I adore you, my God. I cannot see or hear you, but I know you are beside me and in love with me. You are higher than the stars, louder than the thunder, gentler than the butterfly, deeper than the ocean, sweeter than a flower. They are all a touch of you. I bask in the warmth of your love, the gentle breezes of your mercy, the quietude of safety in you.

Lord, I lied. I did not tell a lie, but I failed to reveal the truth. I remained quiet and led someone to believe something that did not happen that way at all.  I knew the way it happened, but did not speak up. I must go to them and reveal the truth so you will forgive me.

Ah, my Lord, thank you for the Bible and revealing yourself in it. I never have to guess. Your mind is laid bare to me. You’ve exposed all your joys and pain, laughter and tears, hopes and desires, strengths and tenderness, justice and mercy. You dared expose yourself to me. All the rawness and transparency is there for me. Do I dare do less? My God, my hope is in you. My will I surrender to you. My heart I give you. My soul bows forever to you.

It is morning. The sun is red and gold with excitement, for you returned to earth life on a Sunday morning after all the earthquakes. You showed the world how you are indeed God who visited earth for 33 brief years. You light up the world and brighten my day. You bring love and laughter into my life and the stars sing. You take a step and the earth quakes. You breathe and the oceans roll. You smile and the deserts awaken.  Ah, Lord God, you are my world.

I feel as though I have looked for seekers all my life so I can bring them to you, but it is never enough. There are so few seekers. Help me find a way to meet them and recognize them. I am so far from doing what needs to be done.

I thank you because you are so powerful in what is right and never give in. You would not be God if you did. You are strong in justice but find ways to temper it with mercy.  When Satan accuses, you forgive. When Satan makes sick, you heal. When Satan creates bitterness, you create peace. When Satan trapped our souls and we could not break away, you materialized and took our punishment for us. You paid the death ransom because we were too weak. In your mighty power, you set us free. How amazing you are. In my sinfulness, you see me as white and pure.  My soul enlarges and bursts with deep thankfulness.

I praise you, God of glory. Your splendor is the light of your goodness and the richness of your comfort.  Your glory is your mercy when I do wrong and protection when others doing wrong toward me. You interrupt me when I am about to do that which I should not and you make me fail when I plan something that would betray you. You watch over me and it is too much to understand how you can. You know all my thoughts and prayers, actions and cares. You love me so much, refusing to let me go, I can only worship you.

Lord, I lusted after someone’s new car. I didn’t even know the owner of the car, nor did I care. I just wanted to have a shiny new car like that and even dreamed about it. How silly. Forgive me.

Thank you for all you did over the centuries to save mankind from our own sins. It took you thousands of years to straighten out our mess. We had to be led step by step to see that we couldn’t save ourselves by creating our own religion or by following the rules you gave through Moses. It took us thousands of years to see just how far we had fallen and how serious our fall was. We couldn’t lift ourselves out. At just the right time, you materialized, became one of us, and paid Satan’s ransom of death to set us free from slavery to him. How can I thank you enough? Though I express my lowly gratitude a thousand times a thousand, it will not begin to be enough.

It is spring. Little by little the flowers are blooming and showing a little more of your glory. Some will fade and rest until this time next year when they will return. Some will become fruit and nourish me with zest and delight, just as you nourish my heart. It is spring. Raindrops soften the earth, breezes waft and tease, the sun shares its warm rays while declaring you are the light of the world. What a wonderful, beautiful God you are!

I have to confess that I would rather watch something on television in the evening than spend that time writing a little note of encouragement or visiting someone who is lonely. Help me break loose of my habit of preferring my pleasure over that of others.

Thank you for the seasons, each with their own gifts. Purifying winter with gentle snows, awakening spring with all its rebirths. Hazy summer when nature plays games with the world. Cozy autumn to say goodnight until another promised awakening. Thank you for the delightful earth you made for me. How much fun it must have been for you make! I can see the twinkle in your eye, the flicking of your wrist, the hum on your lips, the coo of a dove tantalizes your ears, the sunshine in your heart.

I praise and adore you, my God.  You are so far beyond understanding or comprehension. Yet you notice me and everyone else individually, whether in China or the other side of the earth in America or Europe, whether in the north where it is springtime or in the south where it is autumn. You notice people with lives in danger, people in prison, people making speeches, people asleep. Everyone!  You notice and watch and hear all at once as though each of us is the only one you notice, watch and hear. So unbelievable and wondrous. I worship you

Lord, I have been eating too much lately. I didn’t need all the food I ate. I wasn’t really hungry for most of it. I put those things I my mouth for the taste alone. The taste was so fleeting, I had to get another taste and another ~ just indulging in myself. Help me stop doing that.

Thank you for allowing me to converse with you. Without prayer, who would I talk to about these deep and sometimes hidden things? You understand me even when I do not understand myself. You forgive me even when I do not forgive myself. If I do not forgive myself, it robs me of being able to have a second chance and be a new person all over again. Thank you for pouring out your heart to mine in your Bible. There is so much my stubborn mind misses. Satan tries to put blinders on me because he is jealous of you and wants me to rely on him ~ the father of liars. But I’ll keep trying. My copy of your Bible is right here in front of me, just as you are.

I was in the valley of sin. You called me and lifted me a little higher. I got to my knees, you called again and lifted me even higher. I rose to a stoop, you called again and lifted me to greater heights. I stood tall, you called me louder and lifted me to the gate of heaven, forgiven. You called one last time and lifted me to your throne completely saved. I could not help myself. I descended again. Only this time it was to the foot of your throne where I worshipped you, and worship still.

Yesterday I said words that were offensive to the people I was addressing. At first, I thought it was funny but when I looked into their eyes, I saw that I had hurt them. Forgive me and help them forgive me.

I rush like the wind to give my deepest thanks for all you did to save me from Satan’s trap.  He wanders in and out of my thoughts enshrouded by the darkness of his light.  His wisdom gives me permission to flaunt my will over yours. His lies cover up my willfulness so that I think I have won eternity without you. I rely on your Words to tell me what is truth. I rely on your Words to warn me of the shadows of his laughter. I rely on your Words to lift me up and carry me away from the Great Destroyer to safety in your everlasting arms. Only in you is there strength. Only in you is there wonder and beauty and everything magnificent that Satan does not want me to know of. Only in you is there true life.

The wind rushes anxiously down the mountains to worship you. The waters pound the shore so the sands will move aside and worship you. The snow falls in silence to purify the ground so it will worship you. All things worship you. They exist because of you. You are their Creator and their life force. Let me shout it to the world both now and in the infinity of forever.

Lord, I am jealous of my friend who was given an award for doing something I can do even better. Why not me? Why couldn’t I have received the award? Forgive me even now, and help me be happy for my friend.

Lord of all that exists, I bow to you because I never can live up to your perfection. I am weak. How can you love me so? When I fall, you lift me up. When I stray, you run after me and bring me back. When I weep, you wipe away my tears. When I collapse, you make me fly. Always you make me better than I am. You delight in me and make me your own. I lift my eyes to you in deepest gratitude.

Holy! Holy! Holy! Because of you, Lord God, thieves stop stealing and rise up to call you holy.  Because of you, liars stop lying and raise their voices to call you holy. And drunks stop drinking and stand up to declare you holy.  And murderers stop murdering and lift their hearts to announce you holy. And the selfish stop hoarding and release all they own to you, the holy one. You are life in its purest form.

Lord, I have been so busy lately, I have little time to think of you and worship you. Forgive me and make me slow down, eliminating the unnecessary to make room for you to re-enter my life.

Oh, Jesus, that cross was intended to be an instrument of torture and shame outside of Jerusalem but turned into a tower of light for the world. That crown of thorns was intended to be a mockery but turned into a crown of gold that pronounced you king of the world. Those nails were intended to pierce human flesh; instead, it pierced the heart of the world. How can I thank you? How can any of us thank you for rescuing my wounded soul and making me a child of the King of kings?

Your love, oh God, appears from the most unlikely and impenetrable places. Like water out of a rock. Like life from a long-dead seed.  Like a pin of light in a deep and dark cave. Let your love burst forth and astonish mankind with a love that refuses defeat. Let your magnificence soar to the uttermost parts of the heavens. Let your victory chain Satan in his hell and shout your glory.

I was insolent toward a clerk in the store. I acted as though I was better and more important. It was my place to respect that clerk’s decision about the price I paid.

As I ride in cars and buses and trains, I thank you for what my grandparents and great grandparents did not have. I can go places in hours that took them days.  Life was slow then, but now is fast. So much more can be done in a day. And communication: Telephones and radios and televisions and the internet. Impossible to even imagine for them. Thank you for modern inventions. More, thank you for helping me see that the impossible is possible. That the unimaginable is imaginable. The unreachable is reachable. Not just in my world, but in the hidden worlds and the heaven of heavens where you dwell.

The deepest reaches of my soul praise you, Lord God.  I would burst if I could not.  When I awake, night merges into morning and I extol you for a new dawn. When I walk about through my day, I exalt you. When I lie down to sleep at the end of the day, I worship you. You are my breath, my heart beat, my reason for being.

Someone told a joke the other day making fun of impurity and I laughed at it. Why did I do that? I know better.  I guess I didn’t want to look like a prude, even though that is what I am ~ a prude who respects my Lord God and defies Satan.  Why should I care what they think of me? Forgive me and help me to at least walk away next time.

Ah, my glorious God, you give me all things that I need and more. Above all, you gave me salvation from hell. With that I have all things. Though I grow depressed sometimes over human events and material things that do not work out, I remind myself that I still have heaven with You.  That is worth ten thousand times ten thousand more than earthly concerns. At the end, I will rise up and be always at your service as you rule supreme over all worlds. Thank you.