Almighty God, You spoke everything into motion. Speak to us now and speak us into the motion of Your love. Shield us from the storms and the crashing waves of this life and give us the courage to take a giant leap of faith so that we can hold on to Your word in all that we do.
Remind us that there are no pieces missing from the gospel. There is no exclusion of anyone from the grace and sacrifice that confronts us at the cross. God’s love is for all and even though we run from so many things we cannot escape the truth that we have all been saved and redeemed by the Son of God.
Because of Jesus, our past does not define us. Because of Jesus, we are free to live a life full of love. And when we meet our maker, the only thing that mattered in this life is our relationship with God and with each other.
Artwork in front of North Central University in Minnesota
Lord of all hopefulness and joy, You are the One with the strength that we need. You are the One that brings us hope from this broken world. We need Your strength to keep journeying on in this life in the only direction that we can…the direction that leads us back to You.
Your word changes everything that it touches. It brings us into the experience that is the Gospel. It connects us with the Living God because not even one word of God will fall short of it’s eternal truth. So let Your glory break down the mountains that we face by healing Your church. Remind us that we are not defined by our circumstances but we are redefined by our salvation in Christ as a child of God.
Lord reveal Your truth to us each moment of our lives so that when all the odds are stacked against us, then we can have the faith to accomplish things that we never thought we could. Let us move these mountains together, let us soar on wings like eagles and let us live this life by not letting it pass us by.
Lord God, make Your presence known to us. Calm the storms around us and anchor us in Your word so that we can experience You, respond to You, and grow our faith in Your truth.
Sometimes, when we look at the mirror, we forget that we were created by love to be loved. So turn our gaze off of ourselves and fix our sights on the truth that a perfect God would wrap Himself in our own imperfect skin and become the visible image of an invisible God. It is through Christ, that God leads us away from despair and carries away our burdens of disappointment.
“Because You, Lord, are our help. We sing in the shadow of Your wings. Our soul clings to You; You lift us up” Psalm 63.7
Lord, help us to keep on learning about You everyday. Show us glimpses of what love is so that we can love others with the same abandon as You love us. Thank You for life. Thank You for love. Thank You for being everything that You are.
You are the voice of the truth that we need to listen to. You have always been speaking to us but we so often fail to hear. Lord, focus our minds away from the chaos that surrounds us by giving us peace and the strength to stand firm upon Your Word.
Print Your truth onto our hearts. Call something out of us that wasn’t there before by engaging our imaginations, beyond the limitations of this world, so that we can believe in miracles again…so that we can dream again…so that we can just fully experience the presence of Living God.
Awaken us now, so that we can collide with grace, mercy and love. Speak to us so we can speak. Teach us so we can teach that heaven is real because God’s love is real and alive in all of us. For “there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28 NIV) Amen.
Lord of all creation, space and time, we thank You for the gift of each breath that we take. We pray that You will usher us into Your presence today by taking our gaze off of ourselves and fixing all of our focus on to the living Word of God.
Grab hold of us and let Your truth pour out into our hearts so that we can receive everything that You have to give. And even when taking one step forward seems too far away, we pray that You would just give us the strength to just get through the awkwardness of trusting You, so that we can believe in the miracles of grace, healing, love and forgiveness.
Give us the strength to face our fears knowing that God is in our side and that God’s love has already won the battle. Reveal to us that despair is not our destination because we never ever have to face these mountains alone.
Through Your Son, Jesus, we can face the cross and experience the presence of the Living God now, today and forever. For as long as there are people who need healing of the heart, mind, body and spirit, then we can all serve the Lord. We can serve the Lord by serving all of God’s children with the same love that served us on the cross.
Lord of all, thank You for being everything that You say You are. You are the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. The One who is, was and will always be in the presence of the world that You so love.
We step into Your presence today so that You can step into our story and interrupt the chaos of our lives. Let Your voice speak the truth that we need to hear right now so that when the world throws our mortality in our face, we can be still and know that God is greater than anything that we could possibly imagine.
Transform us. Change us. Humble us. Mend our every flaw so that we can live fully experiencing the miracle of life with each and every breath that You gift tous. For “if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old has passed away; and, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)
Lord, let’s try it Your way. Let’s live this life Your way. Let us let go and let God. For Your love never changes, it never falters and it will forever be the constant reminder that we never need to give up because the battle has already been won and we have victory now and forever. Amen.
Lord, we thank You for the gift of waking up to another sunrise and the privilege of coming into Your presence one more time. As we hear Your story today, we pray that Your glory would be revealed to us because freedom is more than just a word. It is an experience.
Don’t let us forget You. Don’t let us forget those who followed You and led us to this moment. We can’t forget that we stand on the shoulders of those believers who have gone before us and sacrificed so much so that generations after them would be able to know God.
Life has always been and will always be about connecting with God, but the miracle that we all share is that God chose to connect with us. He connects with us through His Son, on the cross, as He paid the price by becoming guilty for our crimes and redeemed us in His resurrection and glory.
Lord, empty us of our ego and fill us with Your Holy Spirit so that we can stop pretending that we can handle this life on our own because we can’t. We cannot rely solely on our own strength or the strength of others because we will grow weary, but the Word of the Lord shall endure forever and shall eternally be the source of our strength and the strength of our life. Love is patient and love is kind. Love is Jesus, the living Son of God.
Several years ago my best friends mom made these origami for me. She is no longer with us and I can now return these gifts to my best friend for her wedding.
Loving Creator, You gave each of us a mother that gave us life. No matter what, we must honor our parents by loving them as You, our Heavenly Father, love us. We can lift them up instead of bringing them down. We can be thankful for their contribution to our lives instead of forgetting them. We can also forgive them as we have been forgiven. Each of us has the opportunity to reflect God’s love to all people. So let’s love those that gave us life and give thanks to those who have nurtured, cared for, and taught us even if we were not their children. Let’s watch over every mother who is currently with child. And let us help strengthen their faith and the faith of those around them in the truth of Jesus Christ. And for the child that yearns for a mother that is not there, we pray that the church will rise up for those that cannot help themselves. And for those who grieve for a mother that has left this world, we ask that You keep the memories of love, family and honor ever etched into the memories of their children so that the love of God, that dwells in all of us, will always connect us and bind us together from generation to generation until the end of time. Thank You, Lord, for the gift of life and for the gift of those who raised us. As we honor them, we honor You. To God be the glory.
This was my twist on the popular love song “Bless the Broken Road” by Rascal Flatts that I did at church for Valentines Day weekend as a way to say thank you to Jesus for always being my side through all of the ups and downs of my life.
I believe that everything that we experience, good and bad, simply leads us to His truth for our lives which includes all of the ups and downs and everything else in between. And as I get older, I can see that all of those times, places and people that maybe were not the most pleasant to experience, were merely preparing me to help find my way back to Him. And because of Him, I can forgive others as I have been forgiven because that burden is finally freed from my shoulder, so that I can really live this life in the way that He would want me to live. A life filled with grace that is sufficient for every possibility and circumstance that we will encounter on the road called life..
Yes, the road is broken but the journey always leads us back to confront the reality of the cross and the open arms of Jesus Christ. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him (John 3:17).” So if we do not have condemnation from a God that could/should condemn us for our mistakes, then how could we condemn others? Can we forgive those who trespass against us as we have been forgiven by Almighty God? Yes, I believe that we can.
We can only share or gift something that we have an abundance of. We have an abundance of amazing grace, love and forgiveness, so let’s share that gift that was given to us on this broken road called life. We can’t run to Him by holding on to the baggage of yesterday, so let’s just let go and let God by following His truth and message; that all people are children of God, who are loved as His unique creation, and need to be treated with dignity, compassion and respect. Amen.
Lord God, we come into this place today so that we can quiet down the world and turn up the volume of Your Word for our lives. We come here today with so many questions and concerns that weigh heavy on our hearts, but there is one question that You have already answered loud and clear: Are we loved? You say yes, we are so loved by God that He sent His only Son to free us from all of the wrong choices and decisions of this world. And it is from that same love that we can have the strength to let go of what once was and be made new and alive in Christ. For there is no ceiling that can limit God’s love and there is no wall or door that can shut us out from His grace and mercy. Even as we break Your heart with our sins that tore a chasm between us Lord. It is Your Son, Jesus, who is the bridge between anything that would separate us from God. It is Jesus who is the source of our strength and the strength of our life. It is Jesus who allows us to live and dwell in the presence of the Lord. So we stand here, in the midst of our joys and sorrows, and claim Your Son as our Savior, Redeemer and Friend. Amen.
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