Heavenly Father I praise You for today and for allowing me to go to church yesterday and be encouraged by fellow believers. I praise You for how You are using our church to reach our community and to grow as a body that serves Your kingdom and tries to love others. Holy Spirit Paul wrote to the Philippians sacrifice saying, “I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in your will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.” [1:6, MEV] I often wonder if he would have said that of me. I strive daily to be the living temple and sacrifice that Paul expounds on in Romans. I try to renew my mind and put off my old self and move forward in righteousness. But at times I come up short. I get frustrated, I get angry, I and fail to keep my thoughts organized and focused on what is right. I always come back to seeking Your leadership in my life to make me get back on to the path set before me so that I can live righteously. I know I will not achieve perfection while here on earth, but I would desire to be like Enoch and get so close I just walk off into heaven with You. As Paul also wrote to the Ephesians, “He would give you, according to the riches of His glory, power to be strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man.” [3:16] I seek this every day from Your Spirit to do Your will and to be strong and courageous in my walk, talk, and how I live.
I pray and ask that I may be filled with the knowledge of Your will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that I may walk worthy of the You, fully pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of You; strengthened with all might, according to Your glorious power, for all patience and long-suffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified me to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in the light. You have delivered me from the power of darkness and conveyed me into the kingdom of the Son of Your love, in whom I have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. You are the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by You, all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through You for You. And You are before all things, and in You, all things exist. And You are the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things You may have the preeminence. In Your blessed Son Jesus’ name, Amen. (Colossians 1:9-18)