You Call Us Friends...

You have valued us so much that you call us friends;
You have shared your eternal inheritance with us!
What an undeserved privilege that is.

We fall at your feet in overwhelming gratitude.
You are our Hope, our Life, our Reason for Living.
May all that we do and say each day convey
this message of gratitude and love to those around us.

May You be glorified...may You be magnified.
May the pressures, stresses, and concerns of our lives
flow from us like rushing water to be mingled
with your Living Water that refreshes, nourishes, and strengthens...

Now and forever, Amen.

Morning Prayer

Hear, O my soul, child of the Living God:
The LORD my God, the LORD is One.
I shall have no other gods before Him.
I shall love the LORD my God with all of my heart,
with all of my soul, with all of my strength,
and with all of my mind.

I shall love my neighbor as myself...

Holy, holy, holy, LORD of Heaven and Earth,
I offer Your Word back to You this day,
asking that I would fulfill Your commands
for me to cherish You as my First Love.
May I shine Your light to those around me today
and may Your Light penetrate to all
of the hearts, souls, and minds of those
You touch through me.

Grace...Peace...Contentment...

Precious Savior, I thank You for choosing me
before the foundation of the world,
for surrounding me with the new covenant of grace,
for holding my hand and walking beside me,
for carrying me, for sacrificing Your life for me
that I might journey toward You in security forever.
May I continually engage in relationship with you;
may I follow Your lead, journeying where you want me to go,
learning what You want me to learn,
loving the way You want me to love,
serving the way you want me to serve,
all through Your grace, wisdom and strength
that Your power might active through me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayer to Embrace the Scriptures

This prayer is from Phyllis Tickle's The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime. I came across it preparing for our meditation time on Scripture this past Sunday. These Divine Hours prayer books are in three volumes and assist us to use scripture and spiritual prayers from the Book of Common Prayer to commune with our Lord. This particular prayer has special meaning to me and I thought that I would share it with you...

"Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
Grant me so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that I may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen."

May our precious Lord engage our hearts as well as our minds in communion with Him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
If you are interested in purchasing Phyllis Tickle's Divine Hours series,
please check out this link to Amazon.com: Phyllis Tickle