Heavenly Father I praise You today for allowing me to live in a country where I am free to worship You. I praise You for creating me to live in this time and this place so that You can use me to accomplish Your will and fulfill Your plans. I ask today that You help me take command of my morning so that I can shake the evil out of it.
Holy Spirit I seek to understand and follow Your word when it was written: 19 And so, dear brothers and sisters,[f] we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. 20 By his death,[g] Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. 24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return draws near. For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, “Yet I will gather to him others besides those who are gathered to him.” That is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. [Hebrews 10:19-25, NLT, Isaiah 56:7&8; Romans 1:12] Help me to support and lift my church in prayer and to help my church to be a house of prayer and a refuge for the lost, the broken, the hurting, the least of these that Christ talked about in Matthew.
Holy Spirit I also bring my family before You and ask that You would put a protective hedge around them and keep them from evil and harm. Help them to understand and desire salvation and to come to You. Let me always lift them and back them with prayer and do my responsibilities as a husband, father, and grandfather. Help me to demonstrate Your love, Your mercy, Your grace and temper my tongue to only speak truth and love.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Holy Spirit help us to bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances we may have against one another. Teach us to forgive as the Lord forgave us. These virtues help us to put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, since as members of one body we are called to peace. Let us be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in us richly as we teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in our hearts to God. And whatever we do, whether in word or deed, help us to do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Amen. Colossians 3:12-17