Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word (Luke 1:38; KJV).
May I say, “Yes”,
To all You give,
And all You take away.
May I give thanks, And worship, Lord,
And praise You every day.
May I rejoice, Love others, Lord,
And serve in all I do.
Then You will live
In me, Lord God,
And I will live in You.
We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them (1 John 4:16; NLT).
Everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him (Philippians 3:8-9; NLT).
May webe one with Christ
In prayer:
Joining with him
In peace and love.
May we be one with Christ
In all:
Seeing his face
In friend and foe.
May we be one with Christ
In joy:
Praising with those
In heaven above.
May we be one with Christ
In grief:
Yielding with him
On earth below.
Jesus left them a second time and prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done” (Matthew 26:36-9, 42; NLT).
References
I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one – as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me (John 17:21-3; NLT).
You are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28; NLT).
Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us (Colossians 3:11; NLT).
Your immortal spirit is in every one of them (Wisdom of Solomon 12:1; GNTA).
Love your neighbour as yourself (Leviticus 19:18; NLT).
Love your enemies (Matthew 5:44; NLT).
I heard what sounded like a vast crowd in heaven shouting, “Praise the LORD! (Revelation 19:1; NLT).
He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death” (Matthew 26:38; NLT).
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18; NIV).
Lord,
May I rejoice
And praise,
Here, in your presence,
All my days,
And, may I pray
Constantly
To you, the God
Who ransoms me.
May my thanks, Lord,
Never end
For all the good
And bad you send,
So, may I worship,
Serve, and sing,
Hid in the shadow
Of your wing.
In the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy (Psalm 63:7; ESV).
Hide me in the shadow of your wings (Psalm 17:8; NLT).
References
I can never escape fromyour Spirit! I can never getawayfrom your presence!
All who seek the LORD will praise him. Their hearts will rejoice with everlasting joy (Psalm 22:26; NLT).
Sing praises to God and to his name! Sing loud praises to him who rides the clouds. His name is the LORD – rejoice inhispresence! (Psalm 68:4; NLT).
He ransoms me and keeps me safe (Psalm 55:18; NLT).
I create the light and make the darkness. I send good times and bad times. I, the LORD, am the one who does these things (Isaiah 45:7; NLT).
Worship and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind (1 Chronicles 28:9; NLT).
Worship the LORD your God and serve only him (Luke 4:8; NLT).
Today’s blog is about having to stop praying in order to write down whatever I’m being given.
By the LORD’s decree the heavens were made; by a mere word from his mouth all the stars in the sky were created.
(Psalm 33:6; NLT).
Your stars will still be there, Lord,
After writing.
Your sun will still be there
Next time I pray.
Your moon will still be shining
In the darkness;
Your planets, Lord, still singing,
Night and day.
Your stars will still be forming,
Living, dying:
Constantly recycled,
Ever new,
And I’ll still be amongst them,
Praising, sighing:
Praying as before, Lord,
One with you.
So, may this thought
Become my consolation
Whenever I stop praying, Lord,
To write,
For, here on earth,
No matter what I’m doing,
I walk with you, Lord,
Always in your light.
Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “Iamthelight of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”
(John 8:12; NLT).
Happy are those who hear the joyful call to worship, for they will walkinthelight of your presence, LORD,
(Psalm 89:15; NLT).
It’s been a very difficult couple of days for me and my husband, with thieves determinedly targeting our bank account through a lengthy, elaborate scam. Thankfully, we are being helped by our bank and our wonderful Isle of Man police. Many thanks to you, officers S. and A. You made a huge and decisive difference, and we will never forget you.
Although our account is now completely frozen, we hope to regain access at some point next week with new passwords. Many thanks to C. who is guiding us through this nightmare.
This fraud has caused us a huge amount of stress, lost sleep, exhaustion and pain (a migraine for me). It’s involved us in three visits to the bank, and three to the police station. I feel very sorry for those who have tricked us without caring about the consequences of their behaviour at all. It must be terrible to be them. So I’m praying that God will call out to them, draw them close, help them to repent, to turn to him, and to begin to follow Jesus. May he bless them with inner spiritual growth, and profoundly changed behaviour.
Yesterday morning, in the midst of all this, I saw in prayer that everything, however bad, happens within God’s hands. This is why, and how, as Saint Paul says, God is able to bring good out of everything:
“We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God” (Romans 8:28; NLT).
So now I’m looking for the good, and becoming part of it happening. First of all, I’m going to take a copy of this blog to the police station, with a card for the lovely officers who are helping us. I will do the same for the bank. Now I’m wondering what else God will do, or will prompt me to do? That’s an exciting thought.
My warmest thanks to all those who are praying for us, and have offered their help. I particularly want to thank J, whom I have never met in person. She offered me some money to keep us going, and, most valuable of all, shared with me the prayer she repeats constantly in every kind of trouble or distress: “Jesus, I trust in you”.
This little prayer has brought me a remarkable degree of inner calm during our whole ordeal. Astonishingly (and I’ve never done this before), I haven’t even asked her if I can share it with you all, because I’m so confident that she will say yes. This is a major step in trust for me, as I’m never confident about my acceptability to anyone – so I’m just trusting Jesus!
Thank you, J, from the bottom of my heart. I will never forget you, and what you have given to me – your prayer is riches indeed, and the best thing to come out of the fraud. I was already praying for you and your family, but I’ll be praying even more now!
Anyway, given everything that has been happening, today I’ve chosen a prayer from my precious store of saved resources to share with you all. May God bless everyone who reads this: we are all in his hands, whether we know it or not.
Rejoice always, pray continually,
give thanks in all circumstances;
for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18; NIV).
Lord,
I never have sufficient time
To praise your everlasting love.
Instead, may I rejoice in you
Throughout each day and night.
I never have sufficient time
To plead for others, as I should.
Instead, Lord, may I pray for them
Throughout each day and night.
I never have sufficient time
To bless you for both bad and good.
Instead, may I give thanks to you
Throughout each day and night, with love.
The LORD gives, and the LORD takes away.
Blessed be the name of the LORD.
(Job 1:21; CSB).
Yesterday I was praying without words in brilliant, white light when this hymn of praise began to arrive. Thinking about it afterwards, the light seemed to be both inside me and all around me. Everything was one, and I was one with everything. I couldn’t see anything but the brightness, which was very beautiful. These verses proved exceptionally difficult to express in words, and I don’t feel I did the whole experience justice at all.
Who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire (Malachi 3:2; NKJV).
1. You are my Maker,
Earth’s living Creator:
A shining, refining,
Unquenchable blaze.
2. You are my Teacher,
My Prophet and Preacher;
My yearning: returning, Lord,
All of my days.
3. You are my treasure,
My wealth beyond measure;
Compelling, indwelling:
My spirit obeys.
4. You are my story,
My future, my glory;
My crying, my dying, Lord:
Far beyond praise.
The Lord our God is great beyond all gods (2 Chronicles 2:5; BST).
References
Verse 1 * He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:1; NIV).
* The LORD your God is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24; NIV).
Verse 2 * I long and yearn for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh cry out for the living God (Psalm 84:2; CSB).
* Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him (Hebrews 9:28; NLT).
Verse 3 * The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field (Matthew 13:44; CSB).
* Look, I am coming soon! Blessed are those who obey the words of prophecy written in this book (Revelation 22:7; NLT).
Verse 4 * We believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us (Romans 8:23; NLT).
* The LORD God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory (Psalm 84:11; NLT).
After a very disturbed night of migraine, medication and strange dreams, the last thing I could have hoped for yesterday was the gift of a prayer on waking. Yet here is is:
I love you, LORD.
(Psalm 18:1; NLT).
I love you, Lord,
And praise you name,
For you are always
Just the same –
My origin, my life, My aim:
My Jesus.
You love me, Lord,
I know that’s true;
You are my Way,
My Shepherd, too;
My God, the One Who makes me new:
My Jesus.
We live as one –
The blind; the Guide;
Always together,
Side by side;
You are my Bridegroom,
I, your bride:
My Jesus.
God will rejoice over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.
(Isaiah 62:5; NLT).
