I am not sure why this is, and maybe you have experienced the same, but when I face major challenges or crises in life, or when friends and loved ones experience these major problems, I remember to ask for God help and involvement. However, for some reason when I have routine daily challenges, I tend to look at them as my sole responsibility. Rather than going to God for help and maintaining my peace, I’ll get uptight, and sometimes irritated or critical for silly little reasons.

Psalm 55:22 says, “Give your burden’s to the Lord and he will take care of you.” It doesn’t say, “..but only the big issues you cannot handle on your own.”

God wants to be part of our lives, and wants us to include us in everything we do.

Dear Lord, Thank you for always being there, waiting for us to ask for your help. Remind us to ask in the small routine things as well as the serious. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

For those of you with children, I imagine you have had this conversation when they were toddlers, “I love you this much” and spread your arms way out in each direction, then your toddler says, well “I love you this much” and spreads his or her arms out….and so on. The memories are wonderful.

In Ephesians Paul describes how God feels the same way about us. Ephesians 3:17-19, he writes “And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts, living within you as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love; and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with God himself.” TLB

What comfort it is for us to know that we can confront everything in life knowing we are the loved children of the Father and creator of everything.

Dear Lord, no matter how much we love others and love you, it doesn’t compare to the magnitude of your love for us. Help us have peace in this knowledge. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

I have to admit that I have had strong opinions about some controversial topics and have been known to end up in extended debates about these topics with no likelihood of coming to agreement.

There are a number of controversial subjects facing us today and tempting us toward arguments.

Paul writes precisely about this in 2 Timothy 2:23-26 “Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.”

Dear Lord, Help us (me) strive to be the kind and thoughtful servant you desire. Help us know when to avoid discussions that will only devolve to quarrels, and when we do engage give us the ability to gently instruct with your truth for the benefit of those to whom we are speaking. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

There is a story about Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Computer and John Sculley, who was hired by Steve Jobs to be the CEO of Apple in the mid 1980’s. John Sculley had been a vice president at PepsiCo, where he had made Pepsi the number one Cola brand.

The story goes that when John Sculley was reluctant to leave PepsiCo for Apple, Steve Jobs asked him, “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?”

In a similar way, we have a calling to do God’s will while we are doing our daily work and in our daily activities

Paul writes in Acts 20:24 his view, “But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus; the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.”

And Jesus says in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

Dear Lord, We know the question you have for us, “Are we going to spend all our lives focused on getting everything we want for ourselves, or are we going to be part of your work in the world?” Help us choose wisely. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

One limiting belief many of us have as Christians is that because we are not living a flawless Christian life, we cannot witness and evangelize. We think we have to have all the answers, and follow all the rules before we can be acceptable witnesses to lead others to Christ.

This is obviously not the case, and Paul makes it clear in Philippians 3:12-14 “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”

It is not our “goodness” that saves people, but it is our witness that can open the door for the Holy Spirit to come to them. Our authentic enthusiasm for Christ is a better tool for evangelism than how much we know about the Bible or how good we are.

Dear Lord, help us always remember that we do not bring people to believe, we only bring them to the opportunity, and You save them. Our best witness is our joyful confidence in your guidance and protection, and our hope for eternal Salvation. In Jesus’ name. Amen.