.  If He is not better than we are, then why waste time making requests to Him.  It is only when I acknowledge that God is much bigger than what I can do my requests carry some weight and value.

[A] Before jumping into a list of my "requests" for God to do for me, I should worship and praise Him for who He is and what He is able to do in and around my life.  Then and only then my prayers like Hezekiah's prayer portrayed here will display His power and my requests answered in His ways and timing.

[P] Dear Father, I humbly fall before You today to fully acknowledge how BIG You are in my life and how You sit above all of this world in Heaven to lead us and to guide us to love us into Your bosom.  I cannot wish anything more than just that, to be right in Your presence because You hold and uphold me.  May this life of 1/6.5 billionth of this world give You joy because I will praise You and worship You despite my circumstances as I pray all this in Your amazing name.  Amen.