Ah, Lord God, you are the lover and master of my soul. My spirit touches yours and we sing and cry together, work and rest together, travel through meadows and up rugged mountains together. You are my life now and in eternity. You are my betrothed and oh, how I love you. I adore you as a bride adores her groom. I long for the day of our wedding feast when we become one. Such a life you have in store for me! I do not comprehend it. I cannot comprehend it. But life with you, my Lord, will be heaven.

Sometimes I envy people who are asked to speak at various events ~ men or women. I wonder why that opportunity was never opened up to me. Well, it was a little, but never for long. Forgive my envy. Help me be happy for them and remind myself to be content with opportunities for service you have given me.

Thank you, God, for providing the Bible so I do not have to guess what works and what does not work. So, I can understand your ways and Satan’s ways. You are the most mighty, the all mighty. Satan does not have a chance! He thinks he is winning, but he is not. He may win a few battles, but you will win the war. Thank you for the opportunity to stand with you despite opposition. Thank you for the opportunity to be defamed because of you, gossiped about, pushed around, and look like a loser because of you. When I am weak, that is when I am strongest, for my strength then is your strength.

I praise you, Jehovah, for you are stronger than Satan. He wants annihilation, you create. He wants void, you form. He wants darkness and hatred, you light and love. Even with fewer in numbers than those on Satan’s side, you are stronger. You will overcome it all and chain Satan away from us some day when the time is right. Are you allowing Satan to hang on so we will become stronger by doing battle with him? I do not know the answer. What I do know is you are magnificent and wondrous and beautiful. My heart bursts with excitement when I think of you.

Lord, I have been judgmental lately. How dare I? It is your place to judge people’s motives, not mine.  I have never walked in their shoes. I have never faced what they have faced. I have never fought the kinds of battles they have had to fight. Oh, Lord, forgive me.

Thank you, God, for sending a part of you to live among us and be our example.  You in human flesh lived perfectly so you could die in my place according to the Plan explained from the beginning.  As a part of you walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, you came back as promised. Satan won when he convinced them to believe his lies that you did not want what was best for them. You descended to face down Satan. This time you were going to win.  This time you did. I could never have escaped Satan. Nor anyone else. You were the only one who could. So, you did. For me! For me!

I praise you, God, for you are the only God. All other gods are actually demons perpetuated by egotistical humans ~ both men and women ~ who want people to follow their leadership with false promises and false threats that frighten people into following them. You are selfless. If you became selfish, you would go out of existence. Then all would cease to exist. May you live forever, Lord God. May you keep bringing back to life what Satan kills. May you keep relighting the candles of hope that Satan blows out. May you reign on high forever and forever and ever.

Forgive me when I try to entice people into doing good works by promising rewards. And forgive me when I expect recipients of my good works to show their gratitude. They are not always grateful, do not always turn their life around, do not always decide to do good works for others. Forgive me when I look for those things in the people I help. I must not ever do something for someone else expecting anything in return ~ whether mental, emotional, or physical. Forgive me when I do.

Thank you, God for the free country I live in. A decent home to live in and time to pursue the desires of my heart. Thank you for facing death and Satan for me, something I and everyone else could have never done. You materialized for us so you could live and die for us. War of the worlds, and you won. Thank you for showing me how to be on the winner’s side. Thank you for challenges and problems and enemies so I can stand up for you unflinching, unshakable, an imitator of all you stand for.

I praise you, Jehovah, for being Mind and Actions and Words. I was made in your image, so I, too have a mind, actions and words. I spend my life trying to imitate you.  My mind tells my actions and words what to do and say. My mind tries to touch your mind. My actions try to imitate your actions while you were on earth. My words try to repeat yours. As Solomon said, there is an empty place in the hearts of man longing for you in eternity. And I do. I do long for you and cannot get rid of its passion for you. I cannot control it. I cannot stop it. My longing for you is all the time. You are existence and love. You are my rescuer and my healer. You are all I need.

Lord, help me let go when people criticize me. Help me let them hurt me as much as they want so I may be kind to them. Satan wants me to complain and argue and fall in line with the masses. Sometimes I do complain. Help me not do that. If it were you, Jesus, you would not have. Help me be more like you.

Thank you for loving me. And for saving my soul. And for all you did to bring it about ~ all the details of your Plan carried out. Thank you for heaven and that it is reserved for me as long as I believe and trust in you.  I am trying, not only to believe and trust as in the past, but to make it stronger.  And thank you for my family and the church. And for the blossoms peeking up from under the snow.

Let them gossip about me and harass me and tell falsehoods about me. I will not deny you, Lord God of the universe. Let them cheat me, beat me, threaten me. I will not deny you, Lord God of all that exists.  Let them imprison me and execute me. I will not deny you. How can I? You are my heart, you are my soul, you are my being. Oh, for the privilege of dying for you. Let my death have meaning. Do not give me a peaceful moment in which to die.

Father, what I just told you. Help me keep my promise. May the promise I just gave you be what will happen, not just a wish. I know, I know. I am certainly not going to die for you sitting here in the comfort of my home. What I just said is easy to say. You know my heart. Strengthen my heart. Somehow.

Thank you, Jesus, God materialized. Other religions cannot fathom that. Either their god is too far above mankind to do such a lowly thing, or their god made us and went on his merry way without another thought, another care. When I think about your glorious body that can appear and disappear at will, that can walk on water, that can go through walls, that can rise to the clouds, and know you are going to give me a glorious body like yours in heaven, well, I am flabbergasted. More amazing is that you care about me at all. You have made so many promises I cannot count them. Your blessings are beyond comprehension. How I delight in you and bow before you in gratitude.

Ah, Lord, you are strength under control.  You only step in when I need your help. Then you back away to let me strive and accomplish with what strength I have, the strength you give me. You always know just when and how much. Amazingly, you keep everyone all sorted out. Millions of prayers rise up to you, and you know who is who and what is what. You are everywhere, but you are also in my heart. You are the grand, the magnificent, the glorious. You are higher than my imagination. Lord, expand my imagination so I  can praise you more.

Father, people have pounced on me for doing what I think is good. Give me courage to let go. Let go! Even if they do it again. Let go, even if they say and do things against me a thousand times over. I am so afraid. Give me courage. Help me smile when they insult. Help me bless when they tear down. Help me know how to give my enemies my heart.

Thank you, Lord God, for the beauties of your nature. Sparkling sunlight on the late winter snow, crocuses budding to hint of soon-coming spring, branches fluttering in the breeze, birds flying here and there deciding where to build a nest for their families.  Clouds bumping playfully into each other, sounds and color.  All that you delight in.  Thank you for the free gifts of nature all around me. Free gifts just for my delight.

I magnify your very name. You are in my heart and soul. I long to be with you in your realm forever rejoicing, forever yours, forever at peace.  Even now I am with you laughing and crying and struggling and it is wonderful. To be on the side of the winner, my heart bursts. I can fight side by side next to you, for you are my betrothed. You are my spiritual darling, my spiritual sweetheart, the spiritual lover of my soul. Someday we will be wed. I do not understand it, but I can hardly wait. How amazing that the Creator of the universe calls me his own! You are my Lord, my Master, my Maker, my very Being.

God, help me let go. Help me be strong enough to not let anything others say or do convince me to not love them.  I am doing more now and setting myself up again for another pouncing by the spiritually weak.  I am so frightened of them. Lord, help me love them instead. Bless my enemies, for they are your enemies too.  Help me know the difference in what I want and what you want so that I am not persecuted justly.

Ah, my Lord. I see your holy blood that seeped out of your body. Your holy hands and feet that contorted in the shock of being assaulted by the spikes. Your holy back that was made pure meat when embraced by the scourger’s whip. Your holy brow that bore the mocking thorns. They gradually overcame your body and made it lifeless. But they could not overcome your spirit and your stubborn will.  They could not overpower the love that flowed from you that day. They could not overpower the soul that had been alive forever more and can never die. Thank you.

All praises to you, God of Glory. You advocate everything good. You rage against everything bad. You are the Mighty God who will not tolerate evil and all that is Satan. Yet you force no one to choose you.  You hold back with unfathomable patience, not willing to force on us what is good for us. What restraint. That form of love struggles with my comprehension.  Sometimes I want to shake people and say, “Stop! There is danger ahead. Stop! You’re headed for hell!  Stop! Don’t you hear Satan laughing at you? Look up! Don’t you see?  God is calling you to his safety! Look up!” Oh, for everyone to see you as you are.

Ah, Lord. Sometimes I am too stubborn. Yes, if people agree with what I am standing for, they call me loyal. But if they do not, they call me obstinate.  Help me know the difference. Help me see the fine line between the two. And when I’m being stubborn about the wrong thing, help me know to stop.

Thank you, Jesus, Words of the Father Mind, for emptying yourself and coming into our world. I do not know why you put us in a material world when you are spiritual. What I do know is that this is Satan’s realm. I trust your wisdom and declare to you I will fight Satan in his territory. In my weakness, I thank you for the chance to be stalwart and stand up for you until Satan is conquered. Thank you for making me one of your warriors of fire-ignited faith. Thank you for your faith in me to stand and be strong. You are my strength.