No Loitering

Revelation 19-22

No Loitering

Genesis 19:16 – But [Lot] lingered.  So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand because the LORD was merciful to him…

Lord God, I can hardly believe how much I am like Abraham and Lot and linger in my sin.  I clearly see the stupidity of lingering in Sodom and loitering in lying.  And yet they both do it.  And so do I!  I see the danger of sin and yet I want to linger in it.  I am not quick to give it up.  This is just plain dumb because my sin will be the death of me, and a far worse death than the fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah.  O God, in the face of my stupid stubbornness.  I marvel at your mercy that snatches me from the fires of hell.  You have grabbed me by the collar and have come to pull me out.  By your mercy, teach me to run away from sin and temptation. By your mercy, set my feet on paths pleasing to you.  Amen.

Life now.

Revelation 14-18

John 5:24 – Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.  He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Lord God, I live and act sometimes like I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders.  I live as if it were all up to me.  And then I look at the daily grind and long for it all to be over. I look the future for hope and wait with expectation for what you are preparing for me in heaven.  I can’t wait for that.  But Lord, you show me here that I can live now, that you have given me life already now, today.  Even now.  Today.  I have as my very own possession eternal life.  I have, already today, passed from death to life.  There is no judgment for me.  You have already declared my verdict; I am not guilty.  You will raise me from the dust of the earth on the last day; I will live with you forever.  And even now, already today, you promise to be with me and even play for me – you, Lord Jesus, are for me and not against me.  You understand the struggles I face and you can help me.  In fact, you want to and even do help me.  You invite, yes, even urge me to come into your presence with anything at any time.  I don’t have to wait until heaven to enjoy your blessings.  Grant joy to my spirit by your Spirit because of the life I already have from you.  Amen.

Dear friends,

It has been a joy to share these daily prayers with you.  It has been a great accountability for me in my own devotions and prayers.  I pray that these have served you well.

I am going to continue to post daily prayers as the Lord gives me strengths at this location: https://my242church.com/daily-prayer/.  I’ve begun a new year of readings there.  You will notice that you do have the option of subscribing to an email when new blog posts.  You can still get these emailed to your inbox, but you will need to subscribe there.

I will finish posting here the plan that we started together last year and then post exclusively on our new website and blog site. Please join us there.

We are his and we work for him!

Pastor Nate

Always a Student

Revelation 11-13, Proverbs 1:1-19

Always a Student.

Proverbs 1:5-6 – Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.

Lord God, I know that this is good advice and good counsel from Solomon.  He rightly urges me to constantly be a student and to increase my knowledge.  He rightly tells me that it takes work on my part to grow up. I know, O Lord, that it is the Holy Spirit’s work to give me faith, to give me wisdom, and to transform my heart and life by the Word that I study. And, at the very same time, you urge me to do the work of a student, to learn, to listen, to wrestle, to chew.  I confess that I have often passively sat in my student’s desk and have not engaged in the study of your Word.  I have listened to a sermon without doing the work of a listener.  I have read your Word without wrestling with it, meditating on it, and chewing it.  Questions about your Word have come to my mind, but I have not expended the effort and energy to go get answers and learn from you and from others. I’m sorry that I have sat idly.  I have grown stale and stagnant.  Today, I ask, help guide and support my pastor as he prepares a meal of God’s Word for me.  Give him your Words so that he rightly speaks as your agent of grace to me. Help and prepare me to hear from him.  Help me to listen in study and in sermon.  Help me actively listen, engaging my mind and my heart. Make me a student that I might apply your Words spoken during Bible study and worship to my heart and life.  Your Word is always relevant and I can never know it well enough.  Grow me by your Word tomorrow and every day.  Amen.

My Reward is with my God

Revelation 5-10

Lord God, I get so caught up in circumstances, situations, feedback, and results.  I set my plans and find joy in success, but discouragement in even moderate failure.  I do my work and find joy in positive feedback, but confusion when there is no return on my effort, no feedback.  “Is it even making a difference,” I sometimes wonder.  I often measure myself and my work by the results of my work and the follow through on my goals.  O God, you yourself set goals and made plans.  And, since you are God, you did follow through on those absolutely perfectly.  You followed through and you finished.  You even won me for your cause and purchased me for your kingdom.  I’m glad and thankful that your plans included my salvation.  I’m honored that your plans include using me!  Help me see and understand, however, that my plans are always under your plans.  Insofar as my plans are serve you, bless them.  When my plans go against your plans, redirect them to serve your kingdoms cause.  Most of all, satisfy me with simply knowing that I work for you.  Let my job satisfaction be not in how it turns out nor in how people respond to me.  Let me find joy in my work not be in the fruit, but simply in the sowing and the reaping, in the work itself. Let me work with gladness because I work for you as a son, not as a slave.  You, o God, are my shield and protector. You are my reward, my everything.  Satisfy me this morning with your unfailing love that I may be glad and sing all day long.  Amen.

Trials Teach

Revelation 1-5, Psalm 119

Trials Teach

Psalm 119:54 – Your statutes have been my song in the house of sojourning.

Lord God, I often chafe under discipline.  I chafe under your rebuke. I don’t like it at all, not one little bit.  But Lord God, I see your work in this when I take the time to step back and ponder.  It is during those times of discipline and trouble that I find myself back in your Word.  It is during those times to trial that I cling to your promises more tightly and they become more dear to me.  Lord I am beginning to see, more clearly than ever before, that in trial and discipline you strip away everything from me except your Word so that your Word and your promises is all that I have.  And that’s a good thing.  Your Word filled with your promises is the one thing that will never disappear or disappoint.  You, God, are the one I cling to with all my heart.  Teach me to love trials and to rejoice in them.  They teach me wonderful things.  They teach me to sing of your unchanging and unchangeable promises.  Amen.

Dear friends,

It has been a joy to share these daily prayers with you.  It has been a great accountability for me in my own devotions and prayers.  I pray that these have served you well.

I am going to continue to post daily prayers as the Lord gives me strengths at this location: https://my242church.com/daily-prayer/.  I’ve begun a new year of readings there.  You will notice that you do have the option of subscribing to an email when new blog posts.  You can still get these emailed to your inbox, but you will need to subscribe there.

I will finish posting here the plan that we started together last year and then post exclusively on our new website and blog site. Please join us there.

We are his and we work for him!

Pastor Nate

Give me Understanding

1 John 1-5, 2 John 1, 3 John 1, Psalm 119

Give me Understanding

Psalm 119:34 – Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with all my heart.

Lord God, your word is sometimes a closed book to me. I read it but I’m not getting what you’re saying.  The words all string together, but I am not sure what you are trying to communicate to me.  Give me understanding.  Grant me a greater and deeper understanding to me of your word.  Help me to understand not just the words that you say, but the meaning that you intend.  Help me understand not just in my head, but also in my heart that yours words may transform me into the image of your Son. Yes, Lord God, pour out your Holy Spirit on me in full measure that I may understand, believe, and do the things that you say.  Amen.

Dear friends,

It has been a joy to share these daily prayers with you.  It has been a great accountability for me in my own devotions and prayers.  I pray that these have served you well.

I am going to continue to post daily prayers as the Lord gives me strengths at this location: https://my242church.com/daily-prayer/.  I’ve begun a new year of readings there.  You will notice that you do have the option of subscribing to an email when new blog posts.  You can still get these emailed to your inbox, but you will need to subscribe there.

I will finish posting here the plan that we started together last year and then post exclusively on our new website and blog site. Please join us there.

We are his and we work for him!

Pastor Nate

Run, Christian, Run!

2 Peter 1-3, Jude, Psalm 119:32

Run, Christian, Run

Psalm 119:32 – I will run in the way of your commands, for you have set me heart free!

Lord God, I would love to run with my feet the paths of mountains and valleys, plains and plateaus, but there is so much holding me back. My fitness.  My health.  My physiology.  Even my own desire; I just don’t want to.  That’s the way I feel about you commands.  I want to run in the path of your commands, but there is so much holding me back.  I am held back by guilt and shame for the way I have behaved in the past and how I have failed to measure up to the glory of your commands.  I am held back by the pressure of the expectations; it’s hard to perform under pressure.  I am even held back by my own sinful weakness!  I am so frail, so sinful, so weak.  But Lord, Jesus, your mercies are new this morning.  You have set my heart free from the pressure of expectation by meeting all of God’s expectations for me.  There is nothing I have to do to meet God’s expectations.  They have all already been met.  You have set my heart free from the fear of punishment by suffering my punishment in my place.  There is no more punishment for me.  More!  You have even given me your Holy Spirit to work in me to will and to act according to your good pleasure.  Yes, Lord, I will run because you have set my heart free!  Amen.

Dear friends,

It has been a joy to share these daily prayers with you.  It has been a great accountability for me in my own devotions and prayers.  I pray that these have served you well.

I am going to continue to post daily prayers as the Lord gives me strengths at this location: https://my242church.com/daily-prayer/.  I’ve begun a new year of readings there.  You will notice that you do have the option of subscribing to an email when new blog posts.  You can still get these emailed to your inbox, but you will need to subscribe there.

I will finish posting here the plan that we started together last year and then post exclusively on our new website and blog site. Please join us there.

We are his and we work for him!

Pastor Nate

Moving Blog Posts

Dear friends,

It has been a joy to share these daily prayers with you.  It has been a great accountability for me in my own devotions and prayers.  I pray that these have served you well.

I am going to continue to post daily prayers as the Lord gives me strengths at this location: https://my242church.com/daily-prayer/.  I’ve begun a new year of readings there.  You will notice that you do have the option of subscribing to an email when new blog posts.  You can still get these emailed to your inbox, but you will need to subscribe there.

I will finish posting here the plan that we started together last year and then post exclusively on our new website and blog site. Please join us there.

We are his and we work for him!

Pastor Nate

Open the Eyes of my Heart

2 Timothy 1-4, Psalm 119

Open the Eyes of my Heart

Psalm 119:18 – Open my eyes so that I may see wonderful things in your law.

Lord God, your Word is like a bottomless pit of wonders.  It is like a treasure trove into which I can dive and continually bring out treasures old and new.  It is like a tasty desert that brings delight to my mouth.  It’s true, however, that I often read it out of duty, doing the rite thing for the rote reason.  I go through the motions of your Word and I do not delight in it.  I do not marvel at it, not because your Word is not delightful but because my heart is closed and crusty toward it.  I pray, keep my devotion time with you from becoming rote.  I pray, help me to marvel at your word and to crave it as I do a tasty treat.  Open my eyes that I may continually go further up and further into the wonderful things of your word.  Keep me always and constantly in awe of you and of your Word.  Amen.

Keep me.

Hebrews 9-13, Psalm 119

Keep me.

Psalm 119:10 – I have sought you with all my heart; don’t let me wander from your commands.

Lord God, I see it so often in the Scriptures.  I see it so often in the lives of people around me.  They seek you for a while and then worry and anxiety, and then tragedy, and then just the business of life pulls them away.  The people of Israel had a history of it.  I even feel the pull of this in my own heart and life.  Your Word, O Lord is good.  I am seeking you in it with all my heart, with as much of my strength as I can muster.  I am week, but I’m seeking you.  Please help me, I pray, to stay faithful to you.  Don’t let me wander off and go on my own way.  Don’t let the busyness of life distract me from the one thing that I really need.  Don’t let the worry and stress of my life crowd out the peace that comes from you.  Don’t let tragedies convince me that you don’t love me.  I know you that you do.  You, Lord, are good.  You, Lord, and powerful.  Work in my heart and my life to keep me close throughout this new year.  Amen.