O Lord, You have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You go before me and follow me. You place Your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! I can never escape from Your Spirit! I can never get away from Your presence! If I go up to heaven, You are there; if I go down to the grave, You are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there Your hand will guide me, and Your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night—but even in darkness, I cannot hide from You. To You, the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to You. [Psalm 139:1-12]
Holy Spirit, You inspired the Apostle John to write, “Consider how much love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God. Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.” [1 John 3:1] I can claim through faith that I am Your child and that heaven is now my home to come to when I leave this world. Help me to stand on this promise when I face dark days and I feel adrift or alone. Help me to always be willing to pray to You so that I can rely on Your strength, Your love and Your power to get through whatever I am facing that seems so daunting.
Praise be to You, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed me in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose me in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined me to be adopted as his son through Jesus, in accordance with His pleasure and will—to the praise of His glorious grace, which he has freely given me in the One he loves. In Him I have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on me with all wisdom and understanding. And He made known to me the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In Him I was also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, so that I, who has the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory. And I also was included in Christ when I heard the word of truth, the gospel of my salvation. Having believed, I am marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing my inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. Amen. Ephesians 1:3-14