January 20th

God, I need your strength to renew and invigorate me. Fill me with your spirit of enthusiasm. Energize and equip me to move ahead, to carry on, to do what ou have asked of me.

January 19th

Lord, you've called us to go out and make disciples of every nation, to seek justice and walk humbly, to love you with all our hearts and minds and souls and bodies and to love our neighbours as ourselves. You've called us in these many challenging ways, and you personally called me to serve your people. Lord, I pray that I may serve your people by helping them reach out to others and answer one of your calls. Help us make mission our mission, to reach our to the world and make it a better place, a place that is more loving and Christ-like, a place where no-one wants for anything and everyone is more than willing to share what they have. Help me lead by example and to learn from others who have answered your call before me.

January 18th

Lord, thank-you for dreams; not the night-time things that drift through a mind, but the daytime visions that drive and move me, the ideas that come and open new possibilities, the hopeful seeds the might grow new opportunities to serve or to worship.
Thank-you, as well, for fellow dreamers, for those people that share their visions, or whose visions line up with mine, or who dream big and inspire me new thoughts or ways of being a better person.
Help me to filter through my dreams and visions, God. Help me turn some of them into reality, into ways of singing your praises in a new way, or touching others with Jesus' love, or simply moving ahead in my own life. Help me also to encourage others to dream, and to learn from their visions. Help me empower others to discren if their dreams are really visions from you, and to help bring your visions to life. And help me too, to make sure that my dreams are truly yours, and not just figments of my own over-active imagination. Grant me wisdom, discernment and a willing ear to hear and to interpret what I see, so that I can keep on track with your will and your ways.

January 16th: Totally Fixable

I have several things in the house that need fixing. Some, like my exercise machine, broke due to having been poorly assembled. Not by me, mind you, but I am the one that has to fix it. Other items, like a power cord or two, have broken due to time and wear. It is inevitable. Things break so I try to fix them.
It is one of my talents. It is also one of my ways of helping the environment, of reducing my personal impact on the precious resources. And, let’s face it, it’s a way of saving a little cash. Just because something is broken doesn’t mean it’s useless. If that were the case, most of us human beings would be on a scrap heap someplace, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
My desire to fix things is driven by my desire to be a good steward and because I’m cheap. Desire, however, doesn’t always line up with ability. Sometimes I can’t fix a thing because it is beyond my skill set. Some repairs are impossible because the damage is far too great. In yet other cases, the skill and scope are within grasp, but the parts are simply not available to get the job done.
To put it another way, things can’t always be fixed. For one reason or another, some things have to been done away with. There is no choice, other than to keep an object as a memento or perhaps a doorstop. Naturally, rather than throw it away, I’ll try to see if either its parts or its materials can be recycled, but that still isn’t a fix; it’s just a better solution than the trash can.
As I mentioned before, sometimes we human beings can be pretty wrecked. Wrecked, perhaps beyond our ability to fix things. Yet if you pay close attention, there is no human scrap heap or trash pile. Not in God’s eyes, anyway. In God’s eyes none of us is ever beyond hope or repair. We are never too old, so that parts can’t be found or the wear is too great. We are never too useless so that some good purpose can’t be found for us. And we are never too smashed up that God can’t bring us back to health.
Mind you, I don’t mean this in a physical sense. As important as our bodies are to us, they aren’t what I’m concerned about here. I’m talking about our souls, the very essence of our true selves. No matter what happens to our souls, God is able to make things right again. He is, after all, our Creator, and no-one knows us better than God. He is also the one that loves us more than anyone else in all creation, which means that it’s no fun for God to see us broken. What’s more, we are all so highly valued in God’s sight, none of us is ever not worth the effort. No matter what it takes, God can fix us.

January 17th

God, I know sometimes material things get in the way, but sometimes they help too. I use my Mac a lot to do your work, so I really need it back whole and complete. Perhaps it's a bit much to ask you to help with a machine, so I ask for your patience, and I especially ask for you to give me patience. Help me do my work despite my issues with my computer. Keep me grounded in what matters: the people I serve. Help me keep them foremost in my mind so that nothing can get in the way of my serving you, even my broken computer.

January 16th

Thanks for a great day, God. Beautiful sunshine, great worship and a good workout make for a wonderful feeling of joy and tiredness. Let this blessing you've offered me help me bless others in your Name.