My Savior and Lord, I surrender my “strength” to you today.

Even when our heart is cold and our mind is dim, prayer is still possible to us.

“Our wills are ours, to make them Thine.”   

~~Evelyn Underhill  

This morning’s prayer and meditation for Sally’s healing comes from Take Heart, Oh God: Riches from the Greatest Christian Women Writers of All Time.

She grew up in a strong Christian family and had carried her parents’ values into her adult life. Though she was a caring, loving person, she’d never fully surrendered her life to Christ. “It took a serious marital crisis to show me that I’d been living a ‘Christian life’ in my own strength,” she says, “in the process, my heart had become cold and hard. I had lost the joy. I had lost the will to serve. I needed to find a way to get back to God.”

We have been created by God to draw close to him, but we so often find our hearts cold and our minds dim. As Evelyn Underhill explains, even in those circumstances, prayer is still possible to us. We turn over our will to him so that he can make it his own.

He desires our surrender, our prayers, and our love, not our efforts.

Prayer for Meditation

My Savior and Lord, I surrender my “strength” to you today.

Scripture for Meditation

Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Romans 6:16 

Music for Meditation

I Surrender All

 

If you feel led to do so, please post a note of encouragement in the comment section below, or send your note by email to PrayersForSally@gmail.com

Let me set my world ablaze with the fire of my joy today!

If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze.   

~~Catherine of Siena  

This morning’s prayer and meditation for Sally’s healing comes from Take Heart, Oh God: Riches from the Greatest Christian Women Writers of All Time.

Have you ever asked someone, “How are you?” and received a long, sad tale of injustices? After such a response you probably thought twice before inquiring of that person again. You may have even avoided the person so as not to hear their depressing daily report.

Yet how different it is when someone responds to your question with a cheerful outlook on life; their confident and undoubting mind-set—regardless of what is going on—has the ability to lift your spirits.

These are the kind of people Jesus needs in this world. If we are what we should be, we are positive, uplifting, encouraging, hopeful people of faith. With that kind of attitude, we can, as Catherine of Siena suggests, set the world ablaze with the fire of our joyful hearts—bringing warmth and light to everyone we meet.

Prayer for Meditation

Let me set my world ablaze with the fire of my joy today!  

Scripture for Meditation

But let the godly rejoice.

Let them be glad in God’s presence.

Let them be filled with joy. Psalm 68:3 

Music for Meditation 

Because He Lives

 

If you feel led to do so, please post a note of encouragement in the comment section below, or send your note by email to PrayersForSally@gmail.com

Lord, guide me to have the discipline to develop the gifts you gave me.

Greatness is never achieved nor dreams realized apart from great discipline. 

~~Kay Arthur  

This morning’s prayer and meditation for Sally’s healing comes from Take Heart, Oh God: Riches from the Greatest Christian Women Writers of All Time.

Behind the few seconds of a gymnast’s vault stand hours, weeks, and years of training. For many hours a day, she practiced running and vaulting. She landed hard a few times, developed some bruises, and went back to try again. Run, vault. Run, vault. Run, vault. She practices all those years so that her five seconds of running and vaulting might bring home an Olympic medal.

She will be the first to tell you that greatness and dreams cannot be realized without discipline.

We do not all have Olympic dreams or Olympic abilities, but we have God given gifts. We are responsible to discipline ourselves to develop those gifts for his glory. The greatness we achieve and the dreams we realize may not put our pictures on a cereal box, but we will accomplish what God had in mind when he created us.  

And that is enough.

Prayer for Meditation

Lord, guide me to have the discipline to develop the gifts you gave me.  

Scripture for Meditation

In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. Romans 12:6-8

Music for Meditation 

Give Thanks

 

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Lord, I am self-focused in many areas. I need your grace to let go of me and hear others.

That’s always my prayer—that I can be totally present with the person I’m talking to,

not thinking about the next thing I’m, going to ask—

not filling up the awkward spaces with words.   

~~Cathleen Falsani  

This morning’s prayer and meditation for Sally’s healing comes from Take Heart, Oh God: Riches from the Greatest Christian Women Writers of All Time.

It’s difficult to not think about ourselves. Our minds keep us consumed with how we look, how we feel, what we want. . . Even during conversations we are often thinking about ourselves. We want to keep the conversation going so we don’t look awkward. We’re so busy thinking about the next question, we don’t hear the answer to the one we just asked!

Cathleen Falsani advises that we pray for the ability to be totally present with others and to trust God with our needs as we shift our attention outward. We don’t have to fill up every space with words. We need to allow for conversation, back and forth, and even the silence of reflection. This shows that we are engaged and that we care.

Let God guide your conversations today. Be totally present for those with whom you converse. After all, that’s just how God listens to you.  

Prayer for Meditation

Lord, I am self-focused in many areas. I need your grace to let go of me and hear others.

Scripture for Meditation

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking or others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. Philippians 2:3-4

Music for Meditation 

Be Still and Know That He is God

 

If you feel led to do so, please post a note of encouragement in the comment section below, or send your note by email to PrayersForSally@gmail.com

Let me sparkle for you today, Lord.

None of us should be like anyone else.

 Each of us should be the facet of the Lord that He intends us to be.  

~~Joyce Meyer  

This morning’s prayer and meditation for Sally’s healing comes from Take Heart, Oh God: Riches from the Greatest Christian Women Writers of All Time.

“A diamond is forever,” making it the perfect gem for an engagement ring meant to symbolize “I choose you forever.” With facets cut carefully y a diamond cutter, each stone has its own unique quality. The suitor finds a stone that sparkles, just the way he wants it and a setting that complements it perfectly. This is what he will place on his beloved’s finger. It is chosen just for her.

Dear sister, you are like a facet in a priceless diamond. You have a glimmer all your own. The Lord “cut” you perfectly, like no other. He has called you to sparkle in your family, in your church, in your workplace, in your neighborhood. If you don’t do it, no one will.

Don’t compare yourself to anyone else. You are the only “you” God created. Sparkle right where you are.

Prayer for Meditation

Let me sparkle for you today, Lord.

Scripture for Meditation

I am my lover’s, and he claims me as his own. Song of Songs 7:10 

Music for Meditation 

I Am Loved

 

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I’m diving into your word, Lord, I want to learn more about you.

To receive any deep, inward profit from the Scripture you must . . . plunge into the very depths of the words you read until revelation, like a sweet aroma, breaks out upon you.  

~~Madame Guyon  

This morning’s prayer and meditation for Sally’s healing comes from Take Heart, Oh God: Riches from the Greatest Christian Women Writers of All Time.

The Bible can seem, like a very scary book. We crack open the pages and hope to read something we can understand, let alone gain some insight and encouragement for life today.

Madame Guyon would say, dive in. Plunge to the very depths of the words. Let them surround you, wash over you. Because it is living and active, God’s Word makes its way into your heart. Like the sweet aroma rising from freshly baked bread, the revelation will rise out of the pages. It will shine a light into your darkness.

Light exposes everything, good and bad. When you can see, you can clean away the cobwebs in your life. God’s Word will describe how God’s holiness can pour over you and rid your life of unhealthy relationships and destructive addictions. The brilliance of his Word burns away the shadows.

It all starts when you open your Bible.

Prayer for Meditation

I’m diving into your word, Lord, I want to learn more about you.

Scripture for Meditation

For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edge sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Hebrews 4:12

Music for Meditation 

Word of God Speaks

 

If you feel led to do so, please post a note of encouragement in the comment section below, or send your note by email to PrayersForSally@gmail.com

Help me, Lord Jesus, to spread and lavish your love wherever my life path takes me.

The Christ-life in us, developed and set free, will go by its very nature reaching out and spending itself wherever there is want, in love and longing for the bare places and the far-off.  

~~Isabella Lilias Trotter  

This morning’s prayer and meditation for Sally’s healing comes from Take Heart, Oh God: Riches from the Greatest Christian Women Writers of All Time.

By its very nature a river will flow from its source, at times meandering downstream, at other times running at full torrent. As it cuts through the centers of thriving cities or wends its way through desolate prairie, the river is ever drawn toward its ultimate destination—the ocean.

As Christ-followers, we are like the river. Finding our source in Jesus, we allow his love, comfort, peace, and joy to flow outward from us to others we meet on our life journey. Whether it is our neighbor across the street or a hungry child in a war-torn country across the globe, we are called to exemplify Christ by pouring our very selves into the lives of others. The Christ-life in us will cause us to reach out and seek those in need.

The love of Christ in us will spend itself until ultimately we reach our final destination with him.

Prayer for Meditation

Help me, Lord Jesus, to spread and lavish your love wherever my life path takes me.

Scripture for Meditation

Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.  Philippians 2:1-2

Music for Meditation

In Christ Alone

 

If you feel led to do so, please post a note of encouragement in the comment section below, or send your note by email to PrayersForSally@gmail.com

Lord, I want to choose your best for me. Show me the right way.

Beloved, whenever you are in doubt as to which way to turn, submit your judgment absolutely to the Spirit of God, asking Him to shut every door but the right one.  

~~L. D. Cowman  

This morning’s prayer and meditation for Sally’s healing comes from Take Heart, Oh God: Riches from the Greatest Christian Women Writers of All Time.

Life is filled with choices. Simple ones like the choice between chocolate or vanilla, and more complicated ones like whether to accept a new job or to take on that responsibility at church or to buy a car. Some choices are easy because we see clearly that one is better than the other, or even that one is right and one is wrong. But sometimes we’re choosing among several good options and we just don’t know what to do.

Like that old TV game show Let’s Make a Deal, selecting “door number one” instead of “door number two” seems daunting. But unlike a game show host, God isn’t trying to confuse or deceive you. He wants to show you the best choice for you. Submit your judgment absolutely to his Spirit, asking that he close every door but the right one.

Then the choice is easy.

Prayer for Meditation

Lord, I want to choose your best for me. Show me the right way.

Scripture for Meditation

Next Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time. Then coming to the borders of Mysia, they headed north for the province of Bithynia, but again the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there. So instead, they went on through Mysia to the seaport of Troas.  

That night Paul had a vision: A man from Macedonia in northern Greece was standing there, pleading with him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” So we decided to leave for Macedonia at once, having concluded that God was calling us to preach the Good News there. Acts 16:6-10 

Music for Meditation 

God Will Make A Way

If you feel led to do so, please post a note of encouragement in the comment section below, or send your note by email to PrayersForSally@gmail.com

God, thank you for dotting reminders of your promises and light across my black night.

Millions of stars glittered against its black backdrop. Was this what Abraham saw when God made His promise? Stars so brilliant and numerous no one could doubt His omnipotence?  

~~Deeanne Gist  

This morning’s prayer and meditation for Sally’s healing comes from Take Heart, Oh God: Riches from the Greatest Christian Women Writers of All Time.

It’s humbling to gaze into the inky blackness of night at the infinite pinpricks of twinkling lights. You feel small. The vastness of the heavens adorned with spectacular white jewels surrounds you, and in that solitary moment you grasp a glimmer of light in your own world of darkness: God is unfathomably big. And if such a God makes promises, he can surely keep them.

As the Lord impressed upon Abraham with his vivid celestial show, he also promises to love you, redeem you, and prosper you for your faithfulness. It’s written in the stars across the sky, after all—his beautiful reminder that if he calls the stars by name you can be assured that you are immeasurably more precious to him. Remember as you stand diminutive, smack in the middle of God’s big canvas for your life, that he has painted his love for you all across the heavens.

Prayer for Meditation

God, thank you for dotting reminders of your promises and light across my black night.

Scripture for Meditation

To whom will you compare me?

Who is my equal? asks the Holy One

Look up into the heavens.

Who created all the stars?

He brings them out like an army, one after another,

calling each by its name.

Because of his great power and incomparable strength,

not a single one is missing.

O Jacob, how can you say the LORD does not see your troubles?

O Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights? Isaiah 40:25-27 

Music for Meditation 

How Great Thou Art

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Lord, I have sheer joy in the fact that you know me and love me.

God wants us to seek Him not merely for the functions He performs

but just for the sheer joy of relationship with Him.   

~~Mary Demuth  

This morning’s prayer and meditation for Sally’s healing comes from Take Heart, Oh God: Riches from the Greatest Christian Women Writers of All Time.

Recall your very favorite birthday present as a child. Maybe it was a special doll, a hand-made sweater, or a favorite book or musical selection. While the gift may have been memorable, it’s likely that your memory of the giver is even more poignant. Watching her face mirror yours as she saw your delighted expression, the awareness of how well she knew you in order to choose this particular gift, the generosity and sacrifice of buying or making this gift for you—they all said one thing, I know you and I love you.

Our lives are brimming with lovely gifts from God. It’s so important that we don’t forget for a moment to seek to know and love the Giver more than the gifts. He alone is the best gift we could ever receive.

Smile with sheer joy! You have a relationship with the God who knows you best!

Prayer for Meditation

Lord, I have sheer joy in the fact that you know me and love me.  

Scripture for Meditation

Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. James 1:17 

Music for Meditation 

Faithful God

 

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Today, Lord, let my words about others be positive, helpful, and encouraging.

To be candid without ostentation or design—to take the good of every body’s character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad—belongs to you alone.  

~~Jane Austen  

This morning’s prayer and meditation for Sally’s healing comes from Take Heart, Oh God: Riches from the Greatest Christian Women Writers of All Time.

What fills our conversation about others? Are we full of praise about others’ goodness? Or are we eager to gossip about their faults?

The words of Jane Austen remind us that, while we have our opinions, we would do well to choose to speak of the good in people’s character and say nothing of the ad. When talking to friends, co-workers, neighbors, or church members, the choice belongs to us alone to see the strengths in others and remain silent about their weaknesses. Usually a person’s weakness is glaring anyway and our help is not needed in bringing attention to it. Would we want other people talking about our glaring weaknesses—the weaknesses of which we are painfully aware?

Christ knows our every shortcoming and, thankfully, he wants us, welcomes us, and loves us. Let your words about others be uplifting and kind, reflecting Jesus’ love for you.

Prayer for Meditation

Today, Lord, let my words about others be positive, helpful, and encouraging.

Scripture for Meditation

A troublemaker plants seeds of strife; gossip separates the best of friends.

Proverbs 16:28 

Music for Meditation 

Loving God, Loving Each Other

 

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Lord, I submit to your word and will. I long to worship you in all I do.

Every single time I confess my self-reliance and submit my life to God’s will in a particular area, I am worshiping God.  

~~Barbara Hughes 

This morning’s prayer and meditation for Sally’s healing comes from Take Heart, Oh God: Riches from the Greatest Christian Women Writers of All Time.

We long to please God, but in the heat of the moment we often do the opposite of what God would have us do. When someone hurts us, we retaliate. When someone betrays us, we get angry. If our rights are denied, we’re ready for a fight.

But what if we decided to submit to God’s will in every situation?

What if, instead of doing what comes naturally, we obeyed God? This is what that might look like. We’d show love to our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. We’d submit to our husbands, even when we disagree. We’d honor our parents, even when they’re difficult. We’d pray instead of worry. We’d forgive instead of holding a grudge. We’d confess our self-reliance. We’d submit to God’s will.

You prove God’s worth to you every time you choose to obey him. And that is true worship.

Prayer for Meditation

Lord, I submit to your word and will. I long to worship you in all I do.

Scripture for Meditation

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2 

Music for Meditation 

Change My Heart of God

 

If you feel led to do so, please post a note of encouragement in the comment section below, or send your note by email to PrayersForSally@gmail.com

The mystery is beyond my understanding, Lord. But I trust you.

I stumbled upon a mystery without a solution, a mystery so immense that I gave up trying to find an explanation because the whole mystery defied belief.

~~Anne Rice 

This morning’s prayer and meditation for Sally’s healing comes from Take Heart, Oh God: Riches from the Greatest Christian Women Writers of All Time.

A well-written mystery keeps us glued to the pages of the book. The characters engage us, the plot twists surprise us, and we can’t wait to discover the resolution. We’d be very angry if we got to the end and the mystery was still unsolved. “They never knew who did it. The End.”

The author Anne Rice stumbled across a mystery without a solution in her journey to becoming a Christian. The mystery of God’s love, of a God who would die in our place, of salvation bought and paid for, of a Savior who would take up residence in us to help us live for him, of a God who prepares heaven for us—it all makes sense. It’s a mystery so immense that we can’t wrap our minds around it. The mystery defies belief yet draws us to believe.

Fortunately we don’t need to have all the answers. We only need to trust the One who does.

Prayer for Meditation

The mystery is beyond my understanding, Lord. But I trust you.

Scripture for Meditation

This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people. For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory. Colossians 1:26-27 

Music for Meditation 

How Great the Father’s Love For Us

 

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Creator of all, give me delight in my work today so that it will honor you.

Work . . . it should be looked upon—not as a necessary drudgery . . . but as a way of life in which the nature of man should find its proper exercise and delight and so fulfill itself to the glory of God.  

~~Dorothy Sayers

This morning’s prayer and meditation for Sally’s healing comes from Take Heart, Oh God: Riches from the Greatest Christian Women Writers of All Time.

Work. The daily grind. The “necessary drudgery” in order to pay the bills, or keep the house clean, or care for the needs of others. It’s work, it’s hard, it’s not always very rewarding.

What if we could find a way to rejoice in the tasks at hand? What if every job was seen as an opportunity to honor God? The house to clean is a great delight because of the gift of home. The papers to file are a joy because of serving others. The meeting to attend is a gift because of sharing ideas. The daily grind becomes the daily “grand”

Our everyday toil, when we apply ourselves without complaining, glorifies God.

Each day we have an opportunity to glorify God in our work. By our example we either demonstrate faith or a lack of it. Today, tackle your tasks with delight!  

Prayer for Meditation

Creator of all, give me delight in my work today so that it will honor you.

Scripture for Meditation

Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ. Colossians 3:23-24 

Music for Meditation 

Take My Life

 

If you feel led to do so, please post a note of encouragement in the comment section below, or send your note by email to PrayersForSally@gmail.com