and now, I must pray...

I've been busy as of late, within my relationship with God, my kids, my church, and finishing writing another book.  Needless to say, I've not written much here, so I want to reclaim this discipline.

And I want to start with a prayer:

Lord,

May I become surprised this week at the true character of who You are beyond my current understanding of You...

May my wife be blessed with strength and wisdom beyond her means to discern life as she concentrates so much energy in a day on the rest of us...


May Joshua be strong and courageous; may Daniel have faith in the lion's den, may Johanna know and overflow that you are gracious...

May my family now and forever love and serve You, Lord...

May Your church that I serve break through the barriers of doubt, sin, holding back from giving, and "me-centered living" that even solid Christians get tempted by... 

May my/our faithfulness become the stuff that people talk about in our area to the level that "church" as a word gets redefined... 

May You use my voice into the community through public channels and private conversations to stir up a renewed way of thinking... 

May every place I go be left not with the memory of me but the memory of what You told someone in that moment.


And may the miracles we occasionally hear about and read about become more frequent in our midst, from renewed marriages and households to the wild supernatural stuff that can't be explained.
In Jesus' Name and for His glory, Amen.

-- Praise: God, thank You that even now as I was writing out this prayer for my wife You spoke to her and moved her to come down and talk with me with the very wisdom I was writing out in that prayer request.  Just that alone affirms my faith in You to do so much more than what I ask or imagine.  You rock.