Inviting God,
Thank you for the amazing and intricately complex Creation you have designed and set into motion. Thank you for placing humans in that delicate and perfect life-sustaining Creation. Thank you for your arms of love constantly trying to woo people so that they not only believe in you, but follow your will and your ways. Thank you for the simplicity of our choices – to believe or not; to trust you or not, to seek you or not, to live life serving you and other people or not. Thank you that when we ask, you hear us; that when we seek, we will find; that when we knock on your metaphorical door, you will answer. Thank you that each moment of each day we can choose to serve the Lord and to say, “Thy will be done.” Give us realization to know these choices as they come up and the courage and conviction to choose you every time. Then pour out your Spirit on those convictions so that we can live life as Salt and Light to this world that desperately needs you. Christ Jesus, we pray in your name, Amen.
|
The Teacher explains our power to choose: ‘There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.’ From The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis But if you refuse to serve the LORD, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15 NLT) “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7 NIV) “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” (Rev. 3:20 NLT) “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:13-16) |