Happy New Year!
We here at the Rouse House want to wish you all the best this coming year. We hope that all your dreams come true and resolutions are fulfilled. Although, really, are resolutions so great? That has been the thought nagging at me all day.
At the beginning of 2008 I made my yearly resolutions: exercise, eat better, yell less, love more, slow down. The same "goals" I'd been setting for several years. Well, as many of you know, I didn't exactly excel at my resolutions. I'm busier than ever. Still don't exercise and I eat chocolate and Diet Pepsi for breakfast. I'm known as a bit of a yeller and could probably work on the lover part too! On top of all that, this year didn't go exactly as I planned. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe I'm taking the wrong approach. This year, no resolutions. Instead, I'm praying. This prayer was sent to me today through my daily devotion. I found it fitting. Instead of planning what I can and should do this year I'm going to pray for what God would have me do. I bet that if I follow God instead of my ideas, some of those old resolutions just might make it into my life!
Father, You are Holy and call us to be Holy. Yet, we confess that so often our hearts wander from You, our speech does not glorify You, and our actions do not honor You.
Soften our hearts to receive the words Your sweet Spirit has to speak to us.
Clothe us with humility. Take away our desire to always be right and have our own way.
Help us to seek Your Word in all that we say and do.
Help us to submit to Your Word; allow it to penetrate those deep places in our hearts that resist change.
If necessary, put us through the refiner’s fire to burn off those things that keep us from walking in step with Your character.
Give us hearts that love and seek after Truth above all else.
Give us wisdom and discernment to reject the lies of this world and the evil one.
Guide us into all Truth. Guard our hearts and keep our eyes fixed on You.
Grow in us those things that will make us more like You.
As we study Your Word, fill us and saturate us with You!
Today, Father, we surrender our thoughts, our speech, and our hearts.
Thank You that You are Faithful and True. We trust You will do a mighty work in us and through us this year and carry it on to completion until the day we step into eternity with You.
Help us to trust in You with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding.
Help us to acknowledge You in all our ways so that we can hear Your voice as You say, “This is the way, walk in it.”
Lord, we love You and thank You that You love us. May our lives be a living testimony of You. We ask this in the powerful and mighty name of Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord who will do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Resolutions? Prayers? Planning? Accepting? However you start your year, however you live your year, we hope it's the best year it can be! I know ours will be, even if it's a little bumpy!
I want to thank my many friends out there who have stood by me, held me up, made me laugh, let me cry and just over all blessed my life in 2008. I don't say it enough, but I love ya!
If you liked the prayer, check out www.proverbs31.org
