Growing in Resilience: Help Me Home, based on Isaiah 63.19

Man-walking-on-bridge bw

Photo by John G at Campoutkid.com

Growing in Resilience
Day 24, Read Isaiah 63
Reflection: Help Me Home, based on Isaiah 63.19, The Voice

We’ve become like strangers to You,
Like people You never ruled,
Like those never associated with Your name.

My life looks the same as others
the same failures
the same unhealthy appetites
the same shame and loneliness
the same pain
the same sin

I live like I never enthroned you in my heart
Like I never claimed you claiming me

There was a time we were close
We’ve become strangers

I walked away
Strayed
Small choices
Sliding slowly

I turned my back
Gave my heart to other gods, false and failing
I didn’t remember

Lord have mercy

I have swept away your wrongdoing, as wind sweeps a cloud from the sky: I have cleared you of your sins, as the sun clears the morning mist. I have rescued you; come back to Me.- Isaiah 44:22, The Voice

Lord have mercy
Help me home

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Click Here for more on the Growing in Resilience Reading Plan sponsored by Bishop Ken Carter and the Cabinet of the Florida Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. 

Help Me Home © 2018 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
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My time, my talents, my calling- a prayer of surrender

srrrender quoteLord, the opportunities of the world stretch before me. Many are good but only a few are best. Many could be my path in you, but far fewer actually are.

My time is a gift from you
My time is precious
My time is short

My talents are a gift from you
They can only bless and influence
when focused and deployed with purpose

My calling is a gift from you
I cannot do all things
Save me from wanting to
and trying to

I surrender it all to you
I trust you

Focus my time and talents and calling for your greatest glory. I am at peace confident in your best purposes for me. Grant me courage to step forward faithfully and leave behind faithfully. Amen

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My time, my talents, my calling- a prayer of surrender © 2017 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
You are welcome to use this work in a worship setting with proper attribution.
Leave a comment for information and permission to publish this work in any form.

Devotion: Thy Will be Done

Jacob's Struggle 3 by Mardie Rees

Jacob’s Struggle 3 by Mardie Rees

Matthew 6:10
Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven

True love always involves choice. God gives us free will, yet invites us to submit to divine leadership and authority. Many of us struggle with this choice, wanting what we want, wanting to make our way in our own strength, yet needing the companionship, blessing and salvation of God. Mardie Rees captures this conflict in her work Jacob’s Struggle, based on the story of Jacob wrestling with God in Genesis 32:24-30. Jacob is divided. He looks up to God with an open hand of acceptance, yet his other hand is still clenched in a fist, grasping for control.

What do we mean when we pray, “Thy will be done?” Are we asking God to make us a mindless puppet? No. We are accepting the invitation to walk with God and be a part of God’s plan to save the world. We are saying, “God help me to know your will, trust your will, and do your will. Help me to want what you want.” We are never forced to make this decision. We do this willingly and joyfully because we trust God is good and is working all things together for good. We trust God can see hearts and situations and consequences far better than we can. We trust that God’s plan of hope and healing will never be diminished nor defeated. – Lisa <><

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It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. – JK Rowling

The loftiest privilege of human life is to do the will of God. – George W. Truett

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, “All right, then, have it your way.” – CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The everyday Jewish prayers of praise familiar to Jesus’ hearers begin, “Blessed is the Lord our God, Ruler of the universe,” or, “Sovereign of the universe.” Each time they pray, observant Jews name God as the one who is in charge. Contrast that with our individualistic attitudes: “A man’s home is his castle”; “I am the master of my fate”; “Look out for number one”; “What I do is no one’s business but my own.” We will be subject to no one. That is a foregone conclusion in the United States. We don’t even want a federal government that legislates behaviors — at least not behaviors that we don’t agree with.
Mary Lou Redding, The Lord’s Prayer: Jesus Teaches Us How to Pray

Stonewall Jackson, the great Christian soldier wounded accidentally by one of his own men, dying at the battle of Chancellorsville, said, “If I live, it will be for the best; if I die, it will be for the best. God knows and directs all things for the best for His Children. God’s will be done.”

Romans 8:28
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

O Lord, how wholesome and grand a thing it is to be willing towards Thee. I am willing, eagerly willing for Thy will to be done, and I feel all deeply joyful at the prospect for nothing can be so glorious as just Thy will. – Oswald Chambers, Knocking at God’s Door

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