Heavenly Father, I praise You for Your word and for inspiring and trusting us to write it down after many years of memorizing it orally and telling the story of all who have served You and come before. I especially praise You for the four gospels, which give us differing perspectives of the time of Christ. I praise You that Your Holy Spirit would fill these people when Christ ascended into heaven so that they would be devoted to spreading the good news even though it would mean a martyr's death for many of them.
Holy Spirit, You inspired John to write: John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but I have been sent before Him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the bridegroom's friend, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. [John 3:27-30] Help me to live my life so full of Your Spirit within this living temple that as a living sacrifice I will
reflect the light of Christ so that all will witness His glory that reigns within me and that I will be just a conduit and not the focus. Help me to learn to have the mindset of Paul, where I am so consumed with Christ that I am at peace whether I live or die because my all in all is Christ who is within me. Let me never boast of myself but only what God has done for me and through me.
And this is my prayer: let my love abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that I may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. Amen. Philippians 1:9-11