I praise you, Lord God of my heart. You are my king, my Father, my Creator, my Life, my Betrothed, the Lover of my soul. You are all I need and all everyone else needs. I came from you and find peace only when I go back to you.  You made me, I am yours. I belong to you and long to return to you. I worship you both now and forever.

Forgive me for not sharing what you are with more people and showing them what you can make of them. You can make their life beautiful. How dare I keep it a secret!

I cannot thank you enough for giving me your Bible. It is full of delight, for I never have to guess what you’re thinking. You are always on my mind. Sometimes I can hardly wait to join you in your home when I will know what you are like face to face. What a day that will be. Home coming! The angels and cherubs and all of heaven will rejoice when I arrive, but none will rejoice more than I. What a wonder you are in the brilliance of your glory and majesty.

Ah, my Lord, you are all I need. You have a home prepared and all waiting for me at the end of my sojourn here. Oh, blessed and joyous homecoming. How I long for it to be now. How I long to dwell with you and praise you each moment of eternity. And, having crowned me with your love, I will declare my fealty to you and reign with you as an unworthy exalted servant over whatever you have for me. Forever, I will be yours. And so, I worship you.

I’m neglecting other people too much. This is a constant sin I struggle with. How can you keep forgiving me when I do it over and over? Interfere with my life so I will look beyond what I like to what others like.

I know I cannot join you in your realm yet because I still have work to do. Thank you for the church so we can encourage each other’s work. So we can learn more about you as a group. So we don’t have to face our sins alone. We can share our sadness with those who love us. We can be priests to each other and make sacrifices for each other. We can pray for each other and read your Word together. We can share our little victories with each other. We can struggle to do better together. So we can lift each other and never feel alone. Thank you, my God, for your Plan to continue the wondrous life of Christ on earth through our combined efforts. And your promise to lift us up to reign with you some day in the heavens.

You are the only God and you are glorious. You are powerful in love, in justice, in mercy. You are life and must ever be creating life. Woe to those who kill, for they are fighting you.  Those who lie dare to deny you. Those who boost their will over yours are siding with Satan who desires to be over you.  Ah, my Lord God, I adore you and fall at your feet.  You are beyond understanding and fill my heart with the unspeakable joy of seeing you face to face some day.

Help me see myself as others do and as you do. Open my eyes to the real me. Make me go through things that reveal to me the stuff I am truly made of.

Thank you, Lord, for providing Words in writing so I know what and who my God is and how you react to people like me. You love me so and never stop thinking about me. Lord Jesus, thank you for being willing to go backward ~ leaving heaven to dwell on earth as one of us, resisting all the temptations of Satan. You went backward so I could go forward ~ leaving earth to dwell in heaven. You risked it all for me. What if Satan had succeeded? But you stood strong, head-to-head against him, refusing to obey him, side with him, or even to give you what he dared think you wanted ~ his kingdoms. They were not his to give. They were already yours. The coward slinked away in your mighty presence. Thank you for being strong for me.

I praise you, God, for all that you are. You are so strong, nothing can make you change. That is what makes you God. You are the doer, not the un-doer. You are the Creator, not the destroyer. You are the love ligjt, the light giver, the light provider. How I adore you.

Lord, I have neglected going to see people who need my encouragement. I know they need me, but I do something for myself instead. It has gotten out of hand. Open my eyes and forgive me.

Thank you, Jehovah God, for giving me the Bible that explains why I am here and all you did to save me from Satan’s living death. Thank you that you are preparing me to live and reign with you over “worlds” I cannot imagine. Whatever they are, my will shall always be your will.  Without you, nothing good can ever happen.  With you, goodness reigns supreme.  With you, I can live forever. You have allowed me to stand with you. The fight is worth it. The victory overwhelming. 

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.