Just so angry

Proverbs 16:32 Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.

The greatest war that I have ever fought is the war within me.  It’s challenging not to let anger rage and words of flames incinerate those who offend me.  It’s easy to feel offended when it’s time for promotion and my name is not called.  I so easily feel taken advantage of by others, but it’s anger that tries to manipulate me.  Anger shouts and fills my head with noise so I cannot hear reason.  Anger floods my veins with fire and so consumes my compassion.  Anger’s proud voice tries to mimic my own and says, you have a right and they have none.  But who am I but ash and dust?

Father, I thank you for the gift of anger and the understanding that anger is for danger; not for me to become a danger to those undeserving.  Help me to become mighty in self-control and great in perseverance.  May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be ever filtered by your great grace and your mighty mercy towards me.  Amen

Shut up and serve

Proverbs 15:33 The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.

Humilty should be so simple.  It’s just staying in my lane, serving on my road and minding my own business.  It’s easy to see the  potholes on someone else’s lane and offer suggestions on how and why they should fix it or even worse, criticize them for not doing so.  It’s easy to look ahead and pretend; if only I were the boss, the pastor, the parent, the president; how wonderful things would be.  It’s easy to plan what I would do if; I get rich, a better job, married, or  have children while I do nothing with the opportunity I have now.  It’s so easy to put my words  out there, speak about matters that don’t directly concern me.  It’s effortless to share a little too much, feel a little too much and judge a little too much.  Like James 3 says;

 How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!  And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life,  and set on fire by hell. 

Father, help me to stay in my lane, serve on my road, and stifle my tongue as I strive.  In Jesus name, amen.

When hope hurts

Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart-sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

It was on the darkest of days.  The drought of unemployment had lasted much longer than I ever imagined it would.  Signs everywhere boasted that the water of employment was available. Water over here!  Water available here! Some even invited, come taste our great water, but then they revealed that the water drinker position had already been designated to another.  Once I even received the water drinker position but complications dried up the opportunity. On that darkest of days, I cried with every fiber in my body, my tears burned and my heart ached.  I was at the lowest place, in pain and pleading with you God for the ability to provide for my family.  In the darkness of my despair, I couldn’t understand why nothing I hope in would get me a drink of employment; not my experience, not my personality, not my education. Then I remembered…

Psalms 20: 7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Father, it is only you who can grant my heart’s desire and fulfill all my plans.  As dreams drift into the distance and hope-clouds hide beyond the horizon, may I always remember and be comforted in my calamity, knowing my hope is in you God.  Amen

Just as I am

Proverbs 12: 9 Better to be lowly and have a servant than to play the great man and lack bread.

It’s vital for us to look in the mirror and accept what we see.  Instead we often walk away and pretend that the mirror has become a trick mirror suddenly.  We are people of pretense, but God requires, He seeks for worshippers who present themselves to him without disguise or arrogance.  Pride prevents prudence and arrogance agitates anger. 

Lord, help me to be humble; to serve on my road, to work my land, to be content and diligent with all you have given me and where you have placed me.  Help me to be wise; to use my words with the measurement of a baker, to conceal knowledge and wisdom and not squander them like an undisciplined youth who received an inheritance.  Let the words of my mouth, the places I rest my mind, the things I pursue and the people in whom I confide always be pleasing to you, just and wise.  Amen

No Shame

Proverbs 10:5  He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.

Just the idea of being your son God, plucks at the strings of my heart.  My biological father never treated me like a son should be treated.  Growing up fatherless did a couple of things for me.  First it made me want to be a great dad, secondly it made me want to be a great son.  I never want to bring shame to you.  Lead me in your ways.  I never want to be sleeping when I should be shining.  Help me to be prudent, to do the work that is so needed to bring others into your kingdom. 

Keep my eyes open with compassion and my feet moving with love.  May my eyes never grow weary, heavy with selfishness and greed.  May my limbs never go limp from a lack of concern for the fatherless and widows, for the lost and hurting.

Father, I want to move when it’s time to move, I want to cry when it’s time to cry and give all that you’ve called me to give. 

Bless me to be a son that never brings you shame.  In Jesus name, amen.

Sweet Water Pleasant Bread

Proverbs 9:17

Her voice cuts through the clutter, her message is beautifully encoded.  She is in the right place at the right time to be heard.  Folly, the seducer, is offering her dish. 

“Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”

The ambiance of her place is immaculate, the service is above par.  Not for one minute does she leave you without attention.  If she lets you think, you might come to your senses.  If she moves aside, you may focus on more than her cleavage.  If she stops flirting, you may observe all the dead, rotten flesh of men, laying under the table.  If she turned off the baby making music, you would hear the annoying alarm of the buzzing flies.  She is a master of distraction and disguise. 

Look again at her menu.  Sweet water and pleasant bread.  Bread and water have always been considered a punishment.  a punishment so severe it’s classified as cruel and unusual.  Add the words sweet and pleasant and somehow it just doesn’t seem that bad. 

Sweet Sin and Pleasant Disobedience still pay the same wage.  Death.

Father, may my eyes always see what’s real.  Please tune my hearing to the truth.  Set blinders on my eyes, allowing me only to see the path you’ve set before me.  May I only feast at the table you prepared for me and speak only when it’s worth it. Walk with me, be my guide.  In Jesus name.  Amen

Haughty eyes, lying tongue

Proverbs 6

16 There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,
19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers

Father I want to hate what you hate and love what you love.  Help me not to be involved in theses things that are an abomination to you.  May I never look upon another disdainfully proud, with a look that says I am better than you.  May I never be involved in the devastation of another by hand or by tongue.  Lord, I need you to help me with my speech.  May I walk in forgiveness and never seek revenge or intend evil for another.  May my feet run to you and away from evil, never asking how close can I get to sin on a technicality but how far away can I stay from it, for you have set me free.  Finally, Father, may the words of my mouth be truth and love, never bitterness, contempt and hate. 

Father, help me as I strive to worship you in my speech, and in my ways, all day long.  Amen

Love Discipline

Proverbs 5

Discipline is so important, I need to learn to love it.  Your correction is life saving, I really need to pay attention to it.  The seductress, with her honey dripping lips and her oil smooth words has no good intentions.  I must not be deceived by the ease of her acceptance or the regularity of her invitations, for she is an ice cold killer.  She pleasures her victims to the point of intoxication and then goes in for the kill.  Let me be intoxicated only by the love of the one you gave me.  Let me be disciplined in love and in life for my ways are studied by you, God. 

 Help me to remember that brothers die for lack of discipline.  Help me to listen closely to your instruction and walk in your wisdom, Father. Amen

Focus

Proverbs 4

23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

With your help, God, I will guard my heart.  I will remember how important it is to stay focused with my mind fixed on you.  I will remember how devastating it can be to be distracted by the deception of sin.  Help me to improve  my speech.   To put away all that is crooked and contaminating  from my lips.  To keep my eyes away from all that is pornographic.  To be prudent and deliberate about where I go and who I am with.  I understand that I cannot afford to be lazy with protecting my heart.  Like a sniper in this urban jungle of life,  Lord help me to be camouflaged from sin, yet see it coming far away and take it out. 

Forgive my lazy inattention and my lackadaisical living.  Give me a clean heart and a heart to keep it clean.  Amen

Father! I want that!

 Proverbs 3: 13 – 35  

23 Then you will walk on your way securely, and your foot will not stumble.

I want the sound wisdom and discretion that allows me to; be confident in you in the midst of terror, always give good to whom it is due, never hold back available assistance from a neighbor,  never betray the trust of another, resist being envious of ill-gotten gain, and refrain from contention for no reason. 

Bless me, Father, with wisdom.  Grace me with great understanding and help me not to stumble.  I strive to be secure in you.  I strive to walk in sound wisdom and discretion always.  Amen.