Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your mouth is renewed like the eagle’s. The Lord does righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. I love the Lord, for He heard my voice; He heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned His ear to me, I will call on Him as long as I live. [Psalms 103:1-3; Psalms 116:1-2]
Holy Spirit, Jesus said, “If anyone will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a person if they gain the whole world and loses their own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul.” “Do not fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” In Hebrews the writer was inspired to write: “So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’” John was inspired to write: “God is love. Whoever lives in love live in God, and God in them. In this way God’s love is perfected in us, so that we may have boldness on the Day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. Whoever fears is not perfect in love.” [Matthew 16:24-26; Matthew 10:28; Hebrews 13:6; 1John 4:16-18]
Holy Spirit, I no longer fear death, I no longer fear criticism, I no longer fear what others think of me. I only fear disappointing God with wrong choices. I have been broken to the point in life that I only live because of the salvation of God which is in me. I live to learn more about my Savior and to have a personal relationship with Him. I live to be a living sacrifice so that I can daily renew my mind and do His will. I have brushed close to death more times than I would like to admit, but that no longer makes me fear. My fears are from the love I have for my family and that all of them will know God personally and be with me in eternity. I fear not living up to the potential of the gifts and abilities that God instilled into my life to make me who I am and who I will be.
Holy Spirit I pray today for one of my students in the prison who is an older gentleman. He just found out his brother was killed in a car accident, that his sister committed suicide upon learning this and just a month ago he lost his Aunt and Uncle to murder by a cousin of his. Life has slapped him in the face. I ask that You come along side him and speak life and hope into him as he grieves and tries to move forward while being incarcerated. I have learned and I hope one day he learns that true freedom only comes from You. I also ask that You would continue to heal Kayla and please touch and heal Jim, a friend of mine who is taking an experimental form of chemo as a last hope to life here. Be with his wife as she walks beside him through this very slow, painful journey.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (2Corinthians 1:3-7; Galatians 1:3-5)