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.

I adore you, my God.  You envelop the earth with grandeur. You soar through the cosmos stepping on planets and touching each star. You call them all by name and they join you in the song of the universe. I am passionate about you. May you forever be my obsession that keeps me lunging forward toward you, unable to stop myself because of the power of your love.

Yesterday I had immoral notions. I shocked myself. I had thought I was above all that. Help me get rid of those thoughts for good. And forgive me.

Ah, my Lord and God, how I love your Book.  You tell me so many things in it. They are so exciting. That is because you are so exciting. We are fickle but you remain the same. When things are going well, we take credit for it, then you bring us low. Then the cycle begins again. In your Book, you tell of the ebb and flow of our devotion to you. You tell of the depths of despair mankind lowers itself to when forsaking you, then you tell of the mountains of glory we can have when we return to you. You are my light and life. Sometimes I feel selfish because I feel as though I have you all to myself.  I must tell others. I must share your Words, your Loves with the world.

I adore you, Lord God. You are majestic and your glorious splendor soars through the universe to my heart. In your hand are all my daily blessings. You sprinkle them around the earth and make me glad. The stars sing of your glory, the mountains quake at your power, the meadows whisper your kindness, the fish in ocean depths slip silently around their world revealing your mercy. I worship you.

Father, if I worship anything besides you, make me see it so I can get it under control. Do I worship power or fame, riches or things?  Do I worship my television, my telephone, internet games? Make me see if I do, so I may repent and get rid of them.

Thank you, Father of all mankind, for loving me. Thank you for making me well when I become sick. Thank you for keeping my mind clear so I can remember things that make my life smoother. Thank you for being my hero.  Thank you for opening hearts of those wo are truly seeking you. Thank you for opportunities to meet them. May I realize who they are and open up your love to them so they, too, may become grateful recipients of your blessings and live with you in your eternity.

Oh, how I adore and love you, dear God. You are so large and I am so small but you love me still.  You are strong and I am weak but you love me anyway. You are perfect and I am sinful but your love embraces me. I run from you sometimes and you run after me. How I love and adore you. Life is never complete without you.

Lord, it is so hard to forgive and turn the other cheek so I can be attacked again. Such a coward I am. Make me bold with love and forgiveness.

Thank you for your Word which I love. You poured out your heart to me. I know the pain and laughter, the disappointments and triumphs you have gone through since making mankind. You bare your soul to me in your Word.  You, the God of the universe and Maker of my soul, revealed all of yourself in your Bible. I read it in wonder and awe. I absorb it and it fills my heart and my being. Thank you for showing yourself to me one way in your Bible and in another way by materializing in the form of Jesus.