Sue O’Donnell. 28.12.20
“The righteous cry out and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles ...and saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him (her) out of them all.” (Psalm 34 v 17, 18, 19)
O Lord, I cannot love You
Unless You first love me
And come to me regularly.
Daily in fact is ideal.
I need to feel Your closeness,
Listen to Your outreaching, Lord Jesus,
Respond to Your friendship
Make You my worship.
For all of this Your Spirit,
He who is the power of the holy,
Is as necessary to me as fresh air.
In no other way will I learn,
And importantly really yearn,
To tread in Your footprints, Lord Jesus.
I have to act as You do,
Which means thinking, deciding,
Speaking and re-acting like You,
All of this done lovingly.
If there is any hope of this happening,
Of us becoming more loving,
Day by day in the Lord Jesus’ way,
Then we have to pray!
We must not find excuses
Such as not to pray because we are busy.
If we are as busy as this,
With no time to pray,
Then we are too busy and should not be!
“This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118 v 24)
We must never lose sight
Of the reason for Christmas.
Awareness of why Jesus is born,
Come amongst us as holy love,
Is to connect with heaven above.
Let us then decide firmly
We will pray daily.
Not simply asking for our needs,
But genuinely worshipping
With love in our hearts,
Responding to the gifting of Jesus.
His Nativity is a mystery.
His life of service is not!
We also are called to ministry,
Working with love like Christ Jesus.
Love now known, shown
We must love like this.
The goodwill of Christmas
Is dependent upon us.
Let us pray then, day by day,
Not to waste any opportunity
To become a blessing.
Let us bless as our Father blesses us,
With heaven’s gift of Christ Jesus,
Lifting up our hearts by hope.
A hope that will never disappoint us,
For Christ Jesus is the Saviour amongst us.
“For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” (Luke 19 v 10 the Truth)
“May the Lord continually bless you with heaven’s blessings as well as with human joys.” (Psalm 128 v 5 TLB)
Dearest Father, it is because the Lord Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, teaches us to trust in You, Your incredible holy power which is always lovingly merciful and kindly supportive, because of this we can be happy. To pray
helps us to become holy and becoming holy means we feel happy!
Lord God, I cannot love properly, fully, continually, unless I become more like the Lord Jesus. I cannot become more like Him unless I become holy. I will not be holy unless I pray. May the Holy Spirit remind me to pray at all times.
Many pray when surrounded by difficulty and this is the correct course of action. But how much better to pray simply because we want to worship and offer all thanks for our new life in the Lord Jesus, our highest
worship.
Dearest Father, may all believers pray daily to develop love and be happy, certain that Jesus walks with us and confident that the Holy Spirit always impacts upon us in a godly way, for He cannot come in any other way.
Therefore I ask that all we do each day begins with Your loving inspiration and continues under the loving guidance of the Holy Spirit, enhancing and emphasising our friendship with Christ Jesus.
We strive towards holiness. We must keep praying and working until one day, only You Eternal Father, know how far away, we will reach the perfection You hope for us in the Lord Jesus, qualifying us for entry
to heaven.
For now, let Jesus’ friendship and the impulse of the Holy Spirit, guide us in our decisions and actions made lovingly, sincerely. When things do not work out as we expect or hope, please keep us persevering and
praying.
This season of goodwill we need to judge wisely the things of heaven, whilst our feet are firmly fixed upon earth, helping to maintain and extend the heavenly kingdom our Saviour Brother came to establish.
May prayer keep us in the presence of the Trinity, not straying for we do not disobey the overall command to love each other in the way You holy Father, have loved us through Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit enabling us
to discern this.
Your Spirit has made us Your children, happy to be led closer and closer to Jesus. No longer do we fear nor doubt the power of holy love, well able to change life radically.
Thank You that through the Lord Jesus, You enable us to receive the Spirit who always encourages and enables us to live as Your child, calling You ‘Father, my Father’ or ‘Daddy, my Daddy’, ‘Abba’.
We are so grateful that the prayer building Spirt enables us to trust fully and depend completely on Your love and mercy as revealed to us in the birth, life of ministry, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
We have been made heirs of Christ Jesus, heirs of holy love, wisdom, truth, peace and justice practised. It is by this the world inherits countless blessings and in heaven we will share in Jesus’ eternal glory.
May this certainty, this hope and promise always guide our steps on earth as we live by faith, prayerfully.
“This involves honouring others above ourselves and always being eager to serve the Lord by doing whatever He asks of us, and doing it with all our hearts.” (Romans 12 v 1 The Truth) Then we will trust and be happy! Amen.
Images by Artist Christine Garwood
http://www.christinegarwoodartist.co.uk/
Season
CHRISTMAS
Key Themes
KINGDOM
TRUST
