Heavenly Father I praise You for today. I praise You for all of Your creation and that You are a God who is involved with all of Your creation. I praise You that we are able to take command of our mornings through You so we can shake the evil out of it.
Holy Spirit help me to grow in wisdom from Job. Help me to learn from chapter one that even though You granted Satan to test Job, Satan is not on equal footing with You and must get permission from You. I also know that this is a good example of our free will to respond. I know there will come a day when this world is done and we will either have ended up in heaven or hell and from that point on we will be able to serve God and witness that interaction at all times. Sin will be gone, Satan and his angels will be gone and death will be gone. Until then, we live in a broken, sinful world where at times it seems like sin and Satan are temporarily winning. You are still on the throne and still in control. I take what Isaiah said to heart: For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in You. And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore. But your eyes shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it.” He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure. [Isaiah 55:8&9; Isaiah 26:3; Isaiah 30:20&21; Isaiah 33:6]
Help me to keep my mind focused on You, to be reassured that You are my foundation, my salvation, and my wisdom. Help me to fear You with a healthy fear that puts into perspective that I am Yours and that You created me for a purpose and to live within Your will. Let me die out to self and to live and serve with all that I am and with all that I have. Help me to constantly renew my mind and never give into cursing You and giving up.
Therefore, let me not sleep as others do. But let me be alert and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But let me, who is of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not appointed me to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for me, so that whether I am awake or asleep, I will live together with Him. So, I will comfort myself, and edify my brothers and sisters. I will acknowledge those who labor around me, and/or are appointed over me in the Lord, and instruct me. I will esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among the members of the body of Christ. I have been exhorted, to warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint-hearted, support the weak, and be patient toward everyone. I will not render evil for evil to anyone. But always seek to do good to others. I will rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning me. I will not quench the Spirit. Nor will I despise prophecies. I will examine all things. Firmly hold onto what is good. Abstain from all appearances of evil. May the very God of peace sanctify me completely. And I pray to God that my whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. For I know that faithful is He who calls me, for He also will do it. Amen. 1 Thessalonians 5:6-24