12/4/2020 Prayer

Battles are won in the trenches, in the grit and grime of courageous determination; they are won day by day in the arena of life.  -Charles R. Swindoll

Today was "trenches" day. Several battles happening - local, state, and federal.  Everywhere I turned someone was ringing the alarm bell and telling me time was running out and my particpation was mandatory!  The battle was critical and we had to fight harder.  That's fine for about 4 hours but once I hit 8 hours I was getting pretty spent. 
The good news is that is about the time that I started getting positive feedback that people were going and voting.  That they were indeed sending emails and calling our reps to be heard on an issue.  Many texts from my precinct telling me thanks for reminding them to vote.
We can all pour ourselves out for the things we believe in and for those causes which God calls us to, but we can get empty if we don't find a little encouraging nourishment.  Just a little sign, Lord, that all is not in vain.  Thank you, Father!

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God of Glory, thank You once again for the challenges You set before me in Your Word. With amazing accounts like Joseph and Paul, how can I complain when I think I am facing evildoers? Your mercy overwhelms me, when sometimes what I want to see is your judgment.  Your Word also reminds me that the scales of Your justice will balance in the end, and the day will come when all will bow before You. Let me be satisfied in the knowledge that I am Your child. Strengthen my faith, I pray; let me see how You are at work. I acknowledge Your sovereignty over all things. Blessed be Your Name, Amen.

• Praise God that He is sovereign and in control of all things.
• Pray that God will enable you to rest in His plans that He has laid out from the beginning and is working it out in You.
• Pray that God will lead you in forgiving any of those who have hurt you.
• Pray for the Holy Spirit’s help in finding contentment in knowing that all that happens to you is for a purpose.
• Pray that God will help you in being satisfied with His with and through.
• Pray that your relationship with God will continue to grow and deepen.
• For the president, vice president, the Cabinet, and their families as they prepare for the Christmas season.
• For the work that remains to be done by the president’s administration and Congress before years end.
• For Americans to draw closer to God as they celebrate the birth of His Son.

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ADVENT DAY 6 -True Knowledge
 
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Acts 11:19-26
 
I beg and beesech you, Lord: grant to all who have gone astray a true knowledge of you, so that each and every one may come to know your glory. –St. Isaac the Syrian
 
  In keeping with St. Paul’s words in Romans 12, Christians in every age are invited to be “transformed by the renewing of the mind.” Yet as people who live this side of the printing press, not to mention the internet or the iPhone, how are we to understand these ancient words when endless mental
stimulation and information lies just a few swipes or clicks away? While the mind can and should be renewed, it must never be isolated from the holistic transformation of being that is envisioned in and through the Incarnation.
  Jesus took on the fullness of humanity so that humanity in its fullness might be re-deemed. We must never forget, God wants to be known! As the Psalms remind us today, though we have all gone astray and live in self-made exile, our Lord in his kindness speaks to us and makes us able to hear (Ps. 85:8). True knowledge of God is never the abstract acquisition of facts but is an embodied encounter with the living Christ.
  Cliché as it may sound, we must remember that it is possible to live with a wealth of information about God without ever encountering his living presence. Faith must never be reduced to a mental pursuit. Advent teaches us that God loves his creatures in our creatureliness, so much so that he takes human nature upon himself. Every sense given to you is a gift from God that is able to lead you closer to him as you journey from this life into glory.