How can I praise you, Lord, to the degree you deserve? I cannot. How I wish I could. May the stars sing praises to you. May the waters declare you water of life. May the earth bring forth early buds of spring to remind the world you are the life giver, you are life. May the frisky animals of spring growl and squeak and chatter and bark and flutter as they daily proclaim you as their Maker.

Ah, my Lord, I had murder in my heart recently. Not flesh murder, but murder of someone’s reputation. I asked for prayer for someone’s problems and spelled their problems out. It was gossip in disguise, gossip and murder. I feel sick about it. Forgive me.

My heart is about to burst. You, God of glory, are a friend to all who seek you.  You fill my loneliness, wipe away my tears, hold me, smile with me, laugh with me. Then I am not lonely anymore. You are the Ultimate Friend. You never desert me no matter how rough things get. You are my life. When I leave you, you wait for me to return and finally run after me to bring me back to yourself. You have never left my side over all these years unless it was I who ran away.  Even through the times I could not see you or feel you or touch you, you were there all along. Your loyalty is too great for me to deserve. It is backward. It is I who should be forever loyal to you. You are my forever Friend. Thank you.

Your glory gilds my songs of praise to you. You send out majestic beams of heavenly rays on all people, great and small. You brighten my day and enlighten the world around me. You give and expect nothing in return except love. Love begins as a spark and grows in glory the nearer it is to you. You give my soul wings, and I soar to you.

Friends were talking about politics and governments the other day and I joined in with them talking maliciously toward those I disagree with and fear. I must not hate any of them. Help me not hate anyone. They are in place because you put them there to accomplish some special thing.

Your blood, oh God. Your blood slipped out of your body that day so long, long ago. That which ensures life was taken out of you in order to provide life for a lifeless world held captive by Satan. Blood ransom. You ransomed us from Satan against his will, just as you ransomed your people from Pharaoh against his will. But the ransom price was high. So, you materialized and offered your own flesh in my place. You offered your own blood in my place. You offered your life in my place. How can I thank you for freeing my soul from Satan? Unworthy, I rush to you and fall at your feet in eternal gratitude.

The grains of sand are not too small to praise you.  They swell with joy and their hearts enlarge into pebbles. The pebbles cry out to you and their hearts enlarge to boulders. The boulders declare your glory and their hearts enlarge to hills. The hills shout to the meadows how great you are and their hearts enlarge to mountains. The mountains shiver and shake with your magnitude and declare to the whole earth their praises. All you made praise you. You are the high and low of all things. You are the beginning and ending of all things. You are the lover of all things.

Sometimes I have malice in my heart toward my enemies. Help me remember that you love your enemies and I must do the same. Make me pray for them. Soften their hearts and make me ready to share your love when the time is right.

Thank you for family and friends. Thank you for newspapers where I can find strangers to pray for.  Thank you for my neighbors and little children on playgrounds who I can pray for. Thank you for school teachers and government leaders who I can pray for. Thank you for people around the world of all nations and languages for whom you have given the responsibility of praying for.  The responsibility of all this is a glorious one that you entrusted me with. What an assignment. Thank you for your assignment and help me to never forget it.

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.